Somewhere around year two, it happens. You drive the coast road with the sea doing its full turquoise routine on one side and the Sierra Bermeja turning red on the other, and the only thing that registers is that the roundabout has been replanted. Again.

Visitors stop on the Paseo to photograph Gibraltar. We stop because the dog has stopped. Friends fly in, gasp at the flower pots in the old town, and we nod like tired estate agents: yes, lovely, mind the step.

I'm as guilty as anyone. People save all year for a fortnight of what we get on an ordinary Tuesday, and I spend most of mine hunting for a parking space. So this week's small resolution: to stop treating paradise as the scenery for your errands, and to remember, now and then, how lucky we are to call it home. There's a little test of how much we’ve stopped noticing further down, in Did You Know.

And if you're reading this from somewhere greyer, wishing you were here: you're the one seeing clearly. Hold on to that.

Here's everything worth doing.

Sat 17, 12:00 to 21:30 · Día de la Cultura Latina, 📍Parque El Calvario.

On Saturday, Parque El Calvario belongs to Estepona’s Latin American community, close to 5.000 people by the town hall’s count, in a town that is home to some 130 nationalities. It’s part of the council’s Compartiendo Culturas programme, and entry is free.

The day builds as it goes. A DJ and a singer get things started at noon, folk groups from Brazil, Paraguay and Bolivia take over from 16:00, and at 19:00 there’s a Latin dance competition you can sign up for on the spot, if you’re feeling brave. In between, there are craft stalls and tastings from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela and more. Expect to eat before you've decided to.

Prizes, paint and a punchline, plus a quiz for the competitive and coffee for the rest of us. Free unless noted.

Thu 15, 19:00 · AREME Quiz Night, 📍Gastropub Viceversa, Puerto de Estepona. 2€ to 3€. On tonight, as this lands. The Foreign Residents Association runs the questions, the entry fees go to local charities, and the funniest team name wins bragging rights, if nothing else.

Thu 15, 20:00 · VI Premio Internacional de Poesía "Ciudad de Estepona", 📍Centro Cultural Mirador del Carmen. Also tonight. The town's international poetry prize goes to Madrid poet and translator Helena Mariño for Mira la palabra cómo brilla, chosen from more than 2,200 entries sent in from across Spain, Latin America and well beyond. The ceremony ends with Baile cantado, a flamenco piece by Cádiz dancer Alberto Sellés, nominated for a Max Award in 2023. In Spanish, seats until the hall is full.

Fri 16, 20:00 · Leif Ahrle & Puck Jansson: Esculturas y Pinturas, 📍Casa de las Tejerinas. Opening night for two Swedish artists who live in Estepona. He works in glass and has been doing so since 1990; she paints in egg tempera, slow and warm-toned, with big canvases of women, softly coloured sheep and watercolour cities. The show stays up until 29 October.

Fri 16, 21:00 · Santi Rodríguez: ¿Nos damos un viaje?, 📍Teatro Auditorio Felipe VI. 19,80€. Stand-up from one of Spain's familiar TV faces, best known as Frank in the sitcom 7 vidas. The theme is holidays that disappointed, which, given where we live, may count as escapism. In Spanish.

Sat 17, 11:00 · IV Trofeo Ciclista “Villa de Estepona”, 📍Recinto Ferial. Junior road racing as part of the Málaga provincial circuit. Riders aged 7 to 14 race short laps around the fairground, from a single lap for the youngest to eight for the 13- and 14-year-olds, and the under-sevens get games of their own. If there’s a grandchild with a bike in the family: online entry closes today, but the race office on site takes late sign-ups from 09:30 if places remain. Otherwise, come and cheer.

Sat 17, 17:00 to 20:00 · Galeria 151 Art: Richard Gower, 📍Galeria 151 Art. The gallery opens a four-week feature on UK painter Richard Gower, billed as the "Royal Artist", alongside work from its regular artists. A complimentary drink is promised, and Gower is staying for the week to paint live in the gallery; details of that still to come.

Sat 17, 22:00 · DJ Sergio, 📍Coral Dance Club, Puerto de Estepona. For anyone whose Saturday doesn't end at the dessert menu. Cocktails, a dance floor and a DJ from ten.

Mon 19, 11:00 · AREME Coffee Morning, 📍Benavista Bowls Club. The quieter side of the same association: coffee, conversation and possibly a board game. A gentle way into the week, and an easy one if you're new in town.

An exhibition in its last days and a flamenco night that has claimed every Friday in October.

A week that leans on the familiar: tributes, pub favourites and two nights of jazz at Huber. Free unless noted.

Thu 15, 21:30 · Rocking Johnny, 📍The Quays Irish Bar, Sabinillas. The Quays opens its long weekend with a regular.

Fri 16, 20:00 · Jazz Brasileño, 📍Huber Art & Food. 15€. Brazilian jazz to start Huber's weekend.

Fri 16, 20:30 · Jazz, Clásicos de los 80, Música de cine y mucho más, 📍Jazz Pub. Jazz, eighties classics and film scores, which is either a set list or a very good description of my record collection.

Fri 16, 21:00 · Paul Hull, 📍The Three Monkeys. Live music with food and cold drinks on the side.

Fri 16, 21:30 · Zac & Bruno, 📍The Quays Irish Bar, Sabinillas. A returning duo with a sing-along set of hits.

