With the local tap water being loaded with lime and tasting of chlorine and many years using a tap filter that didn’t taste great – and expensive filters – we’ve gone back to the good old days of driving up the winding hill to Rio Frio – yes, Cold River – which on the hot days we have right now is a treat.
Husband and I head out with twenty odd empty five litre water bottles in the car, many of them from the bottling plant Sierra Sur de Jaén which is just above the fountain and picnic area we visit in Rio Frio just outside Los Villares.
They are husband’s favourite brand because the neck of them is wider than most meaning he doesn’t get so much spray-back when filling them, therefore his legs and feet don’t get so wet.
My job is to pass the bottles down then from the wall then take them off him when full and load into the car boot.
Normally our visits are at the weekends but this last trip we were down to the last bottle and went mid-week. I’ll do that again by choice, it was empty. Not a soul picnicing or collecting water. We have had to queue many a time.
Everything, at the beginning of June, is still very green after the abundant rains of February and March this year and the fountains are gushing forth more than ever.
Why do we buy bottled water at all (it’s not only to get the bottles)?
That’s because I buy water for the estate agents office where I work in Martos and the only bottled water that is sold in the shop over the road is from the nearest supplier – a coincidence I’m happy about as local suppliers don´t seem to be used as often as they should be.
We also filter the water once we’ve collected it in the great looking Ecofilter. so we have fresh mountain spring water that’s been filtered – on tap – and free.
Yes, there is fuel to think of but it’s also an outing we enjoy and in the summer months there is a bar and restaurant two minutes from the fountain so it’s our social life too.
We think it’s worth it.
