Share life in a remote mountain location around Asturias, Spain

Details

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  Description

  Hello volunteers... Happy summer! Happy travels!
  
  Although our volunteer list is full for the next few months, don't worry, if this is your project... we'll always find a place for those who want to stay longer or have special skills they can teach us. Or for people looking for a place to live... buy or rent a house... we like neighbors.
  
  The minimum stay is one month. Why? It's very simple: The host only comes on weekends; the project is managed by volunteers. I teach them, and they learn to do a specific activity, for example, tending the garden or caring for the chickens. All of this requires training sessions (three days). The remaining days (four) are dedicated to excursions, visiting abandoned villages, climbing, and a month has four weekends.
  
  This is a project where volunteers participate in bringing life back to a beautiful mountain village... which is almost deserted in winter. We love it when volunteers connect with current and prospective volunteers via WhatsApp so they have a clear understanding of the project before arriving.
  
  The project takes place in a remote mountain location and has a significant physical component. We prefer volunteers to stay for at least a month, ideally two. Many of our past volunteers return again and again... and if you'd like to stay longer, it's possible. The record is held by two people who stayed for over two years during the pandemic.
  
  You'll be joining a group—that's the plan. This is a group project. Here, everything is done collaboratively. We don't shut ourselves away in our rooms... we don't cook individually... this is essential... we interact with our fellow residents and neighbors... we try to live in community... in the Spanish... Mediterranean style... We didn't come to the village to impose urban standards... that's not the idea behind the project... Here, when we meet a neighbor, we talk to them... about the weather... about the animals... we take an interest in their lives... we listen to them with respect... this is the plan for everyone. If this isn't going to be your philosophy, or if you're not going to try to make it so... look for other projects with a guru... there are many where dogma dictates daily life.
  
  We need volunteers, and we're looking for people interested in living in an isolated village, without shops, in a mountain environment, accustomed to independent living. This is a significant undertaking that must be embraced. We love climbing, exploring caves, and much more... The plan is to help 24 hours a week... 3 days a week, and have 4 days off (for moderately intense sports activities; this isn't a relaxing project). We have bicycles to get around the area.
  
  This project has been in development for 17 years within a family that has been hosting volunteers for 40 years.
  
  We have a wooden house and want to live with non-smokers (if you smoke, even if you're going to smoke, even just a little and outside, you shouldn't come... this is a smoke-free space).
  
  We don't like dogmatism and we laugh at passing fads. Our beliefs are simple, based on traditional, rational, and environmentally friendly agriculture. We don't like to think we're smarter than others, nor do we want to impose our intuitive and limited ideas about agriculture on our neighbors... who have been cultivating their garden all their lives. We're not smarter than anyone else... we don't preach.
  
  We have animals, chickens, a vegetable garden, and we're creating a fruit orchard (we have 63 fruit trees)... We're also working on a forestry orchard and slowly repairing the shelter.
  
  It's important to read the volunteers' comments, talk to them... and that way you'll understand the project. What I write is my perspective... but for you, the reader, the best thing is to talk to previous volunteers your age. It's necessary to have a good understanding of the project before you arrive. Take some time to interview people via WhatsApp from among the hundreds who have visited us. Look for someone your age, who speaks your language, or a common language, and familiarize yourself with the routines before you go. This way, you'll have a very realistic idea of ​​the project. Take the time to choose this project over another. It's not a problem if you tell us during the selection process that you won't be coming, or if you're on another project that doesn't meet your expectations and don't say, "I can come." Choosing a project that meets your real expectations is a very complex task. A project is more or much less than what's written on a website. Talk to previous volunteers; they know each project they've been on perfectly.
  
  Dear Volunteer:
  
  
  Dear Volunteer,
  
  A) We only accept people who are able to maintain a very active communication pattern during this selection process, i.e. if you don't answer us within 24 hours... we understand that you are a very busy person... we know that volunteers are trying to communicate with numerous projects and we can answer about 10 volunteers a week in summer...
  
  B) The next step is to use WhatsApp... to get in touch with other workawais who have been on our project... they are the ones who will explain to you... what this project is and isn't... in a common language... and with a pattern of similarity with your interests...
  
  C) we hope that you send us a request for a stay via WhatsApp if you don't, we understand that you are... into other interests... and this mutual selection process... yours and ours... if you don't show a fluid communication pattern... it is considered interrupted...
  
  X) Considering that what I can explain to you about my project is something unimportant, and interesting... for a simple question of age... I am 69 years old and I am I'm sure my mental discourse is light years away from your communication pattern... I recommend that you read each and every one of the comments from the volunteers who have been in this project... and who have been here for a long time and know us well... they really know what it's like to be in the Casa P project
  
  Good luck, peace and patience... on the interesting path of life... greetings...

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Language practice

  Help with Eco Projects

  Light gardening

  Creative DIY projects

  Animal Care

  Help around the house

  Light maintenance
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  Interests

  

  Plant care

  

  Writing

  

  Languages

  

  Gardening

  

  Carpentry

  

  Architecture

  

  Mountain

  

  Hiking
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  UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve

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  What's this?
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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  Being in the project for a month... will make you a character with certain knowledge about DIY... you will learn to solve everyday problems in your repairs... you will be an expert in the use of a battery screwdriver... example.... certain knowledge of gardening... and you will be members of a living community in a Spanish town... and perhaps in the future you will surely use all or part of those skills.....
  
