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.