Day 4 - Animal Rescue Center and Farm in the Mountains

At La Cañada de los Pájaros animal rescue center.

Today we left Sevilla and headed to the mountains of Aracena State Park. On the way to the mountains, we made a stop and spent part of the day at an animal rescue center near Doñana National Park, an important migrating birds hub. At this center, Hewitt girls learned about environmental protection and about migrating birds in particular. The center needed to count the population of a specific kind of bird that at the lake, and the girls used binoculars to help them out!

We had lunch at the center's restaurant overlooking the lake and then boarded our buses to Parque Natural Sierra de Aracena (Aracena State Park). First, we checked in at the eco lodge Posada de Cortegana. We then went to the nearby Finca Montefrío, a sustainable organic farm, where we spent the evening learning about how Spanish ham is made. We saw the free roaming Iberian pigs in their natural habitats -- these are the breed of pigs used to make Jamón Ibérico. These pigs are raised in the open fields and eat a diet based on organic acorns and other plants.

Our cabins in the mountains

The free-roaming Iberian pigs

This was our first day of activities at the farm. We went back to the eco lodge for a much-deserved rest and dinner.