Volunteering at Areias do Seixo, a beautiful eco-hotel in Santa Cruz
My third volunteer experience this summer is at Areias do Seixo, where I’m working in their organic no-dig market garden. I’ve been here for over four weeks already and so far the experience has been great!
After my last blog post I traveled for about 6 more weeks through the South of Spain and Portugal. Visiting Almuñecar, Cordoba, Mérida, Badajoz, Elvas, Evora, Tomar, Coimbra and Torres Vedras before arriving here at Areias do Seixo. I’m a bit behind in writing blog posts about those places but will try to catch up in the next few weeks… First though, I’ll give you an update on my experience here!
Areias do Seixo
The Location
Areias do Seixo is a beautiful luxury eco-hotel located in Santa Cruz, on the West coast of Portugal, about an hour north of Lisbon.
Santa Cruz has its own micro climate, so the weather here can be quite different from places even only 15 km more inland. Generally speaking the weather is more temperate here so it doesn’t get quite as extremely hot, at times the weather can even extremely grey and humid. So it’s quite different from Tavira where I volunteered previously.
The location here is beautiful, I love the wild rocky cliffs and the beach here. And the hotel and gardens are gorgeous. We’re about 30min walking from the centre of Santa Cruz but there is a small village called Povoa de Penafirme close-by with some fruit & veggie shops, a bakery and a mini-market.
The total area of the vegetable gardens here at Areias do Seixo is probably smaller than at Quinta Pomar and Altanure but they use the space wisely and they grow and harvest a lot of vegetables here, more than at my previous volunteer places. Though that’s mostly because the gardens here have been established longer and they are very well managed with continuous planting of seeds, taking care of the seedlings and planting the seedlings into the garden as soon as any space is opened up after harvesting plants. No space is ever left empty for long.
What They Do at the vegetable garden of Areias do Seixo?
At Areias do Seixo they grow a wide variety of vegetables and fruits for small and big vegetable boxes for guests at the hotel/villas, employees and the owners. They also grow vegetables for the restaurant of the hotel and several other businesses from the same owner in Santa Cruz and Torres Vedras. They do not grow all the vegetables the restaurants and businesses use, they get organic vegetables from organic farmers in the neighbourhood too, but they still are able to provide a nice amount of super fresh organic vegetables straight from the garden.
Another thing they do is growing cut flowers for bouquets for guests in the hotel, to decorate public spaces in the hotel and for weddings that are held at the hotel.
The work here is quite different from both Quinta Pomar and Altanure. I’m finding the work here a bit more gentle and varied. We harvest a lot and spend time preparing the veggie boxes, presenting the vegetables in the most beautiful way possible. Then there’s a lot of work planting seeds, up potting, preparing garden beds and planting out seedlings into the garden.
There is some weeding but it’s been minimal and the weeds are pretty small here. The first two weeks I didn’t even have to do any weeding at all. In the last weeks I did have to clear some beds of some bigger weeds but even that work was still less intensive and there are always a bunch of different jobs to do so you’re never doing the intense weeding for days on end. Quite a difference from the previous two volunteer places where weeding seemed to be the biggest job and weeds were massive and hard to take out. In fact in those places it was impossible to work without sturdy trousers and gloves because the work was quite rough, while here I have only had to wear gloves occasionally.
The work here has been much easier on my body too. After a month of volunteering at Altanure and Quinta Pomar I had inflammation in my fingers and feet from the intense weed pulling and from the squatting during the weeding. Here at Areias do Seixo I haven’t had any issues so far because the work is more varied and a little bit lighter.
It’s been very interesting to see how things grow differently here from Tavira due to the cooler climate and different soil types. In Tavira they had clay soil which could be hard to work with, here they have a very sandy soil which has it’s own difficulties as it’s much harder to hold on to moisture and nutrients. Certain vegetables grow much slower or simply don’t grow as big here, which generally means we simply harvest them when there still quite tiny but nevertheless are tasty. And there are still plenty of things that grow very well here too!
