Back to nature — the Alpujarra way

IT seems to be the search for communion with nature that brings foreigners to remote Ireland, similarly to remote areas of Spain.

We are surprised at the number of English who have moved in to the Alpujarra and settled here. In La Gomera, in the Canary Islands, it is Germans; here, it is Brits.

Amongst the stalls at the Thursday open-air market at Órgiva, gateway to the Sierra Nevada, English voices are heard everywhere. The owners are not the Limey Flash Harrys of the Costas, with gold chains, oily suntans and brash tattoos, but earnest people buying organic vegetables or wholesome bread, or sitting around the cafes discussing literature and house prices.