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images/El_Valero/midMosaic.jpg
the Centrefold image linked to this page

swimming places

...designed and built by
Val dolphin:

for Chris Stewart, year 2000, Orgiva, Spain, the
El Valero pool
This document is at www.wavesculptor.com /pools/El_Valero.htm.
headings and scroll to items scroll to the top of the window when clicked.
Images with italicised captions link to larger, pop-up images.
within paragraphs pop-up an explanatory window.

This page tells the saga of the El Valero project with minimal technical jargon and lots of images.
Its contents - headings and illustrations - are indexed at the bottom of the page.
Related wavesculptor pages:
The El Valero pool technology page offers a more functional description of the system.
Biological systems are explained on the living swimming page.
Some words about why I want to avoid chlorine appear on the bathing in bleach page.

an eco-folly?scroll to: top | this | next | page contents
If the El Valero pool is indeed an eco-folly, as my patron and beneficiary of the work called it in his , the Victorian ethos I applied to parts of its design and construction predisposed it to be such. My chagrin at my work being labelled as somewhat irrational is offset by the label's inherent humour.

In case you've not read either of Chris's best-selling accounts of remote Alpujarran life, I'll point out before descending into this constructor's story that its location is, yes, remote. During the seasons that it was cool enough to work, heavy materials had to be brought through a rapid river using a large, hired agricultural tractor whose owner was, at best, bemused by the project. Access also involved precipitous, unsurfaced, vehicle-mashing mountain tracks. Lighter materials I regularly carried-in in my rucksack on my daily bicycle journey from my encampment on the slightly more accessible side of the river....
January to June 2000: back to the Alpujarrasscroll to: top | previous | this | next | page contents
Whatever it says in A Parrot in the Pepper Tree, I was tempted back from the French Pyrenees to the kind of struggle specific to the Alpujarras by word from my friend Peter - for whom I built my first swimming pool and other water-works - word that neighbour and successful writer Chris Stewart was keen to have works for himself. El Valero had been plagued by water problems which Chris was keen to get sorted out, not least for the health of his family. When I arrived for consultations, however, I found a very large hole for a swimming pool already dug, and somehow our plans for compost toilets and sewage and drinking water treatment became sidelined by sparkling fantasies of the ultimate biological, bespoke sculptural swimming pool... site_plan.jpg
simplified original site plan (!180 kB!)
Annie was slow to forgive us for the subversion of her plans to bring the fontaneria of El Valero out of the dark ages but as the upheaval of over three years' construction on the edge of their garden entered the phase of landscaping, I detected hope on the horizon: Annie began going for swims!....
the solar trackerscroll to: top | previous | this | next | page contents
pylon_planting.jpg
growing grid, nearby, 2003 		El Valero has no mains electricity, so it is not subsidising centralised nuclear power and transmission-line-knitting cutting up the countryside, and this is how Chris and I want it to stay. Besides protecting the environment, the solar tracker's costs are offset by the unmetered electricity it produces.

