Fuente del Espino- a finca in the Sierra Nevadas

by annie

We arrived in Valor around noon after a windy three-hour bus ride from Granada. The bus dropped us off at a bar called ¨el Puente.¨ We sat on the terrace and had a beer while we waited for our hosts to pick us up. We thought we were waiting for a British couple called Phil and Sandy, so imagine our surprise when a guy called Ian approached us with a thick Scottish accent. We had gotten a week ahead of ourselves- Phil and Sandy were the following week (awkward!). Ian left to run some more errands, and we waited more until Karen stopped by after yoga class. We then joined Karen and two other helpers in a whirlwind of errands and visits to friends. We met some other helpers at a different host site, one of which used to live two blocks from us in Portland! We drank a few tinto de veranos for the free tapas (calamari salad and seafood paella) before finally heading up the hill to their finca, called Fuente del Espino.

Valor sits in the Sierra Nevada mountain range at 900 meters. We climbed another 800 meters to reach the finca. Upon arrival, we were quite shocked by our home for the next week. Set on a steep hill, Karen and Ian's home is surrounded by peaks and valleys and solitude, perched in a perfect spot in a natural forest. On a clear day, we could sit on their terrace and see the Mediteranean Sea behind gorgeous mountains. Not many live in the natural forests because they are protected- one can only build upon already existing structures, often stone ruins of cortijos several hundred years old. They renovated on such a ruin to be their primary home. It has a small kitchen, bedroom and terraced ¨hang-out¨space, decked out with plenty of color, books, drums and cushions.

We stayed in a large van with a bed, peed in the grass and used the long drop toilet, aka ¨a loo with a view.¨They use all solar and wind power and collect drinking water once a week from a natural spring in town. They keep four chickens and a dog named Jimmy. Karen made us really good food- often using arugula and herbs from her garden. They were extremely generous with alcohol, almost insisting that we drink tinto de veranos and such from their massive selection that rivals that of a well-stocked bar. They taught us a Spanish game called mentirosa and we played lots of other games as well. One afternoon, I caught Brian staring, fully entertained, by a flock of flies swarming around our van. Once I joined him, I understood why they held his attention. They were all competing over airspace, dancing in rhythm with each other, faster and slower, attacking each other and then relaxing. Karen says ¨who needs tv?¨and she's right. There were always chickens clucking about, Jimmy eating rocks or stunning vistas to keep us entertained.

We would work for 2 or 3 hours in the morning, stopping for siesta during the hottest part of the day, and then one or two hours in the evening as well. Our work mainly consisted of throwing heavy stones uphill to use for building, cutting grass with a scithe or weeding. With that kind of work, it doesn't take long before the dirt coats your clothes and your teeth and the hairs in your nose!

We enjoyed are time at Fuente del Espino, but felt slightly as if our American roots were held against us. It was a surprise and a disappointment, and left us feeling not quite welcome. We stayed a week before moving on to another finca near Almeria.