Fri 16, 23:30 · Arctic Monkeys Tribute, 📍Louie Louie. 16,50€ in advance, 18€ on the door. A Portuguese tribute band back at Louie Louie for a second time, after winning over Spanish Monkeys fans last season. Expect the big anthems plus some early-album deep cuts. Doors at 21:30, so pace yourself.

Sat 17, 20:00 · Flamenco Jazz: José Campaña, Carles Llusar & Jordi Jiménez, 📍Huber Art & Food. 20€. A trio where flamenco meets jazz, on Huber's stage for the second night running.

Sat 17, 21:00 · Aidalai: Tributo a Mecano, 📍Teatro Auditorio Felipe VI. From 22€. If the name means nothing to you: Mecano were one of the defining Spanish pop bands of the 1980s, and the Spaniards in the row behind you will know every word. A singer and three multi-instrumentalists, a full light show and a theatre full of nostalgia. Numbered seats, tickets via Giglon.

Sat 17, 21:30 · Mama Cath & The Soul Sisters, 📍The Quays Irish Bar, Sabinillas. Big hits, a good deal of laughing and, by their own account, plenty of dancing.

Sat 17, 23:55 · American Rock Stars, 📍Louie Louie. 15€ in advance, 18€ on the door. Three tribute bands, three heavyweights: Metallica, System of a Down and Rage Against the Machine. Doors at 21:30, and the venue warns that capacity is limited.

Sun 18, 14:00 to 17:00 · Sunday House Jazz, 📍Por Fin. Live saxophone over house classics, with a Sunday roast and the sea in front of you. No entry fee, but a table is the point, so book ahead.

Sun 18, 19:00 · Los Tozudos, 📍Estudio Padrón. The band formerly known as The Stubborns, which in Spanish is exactly what Tozudos means. Rock anthems from the eighties to the noughties, plus some of their own.

Sun 18, 20:00 · Roy Leslie, 📍The Quays Irish Bar, Sabinillas. Crowd-pleasers to close the weekend.

Elsewhere in the letter: Saturday's Día de la Cultura Latina has come with live bands in past years, and Sunday's Feria Creativa in Secadero spins vinyl all morning.

Next time you drive the coast road, look out to sea, then look a little closer to the beach. Every few kilometres there's a squat, round stone tower standing between the urbanisations, and most of us stopped seeing them years ago.

They're torres almenaras, watchtowers, and most of Estepona's date from the second half of the 16th century. Back then this coast was raided by pirates often enough that a chain of towers was built within sight of one another, each one able to pass a warning along to the next. The name gives away how: almenara comes from the Arabic for a beacon, a fire lit on top so the next tower would see it. They stayed in service, in one form or another, until the 19th century. Some, like the Torre de Arroyo Vaquero, may go back even further, to Moorish times.

Today they keep stranger company. The Torre del Padrón now stands in the grounds of a luxury beach resort, the Torre del Saladillo (built in 1575) sits among the urbanisations east of town, and the Torre del Velerín got its own garden and night lighting last year, so you can spot that one even after dark. More than four centuries of watching the sea for trouble, and these days hardly anyone watches them back.

The markets that come round every week, so you always know what's on where.

Wednesdays · Mercadillo de Estepona. The big traditional one: fruit, veg, clothes, shoes and household bits at local prices. 📍Calle Francia / Calle Alemania, 09:00 to 14:00.

Sundays · Mercadillo de Puerto. A smaller, breezier affair by the marina: clothes, bags, jewellery and local art, with a coffee on the terraces after. 📍Puerto Deportivo, 09:00 to 14:00.

Sundays · Mercadillo Plaza de Toros. A flea market for antiques, collectibles and bric-a-brac at the bullring. One catch: it doesn't run every Sunday, so best to check before you head over. 📍Plaza de Toros, 09:00 to 15:00.

Sundays · Mercadillo Rastro, Sabinillas. One of the coast's best-loved flea markets, with over 100 stalls: second-hand finds, antiques, vinyl and a growing row of local craft sellers. 📍Recinto Ferial de San Luis, 09:00 to 14:00.

Two very different ways to spend a weekend morning, and one feria with a couple of nights left in it. Free unless noted.

Until Mon 19 · Feria de San Pedro Alcántara, 📍Recinto Ferial La Caridad, San Pedro. Still running if you missed it last week.

Sat 17, 10:00 · Jewellery Making Workshop, 📍Fresco Marina,Sotogrande. 49€. Two hours, three pieces (bracelet, earrings, necklace), all materials and a drink included, no experience needed and open to ages 10 and up. It's the launch of the workshops in Sotogrande, hence the introductory price.

Sun 18, 10:00 to 14:00 · Feria Creativa de Secadero, 📍Plaza de Andalucía, Secadero. A morning about giving old things a second life, run by Casares council. There's a craft and design market, around twenty free workshops for customising clothes and turning rubbish into something useful, live sewing, baking, graffiti and a DJ on vinyl. It ends with a catwalk where anyone can show off what they made. No sign-up needed.

This one isn't about clearing the date. It's about getting a chair before they're gone.

Sat 24 October, 21:00 · Ciclo Flamenco Íntimo, 📍El Taller de Arte. 27,65€. Dancers José Franco and Inmaculada Carmona in the second night of a new series built around small rooms and close-up flamenco. Small rooms mean few seats, and by the organisers' account only a handful are left.

That's the week. If something's missing, or you're running something I should know about, send it in or just hit reply. I read every one.

Until next week.
Stefan