I built the solar 'micro-power-station' before the pool, so that it could be used to power not only the pool water circulation but many of the tools for the construction itself of the entire project. This solar collector is one with panels that are mechanically turned so that they are always facing the sun, not just fixed in a compromise position. For more about tracking and why it suits this application, and how it was built, see this section of the pool technology page. 		trackerMoon.jpg
dusk, tracker with moon
pool groundworkscroll to: top | previous | this | next | page contents
With the torrential spring rains of recent years in mind, it was my intention to get the walls of the pool itself up as soon as possible, before the vertical sides of the excavation began collapsing. So between getting on with the solar tracker, I set out the multiple elliptical foundations, and got Juan the Buddhist wwoofer from Cataluña, upgraded to paid worker, and others, onto the ground­work which proceeded as meditatively as my solar power on the terrace below. So the spring rains came, and the sides began to dribble and slump towards the bottom in places, but with few serious consequences thanks to a bit of brickwork shoring by Juan, reminiscent of a Cubist painting. Aside from desirably settling the loose soil around the site, the rains also flooded the excavation up to the level of the already buried pool drain pipe.... excavation.jpg
the hole almost as we found it
puddles and pond but no poolscroll to: top | previous | this | next | page contents
excavation_wide.jpg
pond excavation to the left, digger working on wheel pit 		....Flooded up to the level of the drain pipe? Shouldn't that drain pipe be at the point that is, er, lowest? This detail, in the finest tradition of El Valero plumbing, had impacted neither Chris nor his excavator driver.... A compact digger was brought in to adapt the site to my scheme, and the trench for the pool drain pipe was dug as deep as it could reach - a foot lower - but this still left a mud puddle covering the deep end. Water was siphoned out but it kept coming in, weeks after the rains had ceased. We left construction of the main pool, pending drying up of its new, resident spring, and began the treatment pond.
builder?scroll to: top | previous | this | next | page contents
pond_blockwork.jpg
pond walls, from the south 		A local builder, then finishing an additional room at El Valero, was lined up for the non-specialist works on the pool. I was expecting to be constructing the specialised parts and at the same time overseeing the rest as architect. During the pool setting-out and groundwork, this builder and I came to inspect each other's works, but soon found ourselves uncomfortable with the other's demeanour and working practices. Chris was taken by the builder's rustic creativity, but I was shocked to discover a bombast who was all but innumerate, with little concept of engineering, and to whom 10cm adrift had about as much significance as a millimetre had to me. What did he think of me! Nevertheless, I held out hopes that he might lay some foundations or blocks if I marked them out clearly enough, but as the work on the house approached completion, he became less in evidence until he disappeared completely to another job.
no builderscroll to: top | previous | this | next | page contents
pondTwilight2000.jpg
rocks and clouds without builder 		Spring became summer. Heat exhaustion loomed. Suitable subcontractors laid low. My builder on my previous pool had quit the trade, with a dodgy back and a desire to make music, teach T'ai Chi and work his farm. Slowly I slid into the vacancy, making the most of available unskilled help, doing all the rest myself, meanwhile losing the overview, the reins, the schedule and my joi de vivre. Then in June we were recommended a builder who was available - a Belgian tiler. Patrick was taken on immediately at an hourly rate. His first afternoon landed him with levelling the floor of the last section of the pond. Faced with precisely engineered wavy sculpture, it became clear he'd gone rustic. He wanted to do with a trowel what I expected done with a straight edge. I was too burnt out for a contest. In the morning there were puddles where there should have been a run-off.
the push into summer 2000scroll to: top | previous | this | next | page contents
pondNewBeds.jpg
new beds and plants, March 2001 		pondNewBeds_Pool.jpg
..and pool at that time.. 		Patrick had a sense of humour and liked us as much as we liked him so he stayed on. He insisted on driving his frequently failing Landrover an hour each way in a 360 degree spiral loop to his family and organic vegetable garden, each of the three consecutive days a week he was prepared to work.

Summer in Spain is not really workable in the same way as it is in cool climates. Outdoors, I try to work in the shade, start soon after dawn and stop before mid afternoon, after which the air temperature and impact of the sun continue to be draining until sunset. Every year, it is my intention to return north before June, but a project has strong hooks, and so it isn't until my output begins to fail considerably that I actually escape. In the year in question, before I left for the summer I wanted to complete the waterwheel pit part of the pond, to enable the pond to be used in lieu of the pool, as it was clear that constructing the pool-vessel itself was a non-starter until autumn.

pondSummer2001.jpg
growing in metres per season
These images of the pond and pool should come after this heading and narrative. The two above are from one video clip. They're here to extend the sequence showing bare earth to pond plants, down the left-hand column of images, all taken from a similar viewpoint. After this, the growth of the nearer plants obscures too much.
concretingscroll to: top | previous | this | next | page contents
ChrisParrotAssault.jpg
parrot assaults Chris 		Concreting jobs at El Valero were usually quite merry and high energy. Chris would lay down his pen or telephone and lend a hand. Patrick would get out his square trowel to expertly push the concrete around. Manolo would arrive from some remote corner of the farm, fortified with plenty of pig for breakfast, and beam indomitably as he demonstrated his ability to make a barrow piled with concrete - which I couldn't even move - dance around like a mountain ibex. Juan prided himself on mixing the concrete like a chef as fast as Manolo could relieve him of it.