  The Puertos de Marabio Natural Monument is made up of sinkholes and blind valleys.
  
  It is a natural space protected by the existence of a peculiar karst complex, formed by sinkholes and blind valleys that give it great hydrogeological interest. It has three large cavities: the Sumidoiro del Fondadal, 156 meters deep, the Vistulaz Cave and the Vegalonga System, which with its 5,900 meters of development represents one of the main underground complexes in the region.
  
  In the ports we can find grasslands with deer and scrub surface, generally heaths, gorse, holly, Genista occidentalis, hawthorn and blackthorn.
  
  This Natural Monument is included in the Protected Landscape of Pico Caldoveiro.
  
  Location in the Area
  
  The Ports of Marabio are located between the councils of Yernes and Tameza, Teverga and Proaza, and are delimited to the east by the Sierra de Peña Padiella, to the west by the Sierra de la Granda, to the north by Pico Caldoveiro and to the south by the watershed of the River.

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  Help

  Join us to help with building and repairing a cabin in the woods with people to help
  
  YOU DON'T NEED TO BE AN EXPERT...THIS IS AN EXCHANGE PROCESS...WE CAN TEACH YOU WHAT YOU NEED... But learning is a process that takes time... .. we need calm minds, kind people and helpers with a sense of humor
  if you are a professional perfect weeks if we have to teach the process is slow, and the minimum stay 1 month

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  Languages

  Languages spoken
  Spanish: Fluent
  English: Intermediate
  French: Beginner
  Italian: Beginner
  Portuguese: Beginner

  This host offers a language exchange
  A current volunteer profile: we are looking for an Italian person who will give us one hour of class a day. WE SPEAK CASTELLANO SPANISH, WE HAVE NO DIFFICULTIES TO SPEAK ENGLISH AT A MEDIUM LEVEL ... WITH GRAMMATICAL ERRORS BUT GOOD COMMUNICATIVE LEVEL. THE FRENCH IS A LITTLE RUSTY, WE ARE ABLE TO UNDERSTAND PORTUGUESE AND ITALIAN The language of communication is English, I am here one weekend a week, the rest the volunteers decide the language of communication. The stay is to practice climbing, to learn to cut a tree, to make a path... to speak but in English, French, Italian or Portuguese, this is not a good destination to learn to speak Spanish A current volunteer profile: we are looking for an Italian person who will give us one hour of class a day.
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  Accommodation

  All volunteers have their own room and there is even a small apartment
  
  Volunteers have "all inclusive" food, transportation visits to the area ...
  Volunteers have a room Comfortable and functional.
  
  Volunteers have "all inclusive" food, transportation visits to the area ...
  
  Have private room
  
  Everything we need to work we have, your clothes, if you have a normal size, but this is never a problem .... we are used to finding solutions.

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  What else ...

  we receive numerous requests, to your request for stay we have said yes but we need to have an approximate calendar of the date of your arrival, since we need to answer the e-mails today yes or no.
  
  
  A small comment about respect for other ways of living.
  In the town our neighbors are cattle ranchers, with their peculiar way of understanding life and the struggles to survive in the balance of the natural environment.
  The neo-rurals -e
  Among those I find myself very given to preaching that it is the right thing to do and not about how the balance between wildlife and livestock should be.
  I think we should reflect from a respectful point of view. We must not fall into cultural ethnocentrism, walking slowly and listening previously allows us to build another way of thinking but it is a process of years, the countryside is not changed with speeches from the city. I think respect and listening is a good point of view.
  
  Volunteers are expected to be autonomous, if / the project adapts you will enjoy it, if you don't adapt. Don't suffer, look for another site that suits your philosophy.
  
  We are interested in receiving people who understand what it means to live autonomously in a rural environment. Sometimes visitors expect to find the same as in a city and that is not the case. It is not necessary to have experience but to be disciplined and autonomous. There is a lot of free time. The help schedule is 24 hours a week, we usually concentrate it on three days so we have more days off ... if you want another distribution there are no problems.
  
   The cabin no. It is comfortable, HAS ALL KIND OF CLOTHES, WATER BOOTS ... but life in the countryside has some characteristics that need important energy and adaptability from visitors.
  
  This is not a good option for travelers who believe that this is a hotel ... no, here this is a house where three days a week really works and four is enjoyed .... it is your time ... for what That you decide, THIS IS AN EXCHANGE PROGRAM ... IT IS SOMETHING LIKE A WORKSHOP SCHOOL ... PEOPLE ARE THE IMPORTANT ... THE HONESTY..THE BEING ABLE TO SHARE .... the fundamental ... enjoy of what you live
  
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  A little more information

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    Internet access

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    Limited internet access

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    We have pets

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    We are smokers

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    Can host families

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  Can host digital nomads

  Digital nomads are accepted, we have an acceptable Internet speed for a remote village, the maximum for the Vodafone company.

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  Space for parking camper vans

  Large vans do not fit well on such narrow roads. A typical WB van fits well, in the town there is a lot of place to park in front of our house there is a park and a fountain

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  More than two

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  My animals / pets

  

  Gallinas y gallos

  Son animales con plumas que ponen huevos....típicos de los pueblos españoles

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