When we arrived I was pleasantly surprised by the realization that there was a bbq going on. There were about 20 people milling around and the wonderful smell of roasting meat in the air. I met Paxti for the first time and thanked him for the invite. He welcomed me in and gave me a big bud to roll a joint with. Needless to say, we hit it off straight away. I gradually met the other guests and was very surprised to find that most of them were not Spanish. They were from all over the world and I wondered what was going on? I was told that because of the commune many different folks from around the world lived in and around the area and most of them spoke English. a great relief to me because with his friend in the car it was very awkward. I was relieved when Paxti told me that we were at his friends vacation cottage and that he lived 10 minutes away in a small village called Bahaccus. Once the bbq ended we set off down the hill to the village, it was very small with only 3 rows of houses built right into the hill. Paxti’s place was on the 2nd level with a patio he used for gardening ( the good stuff of course ). There was a guest room all set up that I settled right into and had a peaceful sleep. The next day we set out for Beneficio which was about 15 minutes walk down the hill. We entered a parking area full of cars, vans and caravans in various states of use with most looking like they were remnants of a post-apocalyptic world. Once past the parking lot we entered a beautiful eucalyptus forest that was peppered with tents all around. I was told this was the area that most of the short-term stays were at. After the forest the hill begins to rise and the true wonder of the place emerges. First there is a community garden next to a community teepee. People without a tent could crash in the teepee for short periods otherwise it was used as a group party place. The path splits off in a few directions after that and goes into the more permanent fixtures on the mountain. Some folks have been living there for several years and had built up some very impressive homes in the process. There was a creek that ran through the camp and about half-hay up the hill you find the source. A spring of fresh mountain water that came right out of the rocks and poured into a pool about the size of a big bathtub. The water was crystal clear and as tasty as it gets, this was truly a magical place. As we continued up the mountain there were fewer people with more amount of land claimed for themselves, too bad I didn’t know anyone as this would have been prime real estate and there was plenty of room for me and a tent. Once we had toured the whole place we headed back to the common area and found some folks that Paxti knew to have a session with. They filled me in on the details about coming in and told me that I would be welcomed with open arms. By the time we left the camp it was nearly dark and as I turned back to have one last glance, I knew that I had found my new home.
The nest day we went some to the bottom of the hill to a town called Orgiva, since Bahaccus had no services what-so-ever, this was the main town that serviced the hippie camp. It was a cool little town that you could walk from one end to the other in about 15 minutes but it had everything you could want. Paxti introduced me to various folks he knew and I was stunned that none of them were Spanish. I felt like I was in a mini version of Amsterdam with all the cultures in this tiny town. He took me to lunch at a tavern in the center, when we walked in I wondered how we were going to eat lunch here? The place was only a bar and 4 tables with chairs around them, they had no menu and only Pringle’s behind the bar. Paxti ordered 2 beers and we sat down at one of the tables. The bartender brings the beers over and then goes into the back room, he returns a couple of minutes later with 2 small plates of steaming food and sets them down on the table. I look at Paxti with a puzzled look and he tells me that with every beer you order, you get a plate of free tapas. On top of that each beer brings a different plate so with ordering 3 beers you get 3 different courses of food. With the beers only one euro and thirty cents, this would become a regular stop for a nice hot meal. After lunch we headed to two more hippie camps in the area to check out, one was a place that used to be very popular and had big summer parties but the system had gotten bent out of shape about so many people having such a good time that they came in and bulldozed the place earlier in the year. They were determined that no one stayed there this year. It was too bad as the place would have been a nice option but even if it were open it did not compare to Beneficio. The other place was down next to the river and it had some charm to it as well. Unfortunately the best spots had been taken and turned into permanent dwellings over the years. There was a nice stretch of land just next to the river under some big shade trees but Paxti informed me that the river sometimes run over and floods the whole area out. This was also not the place for me but I was glad to have been able to see these other 2 places as it gave me a better understanding of the whole area and the people in it, they were definitely my kind of folks.
The following morning I was on a bus back to Gez’s place with a renewed determination to make Spain work out. I was going to get some gear and move into Beneficio as soon as possible. The first step was finding the right equipment for the camp. I went to the local outdoor shops and could find nothing but week-end warrior type of stuff, nothing built well enough for living in. I turned to the internet for my search and found what I was looking for straight away. The only problem was that I had no way of ordering from the web. I thought about asking Gez or Stu but the equipment I needed would take about half of my money and I wanted to keep as much as possible. I remembered that I had left my half of the weed with Etienne when I left Amsterdam and maybe he has sold it by now and has some money for me. I wrote him and told him of my new plans and asked if he was able to order the goods for me. He wrote back and told me that he still had most of the weed but would be happy to order the stuff for me, a true friend indeed. I ordered a mountain tent that was wind and rain resistant, a solar panel charger, cooking gear, solar shower, sleeping bag, chair, pillow, and a camping table. During the next week as I waited for the goods to get there I downloaded as much music, movies and T.V. as my computer would hold. I hoped that I would be able to use it with the solar charger. One day out of the blue Stu comes over and asks me if I want to go golfing on his family’s course, I had bugged him all winter to play and now it was finally going to happen. They owned a course just off the sea about halfway between Fuengirola and Marbella. It was a professional course and had been used on the European PGA circuit. It was an amazing course and only made better by the fact that I was using Stu’s personal st of clubs worth over 3 thousand euros. It was a great way to end my lifestyle of the rich, from now on it would be the life I knew much more about…the life of a hippie. The next day my order came and I was ready to head out and start my new life. When I opened the package my joy slowly turned to shock and then to anger as I realized they had fucked up big time.
A Continuing Story About Life On The Run