The day we poured the concrete for the waterwheel pit didn't quite go to plan though. A week's preparation had gone into the shuttering for the pit. Come the pouring party, the most important thing for me to do seemed to be to record it with the video camera. But somehow my instructions to fill the shuttering progressively all round were forgotten, and while I was busy capturing the parrot nipping Chris's neck, the shuttering got squashed up against the far side of the pit by all the concrete going down the most accessible side. A flash of tempers was followed by the rest of the day spent trying to dig out the impacted concrete, re-position the shuttering, and re-pour the walls. One by one, everyone made their excuses to leave the scene of the tragedy. Several ensuing days were also spent making good the slip of but a few moments' attention. This was my worst technical error of the job, and one which Chris himself witnessed in full; though it did not appear in itself, in the Parrot book, it probably became used as the basis for the incident in which I am portrayed as asking him and several others to knock down a weir they had just built because it was not level!
the filterscroll to: top | previous | this | next | page contents
filter_2001.jpg
finished filter bottle 		Both the principle and construction I proposed for the filter, described on the technical page, here, were unfamiliar to anyone around me, but it went up with remarkable ease and enthusiasm from all concerned, considering, and has survived and behaved well since.

In the six months that it had seemed possible that the whole job could be done, we completed just the solar power plant, the filter and the shell of the treatment pond - with its necklace of massive stones. I connected a couple of cheap pumps to the solar to circulate water through the filter and Chris chucked in a chlorine brick and the pond was already better than the river that summer. The photo of Annie's head with The Parrot atop it bobbing in the water on the back of the eponymous book would have been taken here. 		JuanBottleBrickwork.jpg
Juan by filter in progress

November 2000 to June 2001scroll to: top | previous | this | next | page contents
relative_progress_2000.jpg
organic openings before more work 		With enough workers, several fronts now saw intense construction. Pond beds were built and planted. The plant growth was a special source of optimism for me. The pond water, circulating through the filter with temporary pumps, became startlingly clear. A gecko family took up residence on completion of their 'sentry box' - equipment cabinet for the solar tracker. Spiral elliptical shuttering, steelwork and footings for the pool and pillars for The Wheel were precisely constructed. foundation_day.jpg
foundation day
the pool vessel constructionscroll to: top | previous | this | next | page contents
Nine months later than intended, but with an enthusiastic patron and crew, the pool foundation concrete was poured on 30th October. The walls were satisfyingly whizzed up, even with their reinforcement and complicated flights of incorporated steps. Spirits were such that on a fine, cool, day in early December, Chris led the construction team on a walk along a beautiful trail up the north side of the Sierra Nevada mountains, stopping for a picnic in a high pasture by a stream, within striking distance of the summits.

