LOCATED in the southernmost eastern part of Spain, Torremolinos is bordered to the east by the Mediterranean. As such, its people there are very healthy from eating seafood coming from the Mediterranean like redfish, grouper, clams, oysters, shrimps and lobsters. Every day, fishermen are greeted upon coming back from their catch by the locals who are eager to buy their produce. They want the seafood cooked fresh and not frozen.

So if you’re a vacationing foreigner here in Torremolinos at this time of the year particularly in Halloween, it’s nice to go with the queue and haul yourself off with a big catch ready to be barbecued in the vacation home that you are renting. You may either dine that yourself or have someone with you. That entirely depends on you. The essence is to grill the seafood and put a dash of olive oil in it. Now you have a Halloween treat for yourself and your romantic partner. It’s not just delicious, it’s nutritious too since olive oil is said to be the healthiest cooking oil known to man as it contains minimal calories only.

And here’s more. Having your own Mediterranean catch for dinner is also making savings as these catch tend to be expensive when it reaches Madrid and Barcelona because they are not Mediterranean fishing regions and fish needs to be refrigerated before it gets to those urban cities.

Anyway, Halloween here in Torremolinos is a mixture of being conservative and being outspoken. The conservative kind is those who follow strict Catholic tradition to celebrate All Saints Day on November 1 and All Souls Day the day after on November 2. As we all know, Spain is a predominantly Catholic country and Torremolinos has its own share of believers. The day before Halloween is another religious feast day in Torremolinos as it marks the culmination of Rosary Month. As we all know, Rosary is dedicated to Mother Mary and the Virgin is the patroness of all of Spain. On this day, balloons in the shape of rosaries are flown all over Torremolinos and those who can retrieve the balloons get a special prize of novelty items like a dinner for two at one of the hotels here.

Speaking of hotels, the ones here in Torremolinos are stuffed with Halloween gimmicks at this time of the year. Bars in these hotels organize costume parties and the ones who have the spookiest costumes of the night win prizes too. Again, these parties are monitored by the police so that no illegal drugs can be smuggled inside these bars. There really is nothing to worry about anyway as most of Torremolinos is a peaceful place and everybody here is law abiding.

Come to think of it, it’s really nice here to live in two years or two. There are lots of British expatriates who have retired early, earning their pensions and eventually spending them here. They like it here because real property taxes for foreign owners are only minimal. They also love the place because of the hospitability of the people here.