Orgiva is a village about half an hour north of Motril, which itself is about an hour east of Malaga.

I am here to meet up with Melchior and Amiel who are planning to start a new eco village project, Badulina.
[update they have since moved there]

They have not yet moved to the Badulina location, so I am visiting their current community in the valley of El Morreon, just outside Orgiva.

I get to spend my first night in ‘the Bubble’, and get to test my new high-tech sleeping bag at temperatures of 4 degrees inside a geodesic dome covered with plastic foil:

Having survived this, I get to hang out with cute swedish kids (who I think look a bit like Klaus Kinski) and also an upgrade to a heated campervan….

   

The days are filled with typical eco village stuff, like cooking, getting hold of water (neighbours tap for washing up, supermarket bottles for drinking), washing up, fixing stuff.

But I am also having some really good talks with Melchior&Co about visions for an eco village community in general, and Badulina in particular. Straight off the bat, I am in the middle of people who have the plans and resources (and experience) to make good communities happen.

Part 2

Unfortunately I was struck down with a little stomach bug and had to take two days off, including the day when they went to see the new land. This was somehow made up for with a google earth session, looking at a high-res satellite image of the entire new premises including installations, like the existing buildings and water well.

Meanwhile, I am struggling with the woodburner inside the van:
if things go well you end up with a cosy warm van,
if things go bad the place fills with smoke
and you need to open up all the windows.
With outside temperatures around 6 degrees
this is not a nice thing to happen
when you were planning to curl up with an (e-)book and a cup of tea…

 

 

 

 

I was able to sort my stomach out so that on Friday I could get a lift to Motril (and from there a bus to Malaga) together with Melchior’s mum, who has been doing some great cooking for all of us over the week.

I need to add that the reason for the stomach bug was not any of the great cooking, but rather the fact that the bug was already going around amongst the children and we had limited hand-washing facilities on-site. (i.e. no running water, just buckets out of barrels).

Time to leave El Moreon and Orgiva and head towards the next project: Veintidos in Mijas.