The picturesque village of CASARABONELA lies on the western side of the Guadalhorce valley and stretches westwards into the Ronda mountains. The countryside is composed of a mixture of limestone rock and mountains covered with pine trees making for exceptionally beautiful scenery. Much of the area immediately around the village is terraced and planted with vegetable and fruit trees all the way from the bottom of the valley to the start of the bare rock. The mountainous outcrop of La Robla stands right in the middle of the municipal district surrounded by olive groves and cornfields. Let us begin the first day right here in the mountain of La Robla, the perfect place to gather natural fibres like esparto grass, palm reed and pita fibre. From here you have unsurpassable views towards the village of Casarabonela. We will learn from the hands of the craftsman himself how to pull out the esparto grass and we will accompany him in the gathering of this material. At the end of the day everyone will have made something from the material they gathered. Afterwards we will walk to the house of the craftsman where we will then learn to cook the traditional and excellent “sopas hervías” (hot soups) made with the best local produce. In the afternoon we will hold a workshop during which a local craftsman will pass on his lifelong knowledge and skills of working with natural fibres and show us how to work with the esparto grass and to produce an object of our choice with the esparto grass we gathered in the morning. We will put our hands to work and make braids of various strands to obtain a long strip called “pleita”. By joining up the “pleitas” we will be able to produce the objects we would like to make: mats, “esterillas”, capachas (a kind of bag) to carry food in when working in the fields; “serones”, “espuertas”, “capachos” for the pressing of the olives (los”rondeles”), “persianas” (Venetian blinds), ropes, “pleitas” for cheese, rope-soled sandals, baskets, etc… The following day we will visit another craftsman, dedicated to the old trade of working with reed and bulrushes, a long-lost art which still lingers in the memory of our craftsmen. Together with him we will learn to make seats for chairs with reed and we can bring home an authentic sample made by our own hands. You will feel like a veritable craftsman. Long live the old traditions of Sierra de las Nieves! The picturesque village of CASARABONELA lies on the western side of the Guadalhorce valley and stretches westwards into the Ronda mountains. The countryside is composed of a mixture of limestone rock and mountains covered with pine trees making for exceptionally beautiful scenery. Much of the area immediately around the village is terraced and planted with vegetable and fruit trees all the way from the bottom of the valley to the start of the bare rock. The mountainous outcrop of La Robla stands right in the middle of the municipal district surrounded by olive groves and cornfields. Let us begin the first day right here in the mountain of La Robla, the perfect place to gather natural fibres like esparto grass, palm reed and pita fibre. From here you have unsurpassable views towards the village of Casarabonela. We will learn from the hands of the craftsman himself how to pull out the esparto grass and we will accompany him in the gathering of this material. At the end of the day everyone will have made something from the material they gathered. Afterwards we will walk to the house of the craftsman where we will then learn to cook the traditional and excellent “sopas hervías” (hot soups) made with the best local produce. In the afternoon we will hold a workshop during which a local craftsman will pass on his lifelong knowledge and skills of working with natural fibres and show us how to work with the esparto grass and to produce an object of our choice with the esparto grass we gathered in the morning. We will put our hands to work and make braids of various strands to obtain a long strip called “pleita”. By joining up the “pleitas” we will be able to produce the objects we would like to make: mats, “esterillas”, capachas (a kind of bag) to carry food in when working in the fields; “serones”, “espuertas”, “capachos” for the pressing of the olives (los”rondeles”), “persianas” (Venetian blinds), ropes, “pleitas” for cheese, rope-soled sandals, baskets, etc… The following day we will visit another craftsman, dedicated to the old trade of working with reed and bulrushes, a long-lost art which still lingers in the memory of our craftsmen. Together with him we will learn to make seats for chairs with reed and we can bring home an authentic sample made by our own hands. You will feel like a veritable craftsman. Long live the old traditions of Sierra de las Nieves! The picturesque village of CASARABONELA lies on the western side of the Guadalhorce valley and stretches westwards into the Ronda mountains. The countryside is composed of a mixture of limestone rock and mountains covered with pine trees making for exceptionally beautiful scenery. Much of the area immediately around the village is terraced and planted with vegetable and fruit trees all the way from the bottom of the valley to the start of the bare rock. The mountainous outcrop of La Robla stands right in the middle of the municipal district surrounded by olive groves and cornfields. Let us begin the first day right here in the mountain of La Robla, the perfect place to gather natural fibres like esparto grass, palm reed and pita fibre. From here you have unsurpassable views towards the village of Casarabonela. We will learn from the hands of the craftsman himself how to pull out the esparto grass and we will accompany him in the gathering of this material. At the end of the day everyone will have made something from the material they gathered. Afterwards we will walk to the house of the craftsman where we will then learn to cook the traditional and excellent “sopas hervías” (hot soups) made with the best local produce. In the afternoon we will hold a workshop during which a local craftsman will pass on his lifelong knowledge and skills of working with natural fibres and show us how to work with the esparto grass and to produce an object of our choice with the esparto grass we gathered in the morning. We will put our hands to work and make braids of various strands to obtain a long strip called “pleita”. By joining up the “pleitas” we will be able to produce the objects we would like to make: mats, “esterillas”, capachas (a kind of bag) to carry food in when working in the fields; “serones”, “espuertas”, “capachos” for the pressing of the olives (los”rondeles”), “persianas” (Venetian blinds), ropes, “pleitas” for cheese, rope-soled sandals, baskets, etc… The following day we will visit another craftsman, dedicated to the old trade of working with reed and bulrushes, a long-lost art which still lingers in the memory of our craftsmen. Together with him we will learn to make seats for chairs with reed and we can bring home an authentic sample made by our own hands. You will feel like a veritable craftsman. Long live the old traditions of Sierra de las Nieves! The picturesque village of CASARABONELA lies on the western side of the Guadalhorce valley and stretches westwards into the Ronda mountains. The countryside is composed of a mixture of limestone rock and mountains covered with pine trees making for exceptionally beautiful scenery. Much of the area immediately around the village is terraced and planted with vegetable and fruit trees all the way from the bottom of the valley to the start of the bare rock. The mountainous outcrop of La Robla stands right in the middle of the municipal district surrounded by olive groves and cornfields. Let us begin the first day right here in the mountain of La Robla, the perfect place to gather natural fibres like esparto grass, palm reed and pita fibre. From here you have unsurpassable views towards the village of Casarabonela. We will learn from the hands of the craftsman himself how to pull out the esparto grass and we will accompany him in the gathering of this material. At the end of the day everyone will have made something from the material they gathered. Afterwards we will walk to the house of the craftsman where we will then learn to cook the traditional and excellent “sopas hervías” (hot soups) made with the best local produce. In the afternoon we will hold a workshop during which a local craftsman will pass on his lifelong knowledge and skills of working with natural fibres and show us how to work with the esparto grass and to produce an object of our choice with the esparto grass we gathered in the morning. We will put our hands to work and make braids of various strands to obtain a long strip called “pleita”. By joining up the “pleitas” we will be able to produce the objects we would like to make: mats, “esterillas”, capachas (a kind of bag) to carry food in when working in the fields; “serones”, “espuertas”, “capachos” for the pressing of the olives (los”rondeles”), “persianas” (Venetian blinds), ropes, “pleitas” for cheese, rope-soled sandals, baskets, etc… The following day we will visit another craftsman, dedicated to the old trade of working with reed and bulrushes, a long-lost art which still lingers in the memory of our craftsmen. Together with him we will learn to make seats for chairs with reed and we can bring home an authentic sample made by our own hands. You will feel like a veritable craftsman. Long live the old traditions of Sierra de las Nieves!