Vortex Orgiva

Location:
Spain, Andalucía, Granada

Mountains Community Organic

By Dawn DelVecchio

If you are looking for discreet waiters and perfectly arranged tableware, or if the biggest choice of your day is whether to have the resort’s signature spa treatment before or after you lesson with the too-attractive tennis pro, then don’t go to Orgiva. But if you are the kind of person who doesn’t mind when, after he has finished preparing your fresh, seasonal meal, the Canadian restaurateur sits down for a chat about yoga and meditation; or the British owner of the health food store jots down the email address of her Dutch friend offering art therapy at a nearby organic farm, then you might want to give this little Andalucian town a try.

Sitting at the base of the Alpujarra mountains (which themselves are the southern foothills of Iberia’s highest – the Sierra Nevadas) Orgiva is not trying to be a tourist town. In fact, from the looks of things, the town fathers are actively (in the “ignore it, its siesta” kind of way) resisting such a change. Still, this odd mountain outpost has drawn a certain kind of holiday maker and flourished into an alternative lifestyle vortex for nearly two decades.

On my arrival, I was not impressed. There are few guesthouses or hotels, so finding a room took a bit of work. The sidewalks are inconsistent to non-existent in the most traffic-laden parts of this two lane town, so having a look around was not particularly inviting. But then I started to notice signs at restaurants saying ‘vegetarian food’ or notice boards covered in small flyers for things like yoga classes, feng shui and reggae bands.

As soon as I realised there was more to Orgiva than meets the eye, I was lured into a pleasant eddy of alternative thinkers, organic farmers, artisans and 21st century hippies – much to my delight! – and what was planned as a one-day stopover on a long journey through Andalucia became eight days in this tranquil valley, making friends, attending parties and generally having a great time.

Others have experienced the vortex of Orgiva but unlike me, they’ve stayed on for years or even decades. Chris and Sara White of spanishawakenings.com discovered Orgiva on their way to Morocco eight years ago and never left. “We kind of got stuck here” says Chris. They eventually bought a traditional stone-built Moorish Cortijo home with some land and 48 olive trees. They renovated the house and added guest rooms that now serve as holiday lets. The children attend the local school and Chris does part-time therapeutic counselling.

Chris and Sara typify the kind of pioneering young foreigners who have helped transform Orgiva into an (albeit small) melting pot of people seeking to escape the conventional world and get back to a simpler life. I met many people (British expats and Spaniards from other areas, mostly) who have called Orgiva home for more than a decade. Raising their kids in this small village community or somewhere in the outlying hills, they brought with them their ideas about things like natural healing, spiritual (as opposed to religious) pursuits and organic farming.

In fact, organic food produced locally and from other parts of the world is easy to find here, with two health food stores and a weekly fresh market. An alternative book store is home to a hallway-turned-billboard covered in flyers for music events, feng shui conferences, yoga classes, spiritual groups, esoteric healing seminars, and even a men’s group. There is a growing Sufi community in the town, and an annual music weekend called Dragon Festival held each March on the outskirts. For a town of 8,000, this is quite a concentration of alternative lifestyle choices.

Orgiva even has its own Green Party. The political group was formed six months ago by a mix of locals and ‘adoptees’. These men and women, many of them farmers, stand for diversity and their platform addresses things like responsible management of natural resources, infrastructure that supports the growing population, services and arts for community youth, and support for businesses that respect the environment.

Being of the ‘not quite mainstream’ persuasion myself, I have little doubt that I will return one day to Orgiva. Perhaps, like the friends I made there, I will stay on . . . and on and on.

Further Information

Must see/do at this place: Eat at El Limonera and Cafe Liberdad! Walk from Pampaniera to Bubion. Check out the Friday Market near the center of town.

You should avoid here: Drunken transients and old men on the make - if you are a woman.