FARAWAY BEACH OF BLISS (2024–ongoing)
Almost 30 000 Finns live in Costa Del Sol in Spain - some permanently, some just for the winter months. The majority are pensioners.
Finnish history here dates back to the late 1940s, when Colonel Reino Hallamaa's journey as a political refugee ended in Torremolinos, where he settled with his family. There were no tourists in the area at that time. In agricultural Finland, people were tied to their homes and travel was not common. The first conducted tours to Spain were organised in the late 1950s. As flights increased, Hallamaa, a land-grabber, began to build holiday homes for Finns.
By the late 1960s, Los Pacos, a village built by Finns, had sprung up on the slopes of Fuengirola. The peak of mass tourism was in the 80s and 90s, but Los Pacos is still known as “Finnish village”. Next door, in Los Boliches, stands the Nuriasol Hotel, described by one resident as 'the largest nursing home in Finland'. On one Monday evening in January 2024, tens of dozens Finns gather at the hotel bar to listen to a lecture about their ancestor, Reino Hallamaa.
In the audience sits my grandfather Raimo, 77, a Fuengirola-regular since 2016. For the last couple of years he has been unable to travel here because of his ailments. Now his dream of returning has come true as I’ve joined him to accompany and help him on this journey to the faraway beach of bliss.