The garden here is mostly a no-dig organic market garden. They are also trying to establish a small food forest with more perennials but for the biggest part it’s a no-dig market garden. They have 9 chickens with a chicken coop that occasionally gets moved. And they have regular compost bay and a vermi-compost tower (worm compost).
Volunteering at Areias do Seixo
I arrived here on Monday the 22nd of August, four and a half weeks ago and will stay here til the end of September. I organised it through the Wwoof website. Areias do Seixo is a quite popular volunteer place so you need to organise it long in advance. I reached out to them in March or April and they only had a spot for me at the end of August. Right now they’re fully booked til March already. They usually have 3 volunteers here. And they like volunteers to stay for a minimum of 6 weeks.
When I arrived, there was just one other volunteer with whom I shared the room, Sarah from the USA. She was about my age and we got along very well. And working with Luca and Silvia, who are the resident gardeners here has been fun. They are very open, relaxed and easy to connect with. It was such a relief after the difficult time I had with the other volunteer at Quinta Pomar!
After my first two weeks here Sarah left and then 2 new volunteers arrived, Thomas from Denmark and Amelie from Germany, both a bit younger than me. Sharing the room with Amelie did not go quite as smoothly as with Sarah. I guess it can always happen when strangers have to share a room and may have different expectations and/or needs… In the end a single room in the staff house became available and I requested to have an upgrade to have my own room which they agreed. So now I have my own little attic room, it’s bright and airy and I’m quite happy with it. It has a lovely view of the ocean. I do have to pay a little bit for it though (about €5/day), but I think it’s totally worth the extra bit of comfort and privacy.
The work times are the same as at the previous places, from 8:00 til 13:00. We get a coffee break in the middle and we get a tasty lunch afterwards in the hotel staff break room. This is actually quite nice, not having to cook right after you finish working. On top of that we also get a veggie box each once a week and we get some cash to buy some extra groceries.
The Accommodation
The shared accommodation that I stayed in when I first arrived here was a little bit of a disappointment to be honest. After my two other volunteer experiences I tried not to have too many expectations and kept my mind open for whatever would be but… Here they have a house for staff of the hotel about 5 minutes away from the hotel and the veggie gardens. The volunteer quarters are in a converted garage next to the house. There’s a shared room for women with 3 beds and ensuite bathroom and one for men. Neither of the volunteer bedrooms have windows, which means they are quite dark and hard to ventilate. And the building only has a bare concrete patio outside and is located besides a busy road. It feels like a world away from the garden and the idea to connect with nature that most people probably have when they come to volunteer here.
But luckily the beach is only a 5 minute walk from the volunteer quarters, and it offers a great reprieve from the volunteer quarters. The cliffs are wonderful and wild and there are rarely many people on the beach. The water is a bit cold and often too wild to swim for me but it’s great to just go sit there for a while and enjoy the views and the fresh air.
And while the accommodation is basic and a little bit of a let down it’s not so horrible it should keep you from coming here, the gardens, the beach and working with Luca and Silvia make up for it, but it’s just good to be aware that you will not be staying in the most fantastic accommodation in the middle of nature… I honestly think any volunteer place you go to will have at least some issues that might make you feel a little bit of discomfort in some way or another, but ultimately it’s only temporary. And I don’t think it’s bad to experience a little bit of discomfort once in a while, it helps you grow…
What’s next?
I’ll be here at Areias do Seixo until the 30th of September. After that I will travel for 2 more weeks in Portugal, I’ll just stay near Lisbon for that time so I won’t be traveling very far. And then my Portugal adventure ends for now. I will head back to Belgium for about 3,5 weeks to catch up with family and friends and on the 8th of November I’ll head off on a very different adventure. I’ll keep you all in suspense for a bit longer, but it will be far away and very tropical! And I’m really looking forward to it!
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