Volunteers on a hike

It's Saturday, May 5, 2018, and my last weekend at my Workaway placement in Quesada is coming to an end. After two weeks, I'm quite happy to move on and have more experiences here in Spain before heading to South America 🇵🇪. My plan is to return to Granada for two days and then make my way to Murcia. However, before going to Murcia, I will drive to Almería and have my first Couchsurfing experience there. I thought it would be nice to spend two days by the sea, since Murcia is not directly on the coast. Yes, and if you have the chance to go to the sea, why not?! 🙃🌊

The first real excursion with the other volunteers (me, Lisa from Germany and Jorge from Portugal) will take place today, on this Saturday. The plan is to participate in a Catholic procession. Processions are common here in Spain and therefore absolutely part of Spanish culture for me. Even though I don't have much to do with religion, I am interested in watching or experiencing a procession. I think it's really important to go through life with a certain openness and tolerance. Every person can believe what makes sense to them, and that should be accepted by everyone as well werden (of course, no one should suffer while doing it)

We set off towards the "city" (Quesada is a village with about 4000 inhabitants) at around 10 o'clock.

We knew that there are buses to the monastery and that we can ride for free. The buses took the locals and us to the monastery, from where the procession started. The monastery is located in the mountains of the Sierra Carzorla National Park. From there, you also have a fantastic view of the valley.

The bus arrived half an hour before the start of the procession, and we had time to visit a waterfall that was only 10 minutes away on foot from the monastery. The "entrance" to this waterfall was through a small and narrow tunnel.

I quickly realized that this church is one of the most beautiful churches I have seen so far. I liked this little church because it shows a very special kind and was not just covered in gold. I could imagine sitting in this church and just letting my thoughts drift away.

As we could already see the village of Quesada, it suddenly started to rain. The rain got stronger and stronger. It was so strong that after about 5 minutes, we were completely "showered" from top to bottom, as none of us had expected rain and did not have the appropriate rain gear... oops... (I only had my blue hoodie... oops!). When we finally arrived at the house, the rain was of course over (as usual...). We were glad to have made it home and immediately took off our wet clothes.