Javier Holgado set off from Almuñécar's municipal stadium to peddle his way across Spain, all the way to Galicia, for a just cause; actually, there are two.
He set off on yesterday at 11.00h and has scheduled stops in Granada, Jaén, Ciudad Real, Toledo, Valladolid, Lagos de Sanabria, Santiago, Lugo, and other stops along the way.
The object of the mammoth cycle journey from one end of Spain to the other is to “contribute to the development of education concerning social causes in India and Peru.
“In India, under the name of Happy Inside, the object is to do up an old school building and get it back up and running for kids in a poor area and where boys have no basic rights,” explained Javier Holgado, adding that this would hopefully give them access to education that will in turn open new doors for them.
“Money donated will go to a nomadic settlement belonging to the Kalbelyan, who live in the Rajasthan Desert,” he explained. He said that much of the installations that they had in place have deteriorated during the two years of the pandemic.
Traditionally, Kalbelia men carried cobras in cane baskets from door to door in villages while their women sang, danced and begged for alms. They revere the cobra and advocate the non-killing of such reptiles. In the villages, if a snake inadvertently happened to enter a home, a Kalbelia would be summoned to catch the serpent and to take it away without killing it. Kalbelias have traditionally been a fringe group in the society, living in spaces outside the village where they reside in makeshift camps called deras. The Kalbelias move their deras from one place to another in a circuitous route repeated over time.
As for Peru, the initiative is called Huchuy Yachaq and its aim, again, is to provide education for children. “The institution for formal education, El Jardín de las Hormiguitas, is on the outskirts of Cuzco and provides education for children from poor areas between the ages of three and five. This area has a history of child labour and a high level of violence.
Editorial note: unfortunately, we cannot find any reference as to how you can donate to these causes.
(News: Almunecar, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)
Bob: In the late 80’s the BBC filmed a “Rose for Winter” on the Costa Tropical with locations in Motril Port, Otivar, Almuñécar and Salobreña. The Director was John King. I was hired as the interpreter and was lucky enough to meet Laurie Lee’s wife, Katie (?). Laurie was still alive but too elderly to make the trip for the film’s presentation in Almuñécar.
Perhaps Javier could exchange his destination from Lugo to Vigo in Galicia, which is where Laurie Lee first set foot in Spain and described his journey to Almunecar in his book “ As I walked out one Midsummer morning”. Either way I’m sure many Laurie Lee fans (self included) would be happy to support Javier’s trip.