The last
official fruit festival I went to this year was the Spanish Puraw Festival in
Malaga, Spain. This one was a little
different to the others as it had no official invited speakers which gave it a different
vibe to the others. Add to this the fact
that virtually all of the fruit was grown locally and the majority of it was
organic.
I arrived at
Malaga airport and took a train to the resort town of Torremolinos where we were
to be picked up by bus. A large group of
attendees met at the Wala room (a vegan cafe with raw vegan options) and I met
a variety of people there from all over Europe, most of whom I had never met
before.
A bus was
arranged to pick us all up and it took a long and winding journey in to the
hills to our camp where we found our tents waiting for us. Each individual gets a tent to stay in or can
bring their own. I would recommend
taking a good sleeping bag as it can get
quite cold at night, a lesson I learned quickly.
Each day
started with classes; calisthenics, pilates, yoga and fitness but I must admit
I slept in most mornings and missed them, the tiredness from all my travelling
had caught up with me. There were other
events on through the day, discussion groups, bike rides, trips but many of
these did not run on time or did not happen due to lack of communication and
interest. This would be my only
criticism of the festival but in many ways it suited the relaxed vibe that they
were going for.
I enjoyed
meeting the organisers , Claire and Stephane, who have been living on a fruit
based raw lifestyle for about a decade and moved to Spain to grow their own
fruit and live in a more natural environment to bring up their kids. They are a huge inspiration to me and both
look youthful and vibrant and have a high level of fitness. Meeting them and seeing their way of life is
a good reason to make the trip in itself.
Most of my
days were spent hanging out with great friends.
Myself, Rob “Raw Viking”, Jelle and Ana (who had all shared a cabin with
me at Woodstock in 2012) enjoyed walking up the river looking for pools to swim
in and sunbathe on the rocks.
We also
spent a lot of time chatting on the hammocks often into the night. We were entertained by a gypsy jazz band one
night, and a reggae group another night. We danced and had fun.
The fruit
was indeed a highlight. I have never had
really good fresh figs before and I delighted in making them a staple every day
along with the locally grown watermelon.
Unfortunately the Mango’s were generally not quite ready yet so we did
not have a chance to feast on those as much as other fruits.
It is a very
different set up to the other festivals and has less of an educational element
and is more open with discussion groups and no one being the expert or guru. No one is taught a particular philosophy is
right or wrong and the attendees at the event were a very mixed spectrum of all
types of people following all sorts of raw-ish lifestyles. The beautiful pools and rivers nearby are
great for those looking to swim and connect with nature and the food is locally
sourced, fresh and ripe. I hope to
return to the festival myself, perhaps I will see you there?
I have some more videos of my time in Spain at my youtube channel here:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLutoSbzrNCKlfb0uOPaPO_IJpBByFORPK
Yours in
fruitful abundance,
Ronnie
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