Livin´the Dream!

It´s true....we're only working 25 hours a week, have our own camper - compact, but functional and clean, plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, and are sandwiched in-between the mountains and the sea. We can even hear the roar of the waves from our camper! Oh, and the stars absolutely light up the sky at night. It´s unreal to think how much beauty there is that so many of us living in cities just don´t see.

Los Canas de Meca is about an hour outside of Cadiz and within two hours we can be in Morroco. It rained the first couple days we were here, but we didn´t work anyway, so it didn´t much matter ;) We went to the beach our first day here, and while it´s beautiful, unfortunately there seems to have been an oil spill or illegal dump or something. There was tar over much of the beach, and I still have the reminents on my feet to prove it! Got most of it off using vinegar, but there was some that was just too stubborn. So now I have paper towell in-between my monkey toes and a little more comes off each time I try....could have been worse I suppose...I could be one of those poor seals or penguins covered in oil with no way to get it off. We brought it up to Karen, our hostess, and she said it was NOT normal! She called the police and natural resource management folks and said if they don´t come out and do something soon, she´ll go to the papers. Looks like someone went out to survey the area (we went to watch the sunset last night) but nothing has been done so far. We have a couple good pics - including one of the bottom of my foot covered in tar....we´ll try to get those uploaded soon.

Our work is varied, which is nice. Patrick, the caretaker, is really laid back and easy to work with. There isn´t actually a farm here yet. They´ve been composting and getting the area ready for a garden, but so far there are just a bunch of plants and some herbs around the land. We think we´ll be able to help spread the compost and prepare the soil to plant - it´s a good time for that here...the weather is cooler but still warm and while there is plenty of sunshine, there is a bit more rain than other times of year.

Our travels through Italy and Spain were fantastic!

Quickly - Cinque Terre was stunningly beautiful and peaceful, Rome I loved much more than I thought I would (great green space), Florence was nice (although we couldn´t get on the wine tour to Chiante like we hoped to), and Venice was fabulous (ridiculous amounts of shopping). I need more time in Italy next time.

Barcelona exceeded my expectations. It was beautiful and there were green spaces and parks everywhere! My one complaint of Italy - not enough green space....completely remedied in Spain. We found our favorite restaurant so far as well - Juicy Jones - chalk full of vegan fair and a different Indian platter each night. It was unreal it was so good! We´ve already recommended it to 10 or 12 people. LOL The hostel we stayed in was out of the city near Park Guell - where all the Gaudi stuff is (awesome does not begin to do it justice). It was a perfect location, but full of high school groups! We might have been the oldest ones there with the exception of the chaperones. But it was cheap, clean, and we got our own room for two of the three nights. Oh, and I learned that they speak Catalan in Barcelona - mix of French and Spanish...nothing like what I learned in school!

Madrid, where they speak Spanish, was again full of green space and parks and was just beautiful. Unfortunately it rained a good deal while we were there, but that just forced us inside to get some culture ;) Picasso, Dali.....some really random modern "art"....good stuff. We stayed at Cat´s Hostel - ridiculously loud, but we met some fantastic people and ended up hanging out with a good group while we were there. Even went to watch the Barcelona vs. Madrid Futbol game on Sunday night. Saturday and Sunday we ended up at places where we were the only English speakers - it was pretty nice.

And now we´re at Casas Karen - www.casaskaren.com if you want to check out the luxury we´re living in ;) There´s so much more...but there´s only so much time you have to read and I have to write :)

Hope you are all doing well and getting ready for my favorite holiday. Yes, Halloween :) Dress up as something crazy and send me a picture! I´ll be missing the trick-or-treators here.

xoxo, Lor