When I first met the two owners of La Primera Sonrisa at the opening of their café & bar, I ended up standing behind the counter and pressing fresh lemons into the iced water for their curious new customers. People were standing lines on their first open day and I was more than keen to offer my help switching from customer to a bartender. The thing is, after two months of me living in a sleepy little village it was like an iced water splash into my face to see two young lively people with dreams, ideas and certainty in their eyes doing their own thing. Their magnetic energy kinda reached my good vibe locators and so a friendship was born.
Here are some facts. Koen and Ivo are two of those, who actually did quit their well payed jobs in Holland and decided to turn their paths into a more sunny, tropical kind of life under the Andalusian sky. Just a couple of months ago, they did what many thought was impossible - they opened a café & bar followed by a two room design hotel on a site where there's not one shop nor office nor market. But a grand view.
It's the village called Polopos in the very south of Spain, white and old like Spanish little villages are, with narrow crooked streets, big bloomy flowerbeds, clean air, a view of dry mountains and the Mediterranean sea, and countless possibilities for outdoor hiking adventures. It's very tranquil and what some might call boring, for many - me included - it's the way to unplug from a noisy city life, get relief and reconnect with the simple joys, sensations or even the own breathing rhythm. On a calm sunset hike you start feeling like a prince of the world, watching endless Mediterranean below the feet, snowy peaks of the Sierra Nevada in the north and sometimes even another continent in the far South. It's a village with a huge potential of a tranquil kind.
The hotel offers two rooms with a unique design. It's a personal business matter for the two entrepreneurs and you feel it when you enter the rooms - vintage carpets, fossil accessories, upcycled furniture and found attributes from around the globe meet together in a hotel room with aview. In the mornings they cook you breakfast and in the afternoon there's a set of creatively homemade tapas to every refreshing drink till after the sun sets.
To book a getaway holiday at La Primera Sonrisa you can contact Ivo and Koen directly or book on the common booking websites. Otherwise, take a sneak peek on their homepage, instagram or facebook to get yourself convinced.
Good to know: best airport to land is in Malaga (120km away); rent a car with a slightly bigger engine for serpentine uphill rides; go in autumn, spring or around the Christmas period - it's good for hikes (if you are fine with melting in the sun - July and August are also great!).
By the way, the café and the hotel are the stepping stones for a further grand idea: in the following months an off the grid eco resort is in planning. A kickstarter alike project will be launched soon to collect the needed resources for this vision to come alive: you will be able to make a contribution of 500€ in exchange for a two-person ten-day accommodation in one of their Valle del Eden Tiendas that will be built on a mountain side land property surrounded only by nature. So stay tuned for more details on their media channels.
