So, we indeed are in Spain and having a nice time although we are not exactly where we expected to be at this moment in time.
After an uneventful arrival to Madrid and 7 hour bus ride to the beachside "resort town" of Marbella on the Costa del Sol (Sunny Coast), we were greeted by 6 straight days of pouring rain.
Thankfully we arrived the day beofre the hurricane-windstorm-all-out-weather-disaster struck all of Europe, because otherwise we would have been trapped in an airport somewhere for a day or two due to all the flight and train cancellations. At any rate, our beachside stay consisted largely of cooking delicious food, watching tv, marveling at the sky's capacity for letting out water, and running between the raindrops to the indoor pool and exercise rooms at the hotel timeshare. We managed to go for a few walks in between the stormy parts, but all in all we stayed inside.
Then last Saturday morning we set off for our first Wwoofing experience in Spain, to a small village in the coastal mountains called Torrox. We purchased a cell phone (you may now call us if you wish), got rained on, and finally arrived, after many gruff miscommunications, to the village and eventually into our farmer's car and to his house. As per usual since we arrived to Spain, it started raining, so we just had a minute to set our stuff down in our camper and head back to the farmer's house to eat our late lunch. The farmer was nice enough, but he was quite gruff and explaining tasks to be done was not exactly his forte.
However, the location was absolutely beautiful. We were perched on a mountainside with additional mountains behind us, looking out toward a lush green valley leading out to the seaside town of Nerja and a large expanse of the Mediterranean Sea. And we got to watch sunrise for each of the precisely three days we spent there.
Why three days? Well the work was enjoyable enough, but our accommodations just weren't cutting it. A very cramped, moldy mobile home with a woodstove installed and a rickety, movable gas range. No electricity, and the bathroom was an ecological toilet about 50 meters down a slippery hill. It should be mentioned that our first task on Wednesday was reconstructing out of reed, plastic, twine, and rocks, a teepee around the ecological toilet (hole in the ground) to shelter us from, you know, everyone on the mountains around us seeing our bare butts as we went to the bathroom. The caravan was kind of comical in that on the one hand, it seemed cozy, but on the other, the wind and rain entered through various unseen entrance ways and at any minute the wind seemed like it might just blow us off the hill. And although the shared meal was delicious (when we had them), it was completely at random.
But, it was so beautiful there. Seriously, my words do not do it justice. However, as soon as the night struck (those 14 hours of the day it was dark with our Czech Soviet-made kerosene lamp) and possibly the fleas (?) or some other rash or small bugs hit, we decided it was time to go. So we began calling our other choices, only to not get ahold of the right people, and eventually in circles we went until one farmer we had chosen recommended us another farmer named Constantine.
After a mysterious journey through several different towns and getting picked up by car in another, we were finally picked up and brought to Orgiva by our new farmer, German expat former-priest, did-I-mention-German?, very erratic, pedantic, forgetful and kind Constantine. And here we have been since. We are helping with odds and ends around the house and land and enjoying our time very much, although we weren't exactly itching to be with expats. Since before we arrived Constantine has had house guests of a family of Swedes (a couple and their 12-year old son), and it has been quite amusing here all around.
We had a lovely New Year's Dinner with all of them which involved lots of seafood (Noam lost out on that one), and we have been hoping for southern Spain's famous Mediterranean weather to kick in sometime soon. In short, aside from yesterday and this morning, it's been pure rain, fog, and icy wind since we arrived (and by icy I mean the likes of 40 degree temperatures not including windchill...). Now we plan on being here for probably another week and then taking off to who-knows-where, although with a little luck the sun will finally come out to stay.
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