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The Edwards Family in Galera

That's us on New Year's Night (2002) in the La Zalona
Sharon, Les (the good looking guy with his eye's closed) and Craig

I would like to introduce ourselves - my name is Les, (centre above), with my wife Sharon and son, Craig. We came to Galera, set in Spain's beautiful northern Andalusia in October 2002. At that time we were some sort of pioneers being one of the first non-Spanish families to live in Galera and certainly the first to open a business in the area. We started life here, by running the La Zalona, a splendid cafe bar and restaurant specialising in traditional Spanish food - what else in this very Spanish area!

What was it that attracted us to Galera? Galera, is a very beautiful village, with its centre being made up of large prosperous looking village houses, regularly set out in arrow straight sunny streets. As a complete contrast, in the valleys and hills surrounding this ancient village are hundreds of cave homes, many abandoned and derelict but with many others beautifully restored to provide comfortable, attractive homes. Galera is indeed a unique and tranquil village in this frenetic, mad world. Only a few days ago a visitor said to me that he had been to over 200 villages in Spain and this was among the most beautiful he had seen - a compliment indeed.

Galera nestles in the spring sunshine

Early in 2003, we realised another opportunity was staring us in the face - there were properties in this area, at very realistic prices, that many people from the UK would love to buy, but no one was presenting them to the British market. With Craig's perfect Spanish and my web design and promotion skills we believed we had the tools to get things moving.

We didn't want to do this project on our own as we preferred to work with a few trusted and experienced Spanish partners. To find the right people we talked to those few other foreigners who had bought property in the area to learn about their experience and then had discussions with Spanish estate agents, RJ Inmobiliaria, who seemed to offer a service head and shoulders above the rest. Within a few weeks we had teamed up with RJI, developed our first web site and Spanish Inland Properties was born. Since then we have also partnered with Galera Decor S.L. and Cuevas de Galera S.L., (part of the R.M de Carayol Group) both experienced cave developers.

Within months we were so busy that we realised we couldn't run both the restaurant and the property businesses so we made the decision to rent out the restaurant. So, today, when you come to the La Zalona you will find Pepe and his family serving excellent food and wine.

At 58, I am the (wise?) old man of the trio. I have spent most of my working life as a mechanical engineer in the hard rock mining industry, working in two of the Cornish tin mines, Wheal Jane (best ever job!) and South Crofty. I have also worked in Zambia, Saudi Arabia, India and Turkey.

Craig, fluent in Spanish and French, is 26 with a degree in Spanish, French and European Studies from the UWE Bristol. While studying he spent six months in Segovia and fell in love with inland Spain. He was the instigator in us coming to Galera in the first place.

Sharon, known to her many, many friends as "Bubbles" - you only have to meet her to know how she came by the nickname, is the real boss and a tough one at that. She has put the finishing touch to many of the things we have done and is a born organiser i.e. she tells us what to do and in general keeps us boys in line.

When you contact us you will be dealing with a family business. We know we will be living alongside clients who move to the area, whether permanently or on a holiday basis. As a result we try very hard to offer a good service and will do our best to ensure that everyone gets a fair deal.

The Future

We are continually trying to improve our service. Craig has recently become an International Associate of the National Association of Estate Agents. Most British based estate agents belong to this association and you may be familiar with their handshake logo. The association has a number of important standards, besides integrity and truthfulness, to which we aspire. In order to comply fully, over the coming months, we will be endeavoring to offer:

• Client Accounts. This is an account separate to our trading accounts into which your deposit will be paid until completion of the purchase. True client accounts have to operate under stringent rules and we are currently working with local banks etc. to enable us to set up such an account. It will not be practical to offer this on all purchases, for a number of reasons, but where applicable it provides an additional safeguard.
• Professional Indemnity Insurance. This will protect our clients in the event of any mistake on our part.
• Setting up a limited or SL company. Currently we do operate as a limited company "Ibersol Mar y Montaña SL" but we are in the process of setting up Spanish Inland Properties SL, which we feel to be more appropriate.
• New Offices. We are currently looking for new offices within the locality. These will be high visibility "High St" type offices, which will be easier to find and offer improved access for our clients.

Please do not hesitate to contact us, if we can be of help in any way.

Les, Craig and Sharon Edwards

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