Area: Asturias

Janet and John live in Asturias. We are now at the end of our fifth year of so called retirement here and love it. This is definitely not the Costas! We live in Valdes in Asturias….. a county of rugged coasts with super ( but often stony) beaches. The interior (where we live at 270 meters high in the hills and 30 minutes from the nearest beach) is largely mixed forest of sweet chestnut, oak, ash and beech with plantations of northern pine and eucalyptus. The valley bottoms and tops are mainly green pasture for cattle grazing or silage with flatter fields with maize for cattle. It is beautiful – a lake district without the lakes and without the crowds. Weather – This is green Spain so we have clouds and rain. The temperature is higher than the south of England – a greater noticeable difference in the back part of the year. When we bought our house we wanted a house with some land to grow veggies on. We ended up with two houses (one “the barn” had no floor and was only home to spiders and cobwebs – we called it the barn because it was the oldest and still had the cattle feeding stalls), a traditional Horeo, 5 fincas (fields - one with a small maize mill – not functioning) and two Montes (bits of hillside with lots of trees on.) Thank goodness three of our neighbours keep most of the fields clean by grazing cattle, sheep and growing grass, so I am left with only the finca (6500 m2 )below the house to look after. We have six chickens and two dogs (and a cat that adopted us). During the year we grow most of our own vegetables. John does most of the work on the land while Janet writes and directs two musical shows a year for her group of performers back in England

Area: Catalonia

I went to study to Switzerland when 15. When finished my studies moved to Spain. For years lived among Spain, Andorra and Chile, Argentine working at the begining as ski instructor and then working as ski mag journalist. Moved here to Valle de Aran, 6 years ago. The hotel is its 4th year. It is a 14 room hotel in the old quater at Vielha, capital of this Valley. Since the begining we offered Japanese food at the hotel. But now I am changing the direction of the hotel to ecological way (from what I can..) and will hopefully incorporate macrobiotic, yoga in the hotel. The hotel is located 15km from Baqueira Beret ski resort. All my family live in Japan.

Area: Hovsgol, Mongolia

Hi, We are a Franco-Mongolian family living in Hatgal, on Lake Hovsgol in the north of Mongolia. We are a 30-35 years old Franco-Mongolian couple and our little daughter Narantuya born on the 1st of May 2010. We are living in a ger at 2 km from the Hatgal typical village of northern Mongolia, in a beautiful Larch tree forest. Come enjoy a living in your own ger in the beautiful area of Hovsgol lake!

Area: Northland

Hi There, Simon & I run a Surf School and surf tours business as well as an internet business. We live on a beautiful property in Ngunguru, that we have the pleasure of sharing with great friends/family of ours, a Great Dane, Jack Russell & a cat. The property has it's own private beach, and spectacular views out on to the beautiful Tutukaka Coast. The Tutukaka Coast has many lovely beaches, wildlife, great diving with the Poor Knights and much more. It was rated by National Geographic Traveller Magazine in the top 2 coastal destinations worldwide.

Area: puerto viejo, limon

We are currently chillin' in Puerto Viejo, Limon, Costa Rica. We are managing this awesome little hostel and we are looking for fellow friends to help us out. We have some single rooms that we would like you to live in while you are visiting us and help us out around the place. We would be doing things such as painting, cleaning rooms, helping out in the kitchen (we are starting a new resturant), gathering coconuts, receptioning, and the obvious making new friends from around the world, and chillin' on the beach....Let us know what you think, we would love to have you!