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Writer's pictureLuis Valentin

I'm here Cortijo!

Adventure #2


I can't believe I'm actually standing here in my cortijo, to be honest it feels very surreal. It's been a process with many many obstacles, a marathon on emotions and frustrations... making this moment one of the sweetest in my whole life!


I could feel the excitement eat away my exhaustion from my 17+ hours of travel as I absorbed every inch of the cortijo. The temperature was a little colder than I expected, around 38 degrees and the cortijo doesn't have any heating source. I had purchased a portable butane heater which I got going pronto!

This heater kept me nice and toasty until I got a wood burning stove installed a couple of days after my arrival. A wood burning stove was a great option since there is such a large surplus of olive wood in the area, Duh!!!! There are nearly 66 millions trees in the Jaén area alone (My providence).


I wanted a hot bath really bad, but the water heater wasn't working, so I decided to skip a shower and try it the next day! I know, pretty nasty...but who cares I was a dirty happy fellow! More to come on the water heater which became adventure #2. I unpacked, got the bedding ready, the portable heater was blasting, and I jumped into bed with the hopes that I could fall asleep and start fresh the next morning. My exhaustion prevailed as I felt asleep and before I knew it was already 5am!


I'm up and ready for my first morning at La Sierrezuela, I could hear the roosters welcoming the day, and just like that I'm surrounded by pura felicidad! The morning is cold and humid, so I bundled-up with some warm clothes and began to work on my to do list. I started to remove all the old mattresses and furniture I didn't want to keep which I ended up storing in the garage. My friend Mari told me about a woman who would pick the stuff up to help the local charities. I unpacked my wireless speakers system and in no time Sir Edward Van Halen took over the airspace with Little Guitars.


Now the pura felicidad just got pumped up a few notches. I was able to get lots of the organizing and cleaning done in a short time. I decided to take a break and head to the olive grove for a visit, Juan Diego's dogs were at the front gate ready to lead the way to my grove.


The morning light was magnificent, and I could see all the olivos perform this beautiful dance as the morning breeze played their favorite ditty. I was standing in the middle of my jaragual and life just kept getting better and better. I spend a little time with my olivos and began the fun task of humanizing them with their own names. Stay tuned for more on that. All of the sudden it dawned on me, I had not showered in 2 days. It was time to fix the water heater and sanitized myself before Juan Diego's donkeys began to complain about my offensive stench.


So I got my heating and cooling technician hat on with the hopes that I could fix this water heater problem without blowing up my new farmhouse. I just couldn't get the pilot light on, so it was time to take this puppy apart. I took the cover off and BAM! like a celestial light of truth, the gods of the mighty heaters presented me with the problem. I was the lucky winner of illegal tenants living inside my heater. A huge nest of Gorriones (sparrows) had made their home inside the unit. So,I cleaned the inside and before I could say Pig-Pen I was taking a nice warm shower. Yes, my first shower at the cortijo.





Spain thanked me, and the burros thanked me! ¡De nada España!

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