Imagine yourself pushing a wheelbarrow
containing two, large, freshly filled propane tanks lying on their
sides. You're navigating a narrow mountain path over rocks, around
bends, over wooden planks traversing small streams, and down a hill.
You take a break at the 90 degree turn to prepare yourself for the
push up the steepest part of the path. Now imagine you have a 50
pound pack on your back while you're doing this. The contents of the
bag include food, fruits and vegetables, and some other common
household necessities. A rope is attached to the front of the
wheelbarrow with your partner at the other end of it. She's yanking
on the rope when you reach those tough spots, the steep hill, the
larger rocks, and the wood-plank bridges. You reach a spot at the
top of the steep section where you stop, take a break, and look
round. You can see for miles down a valley, the Mediterranean Sea
glistens at the other end of it. The path continues around another
bend and down a steep slope reaching the end of the trail and your
destination. Geodomes, wooden frames with canvas stretched over
them. This modern-day version of a teepee is your new home after
your first task of your next three-week stint in your version of
traveling through Europe.
Helpx brought us to this obscure place
in the Sierra Nevada mountains of Andalusia. Helpx is a similar
concept to that of WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms).
You sign up and pay a fee for the contact information of people who
need labor help. For WWOOF, the labor is exclusively related to
organic farming while helpx covers a wide rage of work including
farming, construction, teaching, hospitality etc. Based on the labor
needed and the location, you contact a host that you would like to
help. If they are able to host during the time that you request
(typically a period of at least 2 weeks), then they provide you with
food and housing in exchange for roughly six hours of work a day for
five days a week. The worker is typically a traveler relishing in
new experiences, different places, and meeting interesting people.
Meanwhile, the host also gets to meet some new and unique people
while benefiting from cheap labor. The program, like couchsurfing,
is self-policing. After hosting or visiting, you write a review of
the particular person or place. While searching for places to go,
you read what others have said about that place and take their views
into consideration.
Landscape, climate, and culture were
some of the reasons Andalusia was an attractive location to start
looking into helpx. It was a pleasant surprise to see a slew of
hosts in and around the small town of Orgiva in Las Alpujarras, a
region on the Southern slope of the Sierra Nevada mountains. A
google images search ended in even more fervor for visiting the
region for an extended period of time. It was then that I sent out a
string of requests to about 6 hosts, receiving only a single positive
response. Our host was a family of four living in geodomes on the
side of a mountain slope, just outside the village of Canar. At the
time I wasn't sure what that meant, but I didn't worry all too much.
In just a couple short emails three October 2012 weeks in Spain were
booked.
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| The modern port at Malaga |
From Malaga, our next stop before
arriving in Canar was Orgiva. The three hour bus ride started out as
a nice smooth ride down a highway along the coast. On our right we
could look out over the sea and on our left we found a relatively dry
landscape with small groups of picturesque white buildings with their
red clay roof tiles. Beyond the villages rose mountains in the
distance. We stopped by towns named Torrox, Nerja, and Almunecar,
all the while those mountains in the distance closing in on us.
Finally at Motril we headed north away from the coast and into the
Sierra Nevada mountains. We turned off the main road at a reservoir
of the damned up Rio Guadelfeo. It was there that the roads started
to get windy and both Mihai and I had trouble enjoying the curves.
Luckily for us, Orgiva would be the next stop, just up the road.
Orgiva is a small town of just around
6,000 people. Regardless, it is probably the largest town of the
Alpujarras region. In the first couple of days after arriving we
discovered an interesting aspect of Orgiva that explains the plethora
of helpx hosts. The town plays host to three alternative communities
including one, Beneficio, which is quite well-known in such circles
around Europe. Not only did we find ourselves a part of one for the
first couple of days, but we also saw a slew of dreadlocks, tie-dyed,
drum-beating hippies hanging around the small center on market day.
It was a welcome sight for me, reminding me of the Ithaca commons
dropped into a region of small Spanish farmers.
We dropped our heavy bags by the window
table of a dark bar were we were to meet our host, Anna. She hadn't
yet arrived but that was alright. We had time to grab a beer and
relax after the long bus ride. Shortly thereafter, a grungy yet
attractive English woman walked through the door with a small girl.
“Andrew?” She said in her British accent. We proceeded to
introduce ourselves and then we piled into our things into her Land
Rover and headed to El Morion.
El Morion is a small community of
mostly British inhabitants living in houses or caravans just outside
of Orgiva to the Southwest. Some members of the community, including
Anna, formed a theater/dance/music performance group called Eat
Prunes. Our host had a large caravan where Chris, Anna, and Savi,
their little boy slept, while Frankie slept in a trailer parked
beside it. The caravan had one large bed, a small kitchen area, and
a table where we sat and ate breakfast. The family stayed part-time
in El Morion and part-time at the geodomes just outside of Canar.
When we arrived, Chris was staying at the domes and we were to stay
with Anna and the kids in El Morion for a couple of days.
During our time in El Morion we got
accustomed to the living conditions and our host family. The good
part of one day was spent constructing a small garden. We weeded an
area, tilled the soil, and cut a trough through it so that water
could run through, reaching it's future contents. It was there,
digging around in the dry soil, where I saw my first scorpion.
Furthermore, we also spotted some deer on a hill nearby. Frankie,
the 10 year old daughter of our host, quickly warmed up to Mihai.
She played guide and entertainer, showing us the different houses
around the area and leading us down to the river were we picked at
some fresh pomegranates and climbed over the rocks. The dinners were
communal activities where we met and chatted with the locals. The
ecological toilet and the trailer living eased us into the conditions
we would find in Canar. Looking up from El Morion we could see the
white village high up on the mountain, the highest village in sight.
Thursday was market day. After
dropping off the kids at school, Anna took us to town to help her
with the provisions. We loaded up bags with mostly fruits and
veggies. It was avocado and mango season. They were going for just
1 euro/kg. Finally, we started toward Canar. The road took us
through switchback after switchback. The ride was grueling on the
stomach but the view from the white town at its peak was worth it.
After a sharp, two point turn in town we continued up and out of town
to the next turn where we parked the car. Anna showed us along a
path. After about 10 minutes of walking up and down, traversing
farmland and forest, we arrived at two canvas domes connected to each
other. Just outside the domes we met Chris, set our bags down,
grabbed the wheelbarrow, and headed back for the rest of the luggage.
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| My first ever scorpion sighting |
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| These opened pomegranates were all over the trees down by the river near El Morion. |
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