Meanwhile, a pair of finches had nested in a stack of concrete blocks at the centre of the pool used for making measurements. They were feeding chicks when we needed the pool cleared. I suspected that the bold birds might tolerate movement of their home by "chinese theft". Juan rebuilt the 200kg pillar a little nearer the side several times a day, and eventually outside the pool, with the puzzled parents still managing to find it, while keeping the penthouse safe from the waiting cats.... blocksHalfHeight.jpg
half way on the pool shell 		By February, despite plenty of rain and part-time work, the pool walls were complete. As soon as the winter floor puddle had dried up, the walls were rendered, then the floor laid, to create an interlocking, watertight joint between it and the walls. On the 21st of May, the pool was test-filled with river water for the first time, before tiling. Meanwhile, the rim of the waterwheel was being built under my close supervision, and I was trying to get the bearings made for it.
the El Valero water wheelscroll to: top | previous | this | next | page contents
wheel_buckets-in_animated.gif
smooth operator 		The El Valero water wheel is absolutely an efficient, functioning piece of equipment! It is not the kind that uses a flow of water to power a mill or other machinery, though it does have that look about it:  it actually lifts water from the lowest surface of the pool system - after the water-conditioning pond - and tips it into the filter - the highest point of the system; from there, the water flows to the swimming pool and on to the pond and back to The Wheel by gravity. The Wheel is driven by an electric motor, powered by the solar tracker. For more about how it all works see the technology page.
not without precedent scroll to: top | previous | this | next | page contents
The Spanish once used mule-powered water-lifting wheels to irrigate their fields; they called them norias. In the first Guest Artist page at www.wavesculptor.com, I show some water-lifting wheels that Chris himself photographed on his visit to China while researching the original Rough Guide to the place:  ingenious yet rustic delights, they are made entirely of bamboo and turned by the river from which they lift the water: perhaps they whetted Chris's appetite for a waterwheel for his pool. Neither of us was expecting where the concept might take us as the technical and creative challenges of The Wheel revolved in my mind.... ../ephemera/img2002.11/ChrisChinaWheels.jpg
bamboo waterwheels, China
the hub of the matterscroll to: top | previous | this | next | page contents
Much of the fabricatation of The Wheel I entrusted to one Luis, a Catalan metalworker near to the town, known to Chris as a result of family connections at the local school. By way of dipping my toe in the water, I gave Luis the drawings for the hub of The Wheel, and, with very little complaint about them, he'd fabricated the hub within a few days. RicardoGalv2001_3.jpg
the crane operator lowers the hub into the zinc 		Granada province has one of the largest, most modern galvanising plants in Spain, and upon completion of the hub, in March 2001, I took it straight there - slightly further than the city itself, where I made my usual calls for shopping. When I returned, a week later as confirmed, I found the axle still awaiting another dip, as the plant operator, Ricardo, was not totally happy with how the metal had covered. I was thus able to video the process.
the only machine shop in Granadascroll to: top | previous | this | next | page contents
wheel_bearing_mcing.jpg
Granada's saint Antonio with machinist 		Encouraged by the start that Luis had made on the hub, I set out to get nylon bearings made for it. I needed a specialised workshop capable of interpreting a detailed engineering drawing and precisely machining a unique component from general-purpose, stock material. Finding such a machine-shop with an enthusiastic proprietor took an exhausting series of phone calls, visits and referrals, encountering blankness, worried head shaking and unintelligible directions. And then I left my job in the capable hands of Antonio with unrealistic expectations. I reckoned without the charming, pill-popping, hands-on director being the harassed, indispensable technical saviour of the entire city of Granada. Promising every friend who had a construction site or factory that their plant would be repaired by the next day, while their facility worked at half capacity and the phone yelled every minute, he narrowly kept the city from the brink of industrial standstill.
Some months and many visits later, I returned to collect my untouched materials and drawings, only to be begged to wait a couple more hours and the job would be done. At 4pm, after lunch, Antonio and his men began making the wheel bearings while, as seemed to be my luck with this job, I got to video them. It was impossible to be angry for long. They work from 8am till 2pm, take a break till 4pm, then go for it again till 9pm. After sweeping up, they go home for a shower, a meal and some sleep before doing it all over again, week in, week out. All dozen of them are family, many by blood, from the sweeping-up boy to Antonio himself, who is in at 6am some days. There are no "white-collar" staff. At 9pm I left under a surreal sky-wide sunset of red swords and anvils and drove with unprecedented relief back into the dark mountains with my prize.
the finest fabricator in Orgivascroll to: top | previous | this | next | page contents
LuisWheelWorkshop.jpg
Luis fabricates The Wheel rim 		Luis continued to be a most patient and reliable constructor. Even if somewhat trepidacious of my brain-heating schemes, I think he welcomed a few of them amid the relentless rectangular doors and window frames, railings and agricultural repairs the rest of his clientele required. It was satisfying to see the wheel rim fabricated efficiently by him and his assistant, who were thus able to produce an affordable product.... Luis.jpg
Luis smiles for "the tele"
