el morreon & beneficio

the bus came into orgiva around siesta time. everything was shut so i walked on down to el morreon and the wooden house where nadine and her daughter lena now live by themselves, with tim having moved to los molinos. she gave me her take of the relationship breakdown. i sympathised and was careful not to judge cos they were both friends. but she seemed very much happier now, with her own place and work and new boyfriend juan, who i met later that evening. "drumroots is a traveller", she told him. “he's had some adventures... tell juan about the boat and the guy who went crazy..." "it's a long long story....", i started, and then recounted the time when i hitch-hiked a boat, for the first and only time, from gibraltar. (i'll save that story for another time). i stayed the night and went back to orgiva the next day as it was market-day. i was hanging out near the terrace bar when marco recognizes me and we greet warmly. it must have been two years since i was last in beneficio, and then it was only for a short time too. we knew each other from when we were sharing the same busking/handcraft-selling spot in cadiz at the time of the carneval. coincidentally, the same carneval where i had met clara and maria. "we are cooking paella tonight", he said in spanish, "playing some music after.... you can come if you like." "great, perfect", i said. "you know where my house is, no?", he asked. "more or less", i said. "just ask for the italians", he replied, and was gone. i got some organic avocadoes and bread made from spelt and hitched up to beneficio.

beneficio... the best known, and maybe largest, of the hippy 'communities' in spain. although i guess some of the inhabitants won't be too happy to be described as hippies. or even to be described at all. ok, let's start again... beneficio, one of the largest 'free' spaces in europe. i was first here 12 years ago, the first time i came to spain. what a turning-point that proved to be. stories of a squatted island, squatting an abandoned village in the pyrenees, rainbow gatherings and hopi indian prophecies, the life of a down-and-out in barcelona... but all in good time.
i made my way through the parking – now complete with 'chip shop' and 'bar/internet cafe' – through the eucalyptus forest and to big lodge, the communal tipi. resting there, i saw the new permaculture vegetable garden made in the form of a spiral, thinking back to the time i had also worked on a garden here with fulvio and others. i walked onto the spring and tasted again the fresh sweet water, saw how the fig tree was hanging over the pool and watched the reflections dancing around on the rocks. a good year for water in the alpujarras.
then the long walk up the side of the valley to where the 'italian' camp was. i arrived in time for the seafood paella and got introduced to the others staying there and around. the first crew came here six years ago having walked from the italian rainbow gathering with mules and donkeys, and made their home here. of the original crew, only julio was left, and the one i knew the best, ulysses, was back in italy. marco was with his new girlfriend and their baby daughter in a renovated stone casita which joined onto a communal kitchen/guest-house. kermid from israel kindly put me up in her tipi for a couple of nights, and with the other friends and guests staying at the house, we made good food and music and conversation with great views over the valley and orgiva. i took walks further up the valley side to the ruins and further, but it was too hazy to see the sea.


one time when i was 'down-side', i bumped into paz, also from london, whom i had met at the small polish rainbow gathering at jawornik last year. he took me to see the dome he was constructing and over a cuppa, told me of his adventures and travels since poland. we went to big lodge that night and marco from 'old beneficio' had everyone entranced as usual with his guitar and flute and drum and singing... he was only one of two that i remembered from that time 12 years ago when i was first here. the other was sirio, who was now doing the bar/internet business in the parking. i was surprised to see him there as before, he had lived with his family a little down from big-lodge. "es sirio...?". "si", he replied, squinting his eyes to look for some sign of recognition. i told him my name and he squinted even more. "a long time ago...", i said by way of explanation. i sat and waited patiently in that fly-ridden shack whilst he connected up the various wires for the internet connection through a maze of other cables, wiping off the dust from the laptop keyboard. and when finally we got the connection, i checked my mail to find one from tim confirming he was coming down to el morreon on wednesday to take down his workshop from nadine's place.
i found tim and rob at tom-tom's place wednesday evening and early next day, we started taking down the workshop. the workshop space that was designed for that amazing little terrace place at markus' place near rodalquilar, in the natural park cabo de gata. it was designed to be portable and when time came for tim, nadine and lena to move from markus' big bus, the workshop, where many a drum and magic pueblo etc. had been built, came too. and now with the split, the workshop was moving again. i left halfway through to go to the market in orgiva and was lucky to find michel driving up. the italian connection were there with their wholemeal bread baked the night before in the stone oven at the house. i brought a loaf and got some more of those delicious organic avocados.
back to the wooden house in time to help out with taking the solar panel off the roof. rob it was who pulled off the miracle of taking it down whilst balancing on a near vertical ladder which i was holding steady, and tim on the shorter ladder helping to get it down safe. huge relief when rob finally got off the ladder with him and solar panel still in one piece!
whilst we waited for tom-tom to come with the van, tim gave his version of the split which happened a year ago. but what was more on his mind were the love blues which came when his latest girlfriend left him a few weeks ago. of course i was sympathetic. we had all been there before, and i gave him the wisdom of my experience. but of course none of it really helps because love is like that... it follows no rules.


when tom-tom came with the van, we loaded it up, and after a coffee at tom-tom and gundalla's yurt, we drove to los molinos in tim's car/van. tom-tom and gundalla would follow later in the van.