The last days we changed our environment from Algarve
to Alentejo. This nice possibility came out on our on arrival trainings, where
we met a Lithuanian girl, who is doing her EVS in an ECO community. This place
is called Centro Ambiental de Cabaços, Terra, Vento, Fogo e Água. The project
is located in South West of Portugal in the region of Baixo Alentejo, Odemira
Municipality. The population around is older and the literacy rate is very low.
The distances in the region are big and the youngsters are isolated and have
difficulties with reaching the places, because of the lack of transport. But
economically a lot of areas from the region are based on agriculture and
forestry areas.
20 Years ago, Emmanuel W. Gounden started
to build clay houses in the small community of Cabaços. “Here at Cabaços
Eco-Centre everything flows according to Nature´s Rhythms and the sacred way of
“Peace, Love and Harmony”. This is a philosophy we can all share as a spiritual
way of life open to all.“ (Emmanuel W. Gounden).
Our trip started in Monchique. From this top of the
mountain we could see Algarve and an introduction of Alentejo’s environment.
On the way to Cabaços,
we visited the lake Santa Clara.
We spent the day around this area, overwhelmed by the
beauty of the nature.
We ended the day with a yoga lesson where we learnt
the basics of it.
The next morning we woke up with the sounds of goat
bells and twitter of the birds. How good to escape from the sounds of cars,
neighbors…Thanks to the people we were with, we had the possibility to see a beautiful hidden turtle lake.
We ended the day, seeing the life of the local people.
The next morning was the morning of coming back to our home Algarve. It was nice to meet new people, to live a different way of living, to understand more how the little things can make people to be happy, and just to enjoy the moment!