struggles with buckets and visit of the rim scroll to: top | previous | this | next | page contents
Back at my camp, I was building a prototype bucket that would slip economically through the water like a fish, hold onto every drop it scooped until its appointed place of emptying and be durable and simple to fabricate. Once again, the design and refinement were not a problem, but finding anyone to do the production run became more of an effort than doing it myself. A stainless-steel fabricator who had helped with simpler parts of The Wheel seemed the most likely candidate but I failed to grasp the importance of his head-shaking, chain-smoking aunt clad in the ubiquitous blue Spanish boiler suit who deputised while her helpful nephew was out confering with architectural clientele. This time I took my sample away after several weeks without further progress. A Swiss workshop on the coast very efficiently guillotined and folded the metal at swingeing, near northern-European costs. But time had run out for the water wheel for that year as the August heat and shutdowns were upon me and it was past time for me to migrate north. The Wheel rim remained beside its pit, as it appears in the striking image of the empty pool with the tiling just completed. The rim's fitting and testing, that were the reason for its visit, would have to wait, as would its final journey to be galvanised. The water would be circulated by pump for another summer.... wheelTractorBridge.jpg
wheel rim safari to El Valero
meanwhile, at the pool, tilingscroll to: top | previous | this | next | page contents
Kiki.jpg
Kiki's edge 		At the pool site, I had my hands on the pool rim mosaicing while trying to supervise - or, as those with less interest in precision than I would have it, perturb - the pool tiling. I found myself in conflict with El Patron, who, being the paymaster, seemed to agree with the tilers that their laying of the tiles downhill along one side due to their early morning misplacement of a straight edge was preferable to a couple of hours' pay to refix the tiles such that they would line up around the pool. Well, anyway, the tiles were lined up, but relations became strained.... AndyPatrickTiles.jpg
Andy and Patrick tiling
Kiki came as an unlikely job candidate: a passing guest with neighbours in the valley and veteran of activities more reminiscent of a hard, Wild West bad guy. I became curious to meet this man whose first, recent paintings had been exhibited in one of the mountain villages - and every painting sold. Once he had overcome his fear of the spirit level, he placed all the cascading step edge tiles with a restless energy and an eye that I greatly appreciated. He also ate green salads with the same gusto that has landed me with a Label, raising difficult questions for Manolo, who has since been seen with green things (other than onions) in his lunch box.
...and mosaicingscroll to: top | previous | this | next | page contents
trev_mosaicing_icon.jpg
Trev mosaicing the pool rim 		Andy who had suffered me on several previous jobs braved me yet again to help get the tile acreage down, now alongside Patrick. Richard had been mosaicing his own house when he joined the job but got given most of the tile grouting. When there was no more grouting to be done, he got a lot happier deftly laying the tightly chaotic mosaic of the overflow rivulet bed around the pool. But then he had to grout that too.... RichMosaic.jpg
Rich mosaicing the rivulet
November 2001 to August 2002: the Catchy Carrierscroll to: top | previous | this | next | page contents
Luis_y_Angel.jpg
assembling the Catcher Carrier 		The what?... After the long summer break came the test assembly of the waterwheel and the building of its water-catching trays and the development of the convolutedly named and convolutedly shaped water-catcher carrier: at least as sculptural as functional, it gets more coverage here than important components which are not so visual. Its function is to cantilever, close beneath The Wheel buckets, the two arched trays which "catch" the water lifted by the buckets, without them hitting it. Austere, straight makeshift assemblies serving this function were already encumbering my drawings of The Wheel. As I was ready to construct the resolved, curvey "Catchers" themselves, I gave the problem of the clash my intense application, on the Mac, whenever I had a moment with energy, often before I cycled to the site in the morning.
elliptical breakthroughscroll to: top | previous | this | next | page contents
Many wavy lattices were generated and stretched and squashed in cyberspace and rejected as insufficiently related to The Wheel, or eclipsing it, or structurally inefficient or just prohibitively expensive to make. The design I considered resolved included counterpoint to both the ellipses of the pool and the lattice of the waterwheel: four wheel-like laminae stretched and fused. I made paper models from print-outs of the scale drawings to convey to my excitement to others. Patron Chris became infected with my enthusiasm. Neither of us wanted to think much about the cost. catcher_carrier_alone.jpg
catch her, carry her
- we did both 		I constructed templates on the same panels of pine plywood as were used for The Wheel, and Luis fabricated flat lattices onto them. Laid out horizontally, these monopolised the workshop. The three-dimensional structure became more compact as we pulled the sets of lattices into different curved planes until their edges met. Finally, Luis, Angel (pronounced sort-of un-hl) and I performed a bizarre three-day trapeze act around the structure, involving "pass-the-dodgy-welding-torch", until, behold! - we had a full-size structure which not only resembled my model but was dimensionally accurate to within 2mm in 4 metres where it mattered!
thanks, Luis and Angelscroll to: top | previous | this | next | page contents
