Sotogrande is a Spanish summer resort and marina whose seasonal tourism connects wealthy European visitors to the Bloodworths’ business and to Driss’s hidden life in Spain. It appears not as a fully mapped setting but as an economic and social presence: a destination for summer visitors, and a source of income vulnerable to the decline in tourism.

Resort Setting and Seasonal Visitors

In August, Driss sees European guests arriving for summer stays: French couples and families from London and Dublin, some of whom keep yachts at Sotogrande. Their holiday routines belong to a world of leisure and comfort sharply different from Driss’s concealed position at the Bloodworths’ property. Roger Bloodworth keeps him out of sight while guests are present, limiting the chance that visitors will notice him or ask about him.

Sotogrande is also identified with a marina that draws tourists. Its importance in the story comes through these visitors and the business they sustain, rather than through a detailed description of the resort itself. The guests’ seasonal arrival places Driss among the labor that supports a tourist economy while keeping him at its margins.

Driss and the Bloodworths’ Business

The Bloodworths have lived in Spain for eleven years and have built English-inspired gardens adapted to the warmer climate. Driss learns the plants and works on the grounds, but the family’s hospitality business also depends on visitors: Roger keeps Driss concealed when guests occupy the rooms, and the household’s earnings include money from its bed-and-breakfast operation. The text associates this work with the tourist economy around Sotogrande without specifying that the Bloodworths’ property is located in the resort.

The arrangement gives Driss food and work but restricts his movement. The Bloodworths tell him not to go to the gate, walk along the road, or enter San Martín, because local police watch for undocumented workers in farms and greenhouses. He stays on the property, working in the gardens and avoiding attention. Sotogrande’s tourism thus forms part of a wider setting in which hospitality and service depend on labor whose presence must be kept discreet.

Seasonal Decline and Narrative Significance

The resort economy is not constant. In November the rains arrive and tourists disappear; the Bloodworths board up part of their house and retreat to the heated ground floor. As fewer tourists come to the Sotogrande marina, their business falters. Angela Bloodworth tells Driss that they are doing less well than they had hoped and that Roger Bloodworth has gone to England to raise more money from his family.

The change in season also alters Driss’s prospects. With the gardens wet and the tourist flow dried up, he grows impatient and turns his thoughts toward Paris, asking Roger about the roads that might take him there. Sotogrande therefore marks both the promise and the fragility of migrant work: summer tourism supplies the setting and income for Driss’s employment, but its seasonal retreat leaves him more acutely aware of his confinement and his wish to leave.