Aparthotel San Marcos Badajoz

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Nestled against ¨Parque Natural da Serra Sao Mamede¨ in Portugal this Spanish host has it all. Stunning scenery, gracious hosts, and crazy animals. Better yet its located in the middle of nowhere, so bird songs, herding sheep bells, and of course, barking dogs, are all you´ll hear. With lots of colourful characters, this is a must see for any WWOOFer with an interest in small town Spain.

Best Time to Visit
Fall and Spring to avoid the bitter cold of ...

... self sufficient dinner. But this isn´t to say that I´ve been disappointed, in many ways the whole program has exceeded my expectations.

When things work as they should, things are good on both ends. Hosts are able to accomplish more with an extra set of hands at their disposal, WWOOFers in return are not only fed, and given a place to sleep, but are exposed to a new culture, and learn new skills. This is the basic framework ...

... and Portugal remind me of parts of Africa. An already limited menu can just be a list of dishes currently unavailable. While two servers rushed around an all but empty dinning room we waited. Some time later our food arrived. Poor Martin, a vegetarian, was limited to one menu option: fries with spicy ketchup. They don´t exactly understand the concept of vegetarianism in these parts, we´re in the land of the pig. I chuckled to myself as I picked away at his fries ...

... layer upon layer of distant hills.

At 2:00 Corrine and I got a ride with Becky into the nearest city of Badajoz. Our wander started with walk through a garden and old fortress ruins. Welcome to small town Spain. Anywhere else in the country and this would have been teaming with tourists, but we were the only ones there. The fortress was composed of numerous dark alleys and tunnels that required a torch, which we didn´t have. A place like this in Vancouver would have been a ...

I´ve settled into a nice routine here with Becky and Martin. When I arrived the first order of business was a tour of the place I´ll be calling home for the next two weeks.

I´m always excited to see the kitchen, as I think it can really say a lot about a person. My first exciting discover lay in the bookshelf: cookbooks, cool cookbooks, cookbooks I want to own. Jars of preserves are tucked away into corners, and stacked in the cupboards. The place is overflowing with ...

After our day in Fatima we hopped onto a bus to a small town about 2 hours away from Fatima, named Santarem. A city that was blessed with a Eucharistic Miracle that dates back to the early 13'Th century. We arrived there at about 6 pm and the church was closed. 5 other girls and I were not going to leave until we got in to the church so we walked around the church knocking ...

... y vimos a Coppini & Maga y a Tachenko pero después de lo que habíamos visto, nos supo a poco. Y así amaneció el domingo, con nosotros durmiendo plácidamente. Con el regusto de un gran Contempopranea, con el sabor a victoria por haber encontrado una casa y un casero tan buenos, con la tranquilidad de estar disfrutando de nuestras merecidas vacaciones y con la esperanza de qué este año no sea el último y que el año que viene volvamos a estar por aquí... ¡Cruzamos los dedos!

... concierto... Pero lo decimos bajito porque si nos oyen nos quitan el carné de alternativos XD Casi al final del concierto de Lori Meyers Jaione se puso en huelga y nos esperó fuera sentada. Edurne y yo, al terminar el concierto, coincidimos que lo mejor que podíamos hacer era irnos a dormir... así que a las 2 de la mañana ya estábamos en casa... Para terminar este día un poco raro, cuando estábamos en el quinto sueño se empezó a escuchar a unos hablando muy alto en la calle ...

¡Cómo pasa el tiempo!... ¡¡Este ya es nuestro 3er Festival Contempopranea!! Parece que fue hace nada cuando (no se sabe muy bien por qué) nos aventuramos hacia un festival que estaba a 800km de distancia y en el que decidimos montar un mercadillo con cosas hechas por nosotros (Jaione de super-jefaza y Edurne y yo de "chinos" de un taller clandestino XD). Han pasado 3 años y muchos buenos momentos. En estos 3 años hemos aprendido lo que se puede hacer y lo que no ...

... when I have a convo with a Seppoe in the future I will at least be able to say, I've been to ..... Badajoz After the brief exchange and change of pants, I kind of felt a bit better being back in Spain. At least they understand my dodgy Aussie accented Italian/Spanish !!! We drove through new Badajoz, and like most places, all I could think of was, nice new housing estate !!! As we neared the old section, we started to be ...