Plunging into a hippie lifestyle

I finally settled myself on a farm called Alpargata on July 2 and not knowing what I was up led to add excitement and uncertainty around the farm. It was a second summer of the aftermath of Covid period and Aurelio, the farm owner, was kind of hesitant to accept volunteers at this time and besides, he hadn’t done this for a long time. So, he didn’t have time to prep up the farm for volunteers. The attitude — “What you see is what you get”. If you don’t want it, you leave. One day, Aurelio showed the cabin where I stayed on the first week or so and this young guy made an excuse to get something in his car, but he never came back. We cracked up about it. The good about this place was that you didn’t have to room with somebody.

At first, I was kind of sizing up what is it like to live on a farm that specially finding a toilet. Aurelio, the owner of the farm didn't bother to show me around. and didn’t know what to expect. July was fast approaching and there was definite itinerary yet. Where would I stay? What would I be doing? I was searching for weeks what’s the next gig. Luckily, I got a message to hook up with Aurelio, the owner of a farm in southern Spain. I gave him a call and was able to set a date to stay there.

I was picked up by Aurelio in Nerja late in the evening. It turned out to be a long bus ride coming from Cádiz, the road was along the coastline. He picked me up with his van and headed to his farm in Maro, the next town. It was pitched black and he handed a flashlight and walked together to a cabin. We chatted a bit in the van and dropped me off. I had no idea what’s inside the cabin. Luckily, I had two clean white bed sheets with me and that kind of gave me a peace of mind that I was sleeping on a clean bed. When it’s late in the evening and tired, you kind of do your best to make things work.

I was looking forward to waking up early in the morning and see my surroundings, but I could already hear the waves and that meant I was close to the seashore. When stepped out of the cabin I had a view of the sea. I didn’t want to go that far, but I opted to trace where I came from last night. Then, I figured out how to go to the main house. I saw Aurelio who had woken up and he asked to go with him to the next farm. I accompanied him and helped him out in any way I could. Next to his farm, we saw a fig tree and noticed that ripe figs were already flocked by ants and other insects.