Renewal Placements are In!

In our post about renewal we said we wanted either the Balearic Islands, Pais Vasco or Galicia. 

We’re pleased to announce we got the Balearic Islands! I’ve been assigned to a joint funded Catholic/Public school that has every age (3-18 years old). My students wear uniforms and the school has been around for centuries. Chris was assigned to a high school (again) that has almost no information about it online.

As for a place within the Balearics- we were placed in Manacor.

To recap a big post we did here: The Balearic Islands are actually more north than where we are now. 

There are 151 islands, 5 of which are populated, 4  of which matter to tourists: Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera.

We got placed on the big one, Mallorca. We’ve actually been to this island before back in 2012.

We went to Palma de Mallorca, which is the capital of the Balearics. Manacor (where we’re placed) is the third biggest city after Palma (population wise. In terms of physical size, it’s the 2nd largest city).

Palma is where the ferry port and big airport is. So we wanted to be nearby to those and  fortunately on an island you are always nearby. We’re please to be linked by a train (and bus) from Manacor.

Manacor is not just a city but a “municipality” which covers this much area:

This is why, when you search “Manacor,” you’ll see pictures of beaches. The city of Manacor (where we are placed) is NOT on the beach. Manacor city is 6 miles from a beach – so about a 20 minute drive (or 2 hour walk).It’s really difficult to tell what is in the city versus what is in the municipality.  But it looks easy enough to get around with a bike so it’s not a big thing.

Manacor, like Martos, has a via verde (we got lucky because Manacor is the ONLY area on any of the islands with a via verde). This is an old railway line converted into a bike path. Manacor’s path goes about 18 miles up north. It will also get us really close to the ocean. If that’s not enough they have 14 trails you can follow to really anywhere you want within in the municipality.

Population of Manacor 40,859

Altitude: 262 feet above sea level.

They have some olive trees, vineyards, famous caves, museums. It really looks like a nice place. The apartments will be much more expensive than what we’re used to.

For now we’ll stay in Martos and see about moving sometime in September. We’re working on visa extensions from Martos and will be able to renew the visa in Palma when we arrive in the Balearics. If we had flown to the United States we would’ve spent more on flights and a whole new visa (rather than extension/renewal) than the cost of just staying in Martos, renewing and moving. We’re also excited to stay and explore this area as thoroughly as possible. We still have many hikes and Andalusian adventures in store for us.