The house was spacious and very well equipped. Maria had provided lots of welcome foods. Access to good restaurants and shops of all kinds was superb. El Palo was once a traditional fishing village and it still has an easy, essentially Spanish atmosphere. I Bus services into Malaga were frequent and cheap by UK standards. Maria's youngest son, Frank gave me Spanish lessons twice weekly which was not part of my plan but proved very useful on several different levels. He was always helpful and full of advice. Unfortunately, my six week winter escape from the UK for all of January and part February was not a success in terms of the weather. It was mainly cold and at times very wet! Spanish houses are not designed for cold weather and although I used the air conditioning to heat up the inside this was never really effective. It was too cold to make use of the porch outside. I would have loved a view of the beach and palm trees. That would have been the cherry on the top. !