moving to arroyo de la miel (?)
 

I am, as before, touting for advice! My husband and I have lived in Barcelona for 6 years and need a change of scene! He is Colombian and installs aircon, and I am British (I work as a translator so can work wherever I am, and am pretty much bilingual). Britain is definitely not an option! We have a two and a half year old who will be starting school this September so we need to move and get settled soon! We are thinking of Arroyo de la Miel as a possible place to live, as we want somewhere with lots going on for our little boy and think it has a good balance of both worlds, with excellent facilities (library, sports, etc). I am going to visit the area at the end of February and would like some info before travelling. If you live in the area, do you find it genuinely friendly (both from Spanish and foreigners)? It looked like a very well balanced place in terms of locals and foreigners when we were there in January. We are tired of living in a relatively unfriendly environment and need something different where there are lots of social events going on for all the family. If you have children at local schools there, how have you found them, could you recommend one in particular, and when do we need to apply? Re accommodation, we are in a position to buy an apartment and would like to do this relatively quickly, any advice on that? We may also be interested in renting for a short time if anyone has a property they want to rent us (sidestepping agencies and their vast fees). Lots of questions...! I am very grateful for any input.

I know Andalucia quite well, as I know most of Spain, and although I know more than perhaps many people that the Costa del Sol isn't quite, how can I put it, the "Real" Spain, real people live there too (we have a Spanish GP friend in Torremolinos who doesn't seem to have noticed the tourist industry whilst going about her daily life would you believe!). We thought about one of the villages like Colmenar but realised that we want busyness, places to go to just around the corner, things going on near our doorstep, and don't want to be ferrying our little one around in cars all day, or on the other side, live in a big impersonal city. I'll stop my life story there, THANK YOU FOR YOUR ADVICE, COSTA DEL SOL DWELLERS!