HelpX in the Alpujarras

On Thursday evening, after Dad had been trawling through the HelpX* website for three days or so, he told us about a Buddhist couple ,Humphrey and Isa, who lived in the east of the Alpujarras mountain range. They were looking for people to help them on their finka (which was at 2,000 metres!) and said to dad that we could come and visit from Friday through Monday to see if we wanted to come back another time and do it long-term. So that evening we decided to go. We packed and left the next morning and drove for most of the day to get there.
On the way ,at a petrol station, I met a (very friendly) deaf man who’s every word sounded like he was burping in my ear!! We met Humphrey at a small town called La Calahorra and he lead us the to their house which was another 30km or so. 15 of those was up a dirt track which we had to go very slowly on. Our borrowed car had a very small engine and was overheating, Mum went with Humphrey in his land rover. There was snow at the sides of the track and a bit further up from the house ,when we eventually got there, we could see skiable parts!
On that same day, Humphrey had picked up an Australian pair (Chris and Lauren) who were also HelpXing like us.

Chris and Lauren

We were introduced to Isa (Humphrey’s husband), Chris and Lauren, Maria from Ukraine and the dog (Canela) when we got there.
Humphrey and Isa are very nice people and Isa is so patient and friendly to everyone.
    

From left to right; Mum, Humphrey, Isa, Jay and Dad.

         Oz and Canela playing                                 Canela looking good!

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The view from the house

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And some other pictures

^{*HelpX is another WWOOFing type system with a website and a similar setup which Dad has joined recently and is looking for future helping opportunities like this one and the house-sitting one.}

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Some more stuff

Since we left on Friday, we’ve known that the car was old and not very cut out for all the hard uphill work the route had to offer. In fact, when we arrived at Humphrey and Isa’s house, the engine was steaming hot after the last climb up on the track. We also had to stop once on the main road on the way so that the engine could cool down.
For various reasons, we decided to go back down the mountain a bit and not stay with Isa and Humphrey until Monday but to stay overnight at a lower altitude and then to go back on Sunday. We left the house in the morning to find someone to look at our overheating problem but the car finally gave up on the way with a large hiss/bang and lots of steam coming out of the bonnet!! We called up the mechanic that was recommended to us by Humphrey and got him to come out and look at the car. He (and his brother) got there and ,after doing a temporary fix, got the car to the garage. Later, he quoted us a high price and said it would take a week to do. We bit the bullet and gave the green light seeing as it wasn’t even our car so we should return it at least in working order.
So finally after all that we found ourselves back at Humphrey and Isa’s house for another night. We plan to stay until Monday after all and get a lift from Humphrey back to our house-sitting near La Vinuela.