Tengo suerte!

“I’m lucky”.  That’s all I could say for the past four days. 

I’ve been to Spain once before, six years ago to study in Cadiz.  That same summer, the teacher who helped organize the trip asked if I would like to host the daughter of a Spanish friend of her’s for a week.  My parents agreed and we hosted Alma.

In a purely serendipitous moment I sent a message to Alma saying that I was in Guaro, outside of Malaga, working on a smelly farm without a shower.  I told Alma before I left China that I might make it to Spain and she told me we should try to see each other if I did but she would be in London for three weeks.  I wholly believed she was in London when I sent that message but by the grace of God, she was in her car on her way to Malaga.  By the powers of Facebook she read my message immediately after I sent it and she invited me to join her at the beach for a few days.  I grabbed the bus without so much as asking who she was with.  I imagined she was with friends but I was delighted to meet her amazing parents.  Alma met me at the station and I recognized her immediately. Strange how that can happen after six years. 

The rest of the time was filled with showers, good food, showers, the beach, showerers, spanish conversations, and SHOWERS. 

Guaro- que guarro!

WOW.   

Its taken me a few days because 1) I had to absorb my situation and 2) we are operating on solar power, with Spanish outlets and no internet so this whole using a computer thing is challenging.

Well El Higuero, the name of this farm or “campo, finca or granja” if you would like to speak Espanol, is not quite what I thought it would be.

First, I should state that I put only minimal effort into finding this farm.  In my last couple of month in China, I was very unsure of what my net move would be.  I knew that I wanted to improve my Spanish and this seemed like an appropriate way to do so.  Plus, I had been in a very dirty city and I could use some of the simple life an fresh air.  Note here that I am not saying that I am moving from a dirty city to a clean place.

The facilities at El Higueral are primitive.  In my hesitant phase (perhaps two weeks ago when I still didn’t have a plan) I e-mailed Guillermo, a volunteer just like me who plans to stay here for a year!  Guillermo told me the farm is “un paradiso”.  Another part of the email mentioned taking baths in the river.  I like lakes and I thought taking the occasional bath in the river would be refreshing.  Well, the river, named the Rio Grande (BIG RIVER) is not so appropriately named.  It’s a stream.  It barely comes to my ankles. Oh and we can only use organic soap.  Apparently organic shampoo is very hard to come by. Its 106 degrees and I sweat. This will be interesting.

Interesting, the name of the town, Guaro, sounds much like the word "guarro" (roll the r people rrrrrrrrroll the rrrrrrrr). "Guarro" is a slang word for filthy, disgusting, or dirty.

In my emails to Maria Jesus she told me Guillermo would be on the farm and there would be another WWOOFER, John, from New York. When the car came to pick me up at the bus stop in Guaro out came Guillermo and a young girl.  The girl was Karina, 19, from Germany.  She speaks brilliant Spanish because she spent a year living in Mexico.  This brought our happy family to four (Maria Jesus is on vacation until the middle of the month).  In total there are NINE of us. Most people came within the past week.  Xenia (23, from Austria), Stephen (21, Ireland), Amelia (26 from Italy) Meme and Cullum (17 from England) plus the others aforementioned.  This was far more people than I imagined but for such a diverse group of people we get along great. Everyone is social, pleasant and relaxed. Amelia was preparing lunch when I arrived and from that first meal (pasta from the Italian of course) it felt like a family meal.  We all started singing songs from the Lion King in our own languages- Spanish, English, German, Italian all blended together.  We are family. So fast. So soon!

 

At dinner we decided that it is time to take a field trip.  Apparently the average WWOOFer does not stay as long as Guillermo (a year) and only stays a few weeks.  My plan was to stay for a month but that got cut short by the tomato festival and I actually felt bad for staying so short.  It seems most people’s plans are a week, 10 days, or maybe 2 or 3 weeks.  Since people will be leaving soon.

I was hoping we would hit the beach.  Its been so long since I have had a beach holiday or put on a bathing suit (awkward).  I can’t describe how happy I was to see the beach from the plane.  It felt like home, and by home I mean Miami. Since then I have been constantly reevaluating whether I should look for a job in Miami.

We did not go to a beach but instead went to Ronda (rrrrrrrroll the rrrr). A city I visited  on my first trip to Spain 6 years ago!  It has the oldest bull ring in Spain and some ancient ROMAN aqueducts.  We found a cool waterfall and BATHED!

Once you get past the fact that the farm is dirty and overpopulated its not so bad.  We take turns cooking and we have had some delicious meals (pizza, pancakes, pasta, scones, curry, fried rice, potatoes and eggs).  We eat a lot of things fresh from the farm: figs (OMG no one ever told me how good these are!),  tomatoes, peppers, pomegranates, oranges (fresh orange juice), eggplant, pumpkin and almonds.  In addition there are many herbs, floral plants and olive trees.  Maria Jesus makes her own olive oil but it is not the season.  Even though I did not put much effort into choosing a farm, I was sure about not having animals, chickens might be ok but nothing too big.  This farm only has a cat, two dogs and SIX new born puppies. The puppies are just a few days old and can’t even open their eyes or walk yet.

From Sex tourist to farmer in 24 hours

I can't speak for Kate but I wasn’t really a sex tourist in Amsterdam. Its AMSTERDAM so I could have been (if I wanted to).

Kathryn left me this morning on a plane bound for the United States.  She is returning to China next year and is spending some time home and watching her friend get married before that. 

My future plans include 3.5 weeks on a farm in Spain, then going to Tomatina, a very large tomato fight near Valencia in Spain, and then a giant mystery (go to Portugal? Morocco? tour Spain?) and somehow make it to Munch for Oktoberfest and my flight to the US on September 18.  Oh and that also includes a 22 hour layover in London.  

When in Prague, the home of Franz Kafka, I read the Metamorphisis and found this appropriate quote “The traveling is arduous but without it I couldn’t live”. I guess it makes all the expensive flights, cheap hostels and layovers worth it.

So back to farming. The farm that I will be working on is the town of Guaro, it is a town of 2,000 people one hour from Marbella and two hours from Malaga (the airport) in Costa del Sol on the Mediterranean. Well those cities are on the “Sun coast” and I will be in the Sierra Nieve (snow) mountains.

Since Guaro is so small and not a hot tourist destination, there are only three buses a day from the city.  Unfortunately, my flight comes in too late (at 7pm!) so I will have to wait until the next day to get to the farm.  I haven’t been communicating with the people on the farm too frequently so this was recent news to me.  I should go stay in a hostel but since I am cheap and don’t see the point of staying for the night and not enjoying the city and the people I am going to Couchsurf... ALONE. I talked with this girl Desiree who works at the airport (perfect) and will be picking me up there (more perfect).  She’s going to the States next week as a Fullbright scholar (wow) so hopefully I can give her some advice in return.

Well it is time for my vuelo (flight) with Vueling (supposedly flying?) airline.  CHAO. (the spanish use an a "h" instead of "i")