The following images come from just South of the mountains on the coastal side riding to Busot and Aguas de Busot from the Campello area.

Now, I don’t know if this is a European thing or a southern European thing or whatever, but I do not recall seeing this entrepreneurial venture taking place in North America. Let me explain…

In early June before the weather gets too hot and the tourists arrive, you can drive down to San Juan beach and pull into one of the gravel lots that line the beach and park within 30 meters of beautiful blue Mediterranean water.

Come tourist season a new element appears at these places, the pop-up parking lot attendant, a.k.a the pulpa. Entering the parking lot you will encounter a person waiving you over into an open parking spot. Sometimes this is quite helpful, and other times you wonder at how this person thinks you haven’t figured out where to park your car in the near empty lot you just pulled into¹. Anyways, these people are not official empoyees of the beach and they expect a tip or donation for their effort. This is where things get messy.

Obviously thier service can be quite useful; on a hot day you get to the beach a little late and this person appears from the sand-dust and cars and waives you into a spot whose presense was heretofore unbeknownst to you. Nice. But what if you are an early bird and you find this person waiving you into a lot that is more or less empty?

I have had this happen to me; pull into a lot about 150 meters long and park on one side while the pop-up parking attendant is over on the other side waving you down to him. As you and your family get out of the car he walks his way towards you and kind of hovers in your area. Just this morning I parked in one of two lots at the weekend market and had a guy hover over from the other lot. What to do?

The Spanish worry that these folks will do something if you don’t pay them; key your car or whatnot. I have some rules for dealing with these folks, and indeed there have been times when I don’t pay and I have never had anything happen to our car². So what are the rules?

Rules for the Pop-Up Parking Lot Attendant

Quite simply I pay when the person offers value. For the two examples above where the PPLA hovered over and didn’t help me get a spot I don’t pay; I may say hello. If the guy actually helps me negotiate some of that great Spanish lets fills this gravelly lot with cars and to heck with the consequences craziness, he gets a good tip.

Another good example is the fellow in the gravelly lot by Casa Domingo at Playa San Juan. This guy shows up during the tourist season and ensures that people can get in, get out and park smartly. We get their early to get a spot in the shade (shaded parking at the beach!) and generally don’t need his help. But he is there looking after my car in this spot that I cannot see from the beach. Some folks³ even leave their keys with him so that he can move their car around if needed during the day. We’ve been parking there for two years now and he’ll even help me out as I fumble back tot he car with all of our beach stuff after a long morning in the sand and surf. He gets a good donation.

So the gist is value. If the attendant gives value, give up some coin. If they haven’t done anything for you, in my experience it’s worth just saying hello.

When I first arrived here I must admint the pop-up parking lot attendant wasn’t someone I wanted to give my money to. In the end they tend to appear when  there are a lot of people and they can make themselves useful and make money. Seeing it in this manner I now have no problem handing over a little Euro coin to these entrepreneurial folks.

When I moved to Spain I had no idea what things were going to be like. You hear about the siestas and know that they play good futbol. I had heard of paella but truth be told, I had sold my condo in Vancouver and moved all of my stuff into storage (hello Kits Mini-Storage!) and come to Spain following a woman; I sincerely overlooked the fact that there would be some cultural issues.

It was quite a shock, trying to order that first coffee

I recall waking up in an apartment we were staying in for the first few months wondering how I could find a coffee. Jetlag had set in and the woman (heretofore known as Sonia) had to get to the university. We were steps from the central market and even closer to a croissanteria² which was just across the street. Sonia set me up with some strange words that were supposed to get me a coffee. And that was the start of it all.

A typical working Spanish person will be up and out of the house between 7-8ish in the morning. They have a milk or other simple thing like that and get to work. At 10:00 they have a small breakfast; a sandwich or something significant enough to get them thru to 14:00, which is lunch time. It is also when most of the local shops close up for either the day or until 17:00 (if you’re lucky).

This adjustment, moving lunch from noon to 14:00 and closing up shop was a hard one to swallow. Time and again I’d get up and work for a bit, thinking I had time later to get out and shop for food or whatnot and then, bam, it would be 13:00 and I’d have to hurry to beat the lunch crowd to Mercadona. Its taken years to adjust to that schedule and I still find myself hurting at around 16:30 for shops to open ³.