Way back in April 2004 we were at Benalmadena on holiday and though we didn’t realise it at the time, it was the beginning of our adventures here in Puente don Manuel! Alex had arranged an appointment to view some properties in this area and here we are.  The point of mentioning this is because the estate agent’s words often come back to remind me of why their reputation remains so unsavoury.

In the beginning, I wasn’t keen on leaving England and having lived in Australia was concerned about the dangers in hot countries.  On asking our trusty guide about the local wildlife, he assured me that there are no snakes here, certainly not poisonous ones.  He thought there may be scorpions but he didn’t think there were any poisonous spiders – stupidly, I believed this guy! There are in fact 13 types of snakes, 5 of them venomous and whilst there are 50 deaths a year in Europe from snake bites, only 3 -6 are in Spain, which is all very well unless you are one of the 3 – 6!  Reasuringly, not all of them are in this area of Spain, they tend to be very shy and are only around in late spring and summer.  The photograph is taken from our kitchen window on 6th November where it was meandering over and up the neighbours wall, the neighbour with two active dogs - not something you would expect from a shy creature!  I have tried to identify it from pictures on the internet but am unable to determine whether it is harmful or not but remain very suspicious of its pattern.

That makes the number of snakes I have seen this year as three alive and two dead.  One almost flourescent green coloured one was across our track poised in a cobra type of upright position, motionless for quite a while.  Not wishing to drive over it we stopped (closing all windows and sunroofs) and waited.  All of a sudden it turned, and darted across the road and into the field quicker than I ever believed possible of a legless creature.  That one definitely wasn’t poisonous as it was easily identifiable.

Despite my fear of snakes and disdain of the estate agent, I still love being here and don’t actually feel afraid walking through the countryside as I imagined I would, so maybe I should be grateful for being misled!