Working with Luis and Angel on The Wheel fabrication was very special for me. The intuitiveness we seemed to have meant co-operation just happened. I wish I could say as much about the experience of taking the Precious Trellis and The Wheel itself for galvanising. The trucker arrived soon after dawn. The transfer from farm trailer to truck took place outside a neighbour's house, blocking the track. Every not-so-able-bodied male in the vicinity appeared and asserted loudly the best way to load the things without actually lifting anything and was then surprised when the Things' weight was, by sculptural illusion, not where they expected it. The operation became such a trial that this architect would have run a long way away were it not for concern over his Things' vulnerable extremities. up_catcher.jpg
final assembly
hot weather and hot-headsscroll to: top | previous | this | next | page contents
Ironically enough, though trucking and galvanising all contributed to the pummelling of my structures, it was I who did one of the Catcher sections the most damage, towing it back to its final resting place on the remote side of the passable, summer river. Despite Manolo as look-out and progress of far less than walking speed, I managed to snag a vulnerable and unconnected end in a tunnel of encroaching hedges. It is a sobering conclusion that a ragged, spindly, almost contemptible broom bush is more robust than several sections of several-millimetre-thick steel welded together.... But it was August, again, with its relentless heat: time for another adjournment to cooler climes. Even expected and delayed, naming my date of departure resulted in words hotter than the wind with El Patron. I could see that final commissioning of the flagship waterwheel would take another season, with the assembly of the buckets, and so the ironmongery had to wait by the side of the road for another summer...
December 2002 to June 2003: terrace and testsscroll to: top | previous | this | next | page contents
wheel_top_winter02.jpg
first batch of buckets in action 		That autumn saw slapping of backs as Manolo, Chris and I hoisted The Wheel components into their final position, with video and watching entourage. Then came the thorough painting of the steelwork. Colours that had looked good on the computer-screen made the real thing look like a fairground ride, so subtler, more "engineering" colours were adopted. I resolved the tooling for The Wheel buckets enough to start production runs in batches of eight in my workshop trailer back at my camp. Enquiring after the progress on the next batch of buckets became a cause célèbre for El Patron.
bucket_rivet.jpg
the last wheel bucket
the dregsscroll to: top | previous | this | next | page contents
New beds and plants were added to the water-conditioning pond during the winter dormancy. Along with a final tidying of the site and improvements to the filter came the construction of what Annie began referring to as "The Tomb". The term refers to a masonry chamber, eventually to be interred, meanwhile tainting the environs of the pool. The Tomb, described in this section of the pool technology page housed the back-up pump and pool "vacuum cleaner" apparatus in an out-of-the-way place.
aesthetic touchesscroll to: top | previous | this | next | page contents
router7.jpg
pot top on concrete mixer 		Several other primarily aesthetic touches remained to be incorporated in the scheme of things before the job could begin to look like it might one day be done. To sit up high beside the big, earthy-coloured filter pot, a diminutive green lookalike was made to route the water from The Wheel to filter. Making this was fun, using a cement mixer with the drum pointing upwards as a large pottery wheel and former for the halves of the vessel. Patrick completed the wavy stone terrace-wall (picture to follow) forming the southern boundary of the pool area, permitting the progression of the landscaping around it. Clashes with Patron and Patrick resulted from my insistence on holding out against bodging to get the job to look "finished" sooner rather than later, resulting in very hard feelings.
Emotional clashes and distance mingled with coats of paint and fabricating the buckets for the waterwheel, and the final dolphinesque bit of tiling - of the pool-side terrace. The terrace tiling became a microcosm of the whole project itself, taking five times as long as expected. My idea was simple. Lay the tiles on the same grid as the floor and steps of the pool; inset parabolic lines of flat pebbles into the tiles, growing into the outer ramparts of the terrace: diffusing the boundary between grid and chaos; place these strings of pebbles on the continuation of the elliptic loci of the lips of the submersed pool step, loci coincidentally tangential with the outer terrace edge.... Simple, as the clarifying image in a future edition of this page will show! But laborious... and I knew I was the only one remaining on the job who would have the patience to cut the tiles around each selected pebble. Chris, initially insistent on the idea of the pebbles inset in the tiles, gradually came around to the idea that the remainder had to be done away with due to the cost in time and funds. wheel_318.jpg
completed water wheel (still enlargment)

small animation of this image (364kB)

end in sightscroll to: top | previous | this | next - page contents
wheelTop+pond.jpg
water wheel with pond in background 		I continued with the meditation, regardless of all but its visual impact, leaving out some peripheral tiles with complicated cuts instead, suspecting that they will become so irksome that they might get finished, eventually, anyway, unlike a tiled-over inlay. So here, then, is the state of play at the time of writing. Aesthetic bits and technical refinements remain to be done. I am hoping Chris and I will be able to negotiate a mutually agreeable contract to conclude and monitor the project. Such was my energy of summer 2003 that I took few photos before departure. These latter paragraphs will have to wait for their succulent photographs of folk already enjoying the geometrical water playground....
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