Guarroman/Baños/Baílen

I didn’t know too much before going to the olive camp.  Wednesday night, my host mother asked me if I wanted to go to the olive camp with her.  I figured why not?  She told me to bring clothes that would keep me warm because it would be very cold at night but warm during the day.  At dinner, she told her kids that I would be going.  Galo, her son, said “Don’t go,” but of course he said it in Spanish.  Her daughter, Reyes said, “Bring clothes that you can get dirty.”  Again it was in Spanish.  My host mother also asked me if I had boots to wear out in the fields.  It was then that I started to wonder what I had gotten myself into.

Friday night rolled around, and we finally left for the station.  I was nervous.  I still didn’t really know what I had gotten myself into, and I was worried about having enough stuff to talk to her about all weekend.  Well, when we got to the bus station, one of my fears was relieved.  She also invited her friend, Vilma, from Colombia to come along.  She is nice as can be, but she definitely likes to talk, so I let the two of them do most of the talking.  I would chime in here and there, but I was still thinking about the next two days.

After my first bus trip in Spain, we arrived to Guarroman at 1 in the morning.  The house was freezing!  There was no air conditioning or heater in the house.  We quickly made beds and piled blankets on to them, and we went to sleep.   I was told to be up and ready for breakfast at 8:30 because we left at 9:00.  Half an hour drive later, I found out that I would be working in the field alongside about twelve others.  I still didn’t know for how long, but the fields were beautiful!

In the beginning, I learned how the whole process works.  I will try to explain it to you:

First, they hit the branches of the trees in order to make the olives fall to the ground.

Second, they use modified leaf blowers to blow all of the olives into a circle around the tree.

Third, they use rakes to rake the circle into small piles.

Fourth, they scoop these little piles into buckets…

And these buckets are carried and dumped on a tarp that is laid on the ground.

Meanwhile, Vilma, my host mother, and myself went behind them and picked up the olives that were left on the ground, or in the trees, or in the trunk of the trees.

Then, we would also add our olives to the tarps.

Fifth, the tractor pulls up to the tarp and someone attaches the four rings on each side of the tarp to the hooks on the tractor.

Sixth, the tractor dumps the olives into the bed of a dump truck...

Finally, after the work is done for the day, we have a full load!

The basic workday starts at 9 in the morning and goes until 4 in the afternoon.  They stop for breakfast at noon for half an hour, and then lunch is at 2 for an hour.  Although the work is hard and long, everyone was happy and laughing.  A few of them even sang.  As is the Spanish tradition, cerveza (beer), wine, and other forms of alcohol were present and passed around during meals. 

Typical meals during these mealtimes always consisted of meat.  They would start a fire in the morning, so that they could use it to cook their meat on for lunch.  There was always plenty of bread to pass around to eat the meat on as well. 

At the end of the workday, Paco (the tractor driver) took the olives to a local plant.  We met him there, and I was able to see from start to finish the process that olives make from being dumped to becoming olive oil.  It was very fascinating, and I wish that I could have taken picture to show you all.  We were able to take a sample of the olive oil back with us.

We had to run a few other errands, but we finally made it home around 8 that night.  We had Guarroman pastries and leftovers for dinner, and then we got ready for bed.  We had to repeat the same thing in the morning. 

We left a little late the next morning.  We didn’t reach the fields until almost 10.  We worked until noon when we broke for breakfast.  Afterwards, we went to pick up my host mother’s cousin, Mario, and his daughter, Carmen in Baílen.  Then, we went back to the fields and worked until 2 when we stopped for lunch.  After lunch, everyone went home.  I found this odd.  Back home, we would have just left at 2 instead of staying and eating. 

Paloma (my host mother), Vilma, Mario, Carmen, and I all took a ride to the little town next to Guarroman called Baños.  This is where Mario is from.  There is a lovely castle here that was built in the 11^th century and a castle that was built in the 14^th century.  In this picture, you can see both.

After touring the castle, church, and Mario’s home, we headed across the town to the hotel to have a merienda (afternoon snack).  I took this picture there of everyone that was with me on the trip.

Left to Right: Carmen, Mario, Paloma, and Vilma.

All in all, it was a very interesting experience.  I was told at the time that there were only two places in the world that grew olives-Spain and Italy.  However, I looked this up online, and there are several other places that grow olives.  Still, there are few who get to experience the olive camps in the way that I was able to.