Spending summer in La Alpargata
“A change of scene is akin to opening a gift.”
After staying in Cádiz for nearly 9 months, it came to a moment that I had to look for a place to spend the summer. It is not uncommon for landlords to have another batch of tenants as the peak of the summer approaches particularly in a place close to the beach. Cádiz is a wonderful place to spend the summer.
At first, I jump-started a search in the Ribeira Sacra wine region. I always wanted to go to this place. This region has always been in my mind. It must be the geographic landscape. I was expecting to get something out of it, but with no results. In time, I finally got a hint that I was knocking on the wrong place and so I switched my line of search by being a member of WWOOF, a farm organization that accepts volunteers around the world to help out in exchange for free lodging and food. After many tries, I got some positive answers, but no specific dates arrived. Then, out of the blue, I received an e-mail from someone — and that was Sabina telling me to call Aurelio. I found out that Sabina is Aurelio’s wife and took care of the e-mails received. I immediately called him and we clicked right away and sealed in a definite date. After two weeks of searching, it was a sigh of relief to have something concrete. Thanks for the encouragement of Jacky to get things going. In fact, she even recommended that I stay in Cádiz if there was nothing going on.
Having a place was good enough for summer and there was no expectation at all. The “Vamos por allá” attitude set in and would try something new at this time and changed I just have to take things on a daily basis. All I needed to do was to go out there and find out.
No Expectations can lead to wonders
Arriving late at night gave a way to a surprise. I waited in a bar close to the bus top. Aurelio came with his van to pick me up in Nerja and had a chat along the way to Maro. Then, he walked me to a cabin and told me to see each other tomorrow. The cabin was small with a big bed and a meter away was the entrance door. Luckily, Aurelio left me his headlight to be used. It was good to have a white bedsheet with me. In fact, I brought two and a cotton sleeping bag for the summer and that gave me a feeling of sleeping on a clean bed even without checking it. In a dark space, it was best not to check everything, but I could hear waves coming from below. With a headlight, I managed to set myself to sleep really well.
“Always carry with you what you feel is your personal luxury, no matter where you go”.
When I got up, I wandered around to find out where I was. It turned out I was on top of a cliff and 15 meters to the cliff, I had a view of the ocean. I immediately told myself — this is a paradise!
Exploring the farm
Aurelio isn’t a person who gives you an orientation of La Alfargata farm from the get-go. He wants you to explore the place and find things out for yourself as you go along. He didn’t show me where the bathroom at. Then, later on, I ran into a toilet, just like a toilet in the old times. Then, I ran into more people. There was always something new.
Ultimate Rule
One thing that Aurelio emphasizes here is one strict rule — no smoking in the vicinity of the farm. A wildfire is one of the worst things that can happen in this place.
Farm Work
A two-hour of work per day is nothing in addition to the flexibility of time to work. This is a generous deal when staying in a place. It gives you time for yourself and lets you work at your own pace. On my first day, Aurelio and I went to another parcel of land to water avocados. He showed me around and we also collected bananas for his client and personal use. We feasted on figs for breakfast as the ants were already devouring ripe ones. I also put in my share of work by picking horse manure and hay, and distributing around the trees tropical trees. Cristian became my buddy on the farm. He introduced mate, a typical drink from Argentina and carried with him all the time. I accompanied him to clear up water pipes that were clogged because of the rain. We went to this place what we called Vietnam. A stream covered with bamboos. It was a wild place. We took it as an adventure and Cristian loved every minute of it.
During my stay here, I got a chance to work in the garden with Sabina, moving hay and horse manure to a more accessible space and distributing it around the trees, accompanied Cristian to fix the water irrigation system, used the weed whacker, and son.
Products
Passion Fruit. A savory tropical fruit. During the peak season, it just kept on falling. When I got there, it was at the peak season of passion fruit. At first, I didn’t know what’s the plant looks like. I found out that It’s a vine that climb up to anything that comes in the way. However, it isn’t a plant that invades or chokes other plants. Here, you see them on a trellis, top of the roof, and growing along other trees such as avocado trees. During the peak season, they just fell to the ground and sometimes I step on it. We collected boxes of it, but I noticed that a lot of them went bad, because they weren’t sold or given away. I had them for breakfast during my stay there.
Avocado. Although avocados reach the peak of harvest in October and November, there are areas here that even at summertime, they get kilos and kilos of avocados of harvest. Avocados are a trend of healthy food all over the world, because of its benefits. However cultivating avocado trees requires abundance of water. Luckily here and having a subtropical climate,
Papaya. G
, there is an abundance of water coming from the mountain. Plastic water pipes are spread around with continuous flow of water. I just wonder and bearing in mind of the climate change of and with the climate change, it is unsustainable in the long term.
Never paid attention of passion fruit until this time. Aurelio showed me the spot where you get to see many of them and I got to see many of them falling on the first week of July. It started to taper down on the second week. and Since the ground was covered with leaves, I stepped on them the main area wherein you could gather them and put them in baskets for sale. I couldn’t believe that it was so good and it became my breakfast aside from papaya. Passion fruit just falls and you just pick up many of them on the ground. I picked some before heading to the beach. This place has a subtropical climate that you could cultivate this kind of fruits.
Generally the full harvest of avocados is in October or November, however, they also have a share of summer of harvest in some areas.
Weather
Generally, it’s a subtropical weather. Summer season in any parts of Andalusia can peak to 40s, but since the farm house is located right along the coastline, you don’t get the feel the heat too much. I would try to work early in the morning and finished at around 11:00.
Access to Water Sports
Since we have the beach down below us, we got a chance to cool off and wash ourselves after working. Using kayaks and paddle boards are allowed.
Living like a hippie
After sometime a weeks there, I felt like I was living like a hippie. I started to walk barefooted and didn’t have to wash my hair every day. how to walk barefooted and didn’t wash my hair. It gives that same feeling. How people live can transform your mindset. Life has become simple and material becomes secondary.
Wellness
Living on a farm brings with it a wellness practices — early to bed and early to rise, a vegetarian and tropical fruit diet, sardine diet, and an introduction to yoga classes. It seems that everybody practices wellness. Marga, Sabina,. Aurelio and Jesus practice yoga, Aurelio practices one day a week fasting, Levi practices meditation and natural therapy. Such a wellness environment reverberates to all the people that stay in this farm. .
Volunteers
I got only a chance to meet a few. Some of them just came in for a few days or a week.
The beauty of creativity and nature’s beauty
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Wellness
Fruits in the mornings and vegetables at lunchtimes and light dinner had become my summer diet. Levi, who came in out of nowhere, practices meditation and using energy from the surroundings. Aurelio does fasting once a week. Then, a yoga instructor, did a daily morning sessions during her stay there. The surroundings alone is a wellness environment. I started to walk barefooted around me.
Getting Together
In spite of Cabins separated from one another, we find time to get together.