Last trip: Day Trip to Dine with Spanish Family, Monday, Nov.8th

Our last full day trip with our fellow travelers!  Boarded the bus leisurely at 9:30am and headed to high country to soak in more knowledge about Spain.
 
We learned about the olive industry:  the Spanish olive industry is one of the biggest in the world.  43% is exported to USA, almost 30% to Russian and the rest to other countries around the world.  Regarding olive oil, since Italy has the market on much of the export to the United States, Spain has bought into some Italian companies to send their own olive oil to the U.S through these Italian distributors.  It takes 4 liters of olives to make one liter of olive oil!
 We stopped at an olive oil processing cooperative that is becoming one of the fastest growing producers: Hojiblanca- a company promoted by its most recent investor/owner, Antonio Banderas!  The Hojiblanca Cooperative employs lab technicians to test each batch of olives that are processed by the local farmers.  If the harvest is an exceptional product, the farmer is paid very well.  The olives are harvested in late fall through March depending on whether the olives will be picked green, purple or black.  There are no chemicals used in the production of either the olives or oil and all olives must be healthy and fresh.

We visited an olive oil museum that held an ancient oil press that was 12.5 meters in length (approx 36 feet).
The long press was operated using animal traction. The olives were placed in woven baskets stacked on top of one another, and then crushed by the press.  Other olive oil presses were round giant mill stones that squeezed the precious oil into troughs and containers.


Hojiblanca Olive Company

 Nowadays, huge mechanical presses crush the pit, flesh and oil and sift out unused parts that are saved for either fertilizer for the fields or for ecological fuel for wood burning stoves.  There is no waste or carbon emission.  Huges storage tanks underground hold the olive oil until ready to ship in containers.


During the olive harvest, big companies use special mechanical "arms" to grab the trunk and large branches to shake the olives into canvas

drop cloths to insure a soft landing.  Bruised olives are not accepted.

Smaller farm owners shake the branches with smaller mechanical tools, but either way, care must be taken not to snap the branches, especially the older, more brittle trees.  Some of the olive trees are over 300 years old!

We continued our journey through the high country to see some old towns and beautiful landscapes- olive trees covered all the hillside as far as one could see.  We stopped to take a photo in Archidona near the Olive Mill Company.



Spanish Olive Tree

 



The Town of Archidona

 



Strange blossoming trees in the Mediterranean climate

 

We then stopped at a artisan workshop in Salinas, Spain that made inlaid wood and Olivewood crafts.  Boxes, trays, bowls, and many other items were a delight to shop for!  A few of these purchases will make great souvenirs for some of our friends and family!

The last leg of today's journey was one of the highlights of the trip.  Grand Circle values inter-cultural connections and the best way to do it, is to meet a real Spanish family and share a meal with them.  Grand Circle arranged for our travelers to divide into groups of six.  Our group met our hostess, Nati, who led us to her home for a delicious sit down meal.  We met her husband, Juan, a former construction contractor.  Their home was small but very modernized in its furnishing and fixtures.  Nati remained in the kitchen and brought out course after course:  a huge salad with fresh rolls, lentil vegetable soup, a pork ragout in tomato sauce accompanied by thin crisp slices of fried eggplant.  Tasty red wine accompanied the meal.  For most of us who requested coffee, we received wonderful expresso from a coffee press.  The host offered us liqueur in small shot glasses- a choice of Peach and Anisette- fantastic!   The host family knew no English and most of us were inept in Spanish.  One of our travelers dredged up her high school vocabulary and did remarkably well in communicating who we were, how many children and grandchildren we had and where we came from.  Our hosts had three adult children whose early commmunion photos were on the wall.  Charades and sign language also came in handy, as Marcia explained that her husband was a dentist!   Both host husband and wife became very animated as they pointed to their teeth to tell us all about their dental work!  It was a great experience.



Nati, our hostess, left rear



During our time together with our fellow travelers, we learned that  the Grand Circle Foundation promotes education and cultural enrichment in their host countries.  Our Grand Circle friends shared stories with us about the many times they had received rewarding, shared experiences through Grand Circle's financial contributions to needy school programs- equipment, facility improvement, school supplies, etc.  Schools were toured and students interacted with enthusiasm to visits by our Grand Circle travelers.   It's definitely a worthwhile organization!

We returned home after a great day.  The interior country was windy and colder but grew warmer again as we reached the coast.  We are fortunate that the weather has been so mild up to now.  Back to the room to work on our blog and relax for the evening!  We get English CNN on TV and we are keeping up with the Asian -European news!