Yzabelle Bostyn
AN expat couple who ran a stall on local ferias have revealed the ups and downs of fiesta life in Andalucia.
From live elephants to seedy scams, Grace McNabola tells all in her book detailing her experience running a stall at Andalucia’s traditional ferias.
After closing down their St Andrews hotel and moving to Spain, Grace and Gordon McNabola were not ready to retire in the sun.
They ran a golf B&B near Marbella for five years but it wasn’t bringing in as much money as they’d hoped.
A new adventure was on the horizon for the couple, aged 68 and 72, and they joined Andalucia’s feria circuit with a VR ride bought from China.
Now, Grace, originally from St Albans, has shared their story in her book, ‘La Vida Loca: Memoir of a Crazy Andalucian Adventure.’
From 2016 to 2020, the couple had many ‘madcap adventures’, meeting a host of ‘colourful’ and ‘dubious’ characters and seeing the ‘real’ side of Spain.
The idea first came about when Gordon, who had trained as a pilot, remembered how much he enjoyed using Virtual Reality (VR) flight machines.
“At that time, VR was well known to gamers, but not the public,” Grace told the Olive Press.
“When Gordon discovered the VR rides and we had the idea of taking them to ferias, it seemed perfect. Every town or village has a feria and the kids save up year round to enjoy it.”
From Granada to Cadiz, the couple visited huge celebrations and small town festivities, discovering the culture, food and people of authentic Andalucia.
“Along the way we met loads of people, some good, some bad. It took some time to gain everyone’s trust,” she admitted.
“At first, we got a lot of looks, people were obviously wondering who we were, there weren’t many expats on the feria trail, but after a couple of years they trusted us completely.”
Despite being ‘ripped off’ by some, locals eventually ‘took them under their wing’ and their business flourished.
“We went to about a dozen ferias each year all over Andalucia,” she said.
“But my favourite was a Christmas feria in Granada, it’s just magical there in winter.”
After a couple of years, they even started hosting children’s birthday parties for Marbella’s rich elite.
A zoo themed party in Estepona, once became all too real for Grace as she was told to hold off launching the simulator because ‘an elephant was about to arrive.’
“This huge van appeared at the back door and a real life elephant walked out,” she recalled.
“I was just gobsmacked, they gave out buckets of fruit and veg and the kids fed it.”
Unfortunately, their adventures were brought to a close by the pandemic and the couple settled down to a quiet life in Chiclana de la Frontera, Cadiz.
Earlier this year, Grace self-published her book relating her tales to Amazon, where you can buy a copy for just €2.99.
