The family I work for go to Mallorca every year. There is a lot of their family too and they stay for a whole week in a villa with a swimming pool, vegetable garden en a lot of space. It’s breathtaking. Last year I came with them and this year I went with them again. I feel very fortunate that I can come with them as Mallorca is beautiful and the family is very nice.
In the villa there are 2 ladies who cook breakfast, lunch and dinner for all of us and they’re so sweet to make vegan meals especially for me. I so appreciate that! The food they make is amazing. Everything tastes so much better in Spain. The tomatoes smell like tomatoes and they’re deep red and their flavour is mouth-watering. So different from the salad tomatoes in the London supermarkets. And then the oranges.. I mean.. Oranges ripened under the Spanish sun, without pesticides. Do I need to say more?!

We arrived Friday the 29th, just before the kids dinner. The weather was amazing. Between the 30C-35C and its was going to be like that for the whole week. It’s hot, but not as hot as you think. Quite perfect actually as long as you don’t stand in the burning sun around midday.
They do dinner quite late, around 20:30. So after I did some unpacking and the kids were sleeping I just relaxed a bit, watching my series on Netflix, waiting for dinner to be ready. My starter was a lovely salad with balsamic vinegar, tomatoes, orange slices and bread on the side. For the main course they had super delicious rice with green beans and some delicious tofu. Th dessert was very yummy too. Fresh fruit, cut up, with freshly squeezed orange juice. The fruit here is so amazing! This was just the first evening, but the whole week I had delicious food. Like ‘avocado salads’, ‘pasta with fresh garlic, cherry tomatoes and rucola’, ‘an oven dish with tomatoes, aubergine and potatoes’ and ‘raw coconut chocolate balls’. All meals were very nice, but out of everything I think I liked breakfast the most. Just because every morning there was a big big fruit platter ready in the middle of the table with more than 10 different kinds of fresh fruits. I love fruit and every morning my heart skipped a beat when I saw it. The day the ladies had a day of I even had the chance to make one myself that morning. So lovely!

Another very nice thing was that there was a black street cat. He was very skinny and hungry, but so sweet and lovely. He was shy at first, but with a lot of patience and calmness he felt more and more comfortable and even the kids could stroke him. And not only he liked to be stroked on his back, but you could touch him everywhere. He was a true sweetheart and I really bonded with him. What was unfortunate in a way as I of course wanted to take him home. If I had the space in London I’m sure I’d take him to a local vet on my day off, to get him vaccinated and chipped. Instead of doing that I went to Inca on my day off. A town not far from where we were staying. Inca is quite a shopping town and the day I went there was a big market. I went here because there is a vegan cafe there and I needed to check that out of course. I parked the car under a supermarket, which was nice, because then it wouldn’t be so hot when I come back.
On my way to the market I saw such a sad thing. On the pavement, under a few trees there were animals locked op in tiny cages. Rabbits, chickens, chicks, ducklings, birds.. there was almost no space for them to move around and with 35C they were so hot. The birds were all opening their mouth, from stress and trying to keep cool. It was heartbreaking and I wanted to shout at the people who’re selling them and shout at the people who’re buying them. I felt so powerless. How could they do this to them? Was I the only one there who thought this was just not normal?! There was a little girl who was picking out a bird. This is the trouble. Nobody was telling or teaching here that this isn’t the way of treating animals. She was happy to get a pet and she’d probably grow up thinking that this is normal. I just stood there, being angry and feeling devastated. It was such a bad start of my day. I hate to walk away and leave the poor creatures.
It was very crowded, but I was looking for my vegan cafe. Following the map I found it easily. It’s in a little street, away from the market. You wouldn’t think there was a cafe if you’d just look at the street. I was very excited. The cafe is called ‘Acai’ and the entrance looks very nice. Inside it wasn’t really what I expected it to be. First of all there was nobody, apart from a few guys sitting around a table in the middle. Second.. the place was quite big, a bit too big to create a nice atmosphere. There were tables with chairs randomly put down to fill it up, but it looked a bit odd. Now this might sound a little negative, but it was just not what I expected. The place was only open for 2 months and so that explained a lot. I do really like it that there was a vegan cafe and that they tried to make it nice with the things available. What I also really liked were the handmade things on the wall from ‘Jipita’, which were for sale. Especially the huge dreamcatcher without feathers and a peace sign was really nice. It’s not only a cafe, cuz in one corner there was a little vegan shop, called ‘Lo Vegano’ with all vegan stuff. I couldn’t resist to buy some cheese, spacebars and chocolate biscuits. Then I had my lunch. They guy who served me was very nice and friendly and though he said his English wasn’t very good, it was no problem at all to talk to him. There were a lot of nice things on the menu, but they also had a burger and of course I went for the burger, haha!  They only had 1 smoothie, an Acai smoothie and as I didn’t have a smoothie for a while I ordered that one too. The burger came with chips, cheese, bread, olives and garlic mayonnaise. Quite a lot for only one person, but it was so good!! The burger was just amazing, the chips so tasty, the garlic mayonnaise so delicious and the smoothie.. I’ve never had such a good smoothie and I’m not joking. This was the best smoothie ever! I really enjoyed my lunch. It would have been nice to go there again, but the next day we were leaving, so no chance. I really enjoyed my lunch and I really recommend it. So when you’re in Mallorca and you happened to be close to Inca, definitely go and have a meal here. Or at least try the smoothie! On my way back to the car I walked past a jewellery market stand and saw a beautiful hanger for a neckless. A silver Ganesh! I just had to get it. Now I only have to find something to hang it around my neck, but I’m sure I can find something in London. It made me so happy, as it is so beautiful!

I still had the afternoon to spend and I decided to go to a place I also went last year, called ‘Port de Pollenca’. I’d be only 15 minutes away from the villa and so it would be easy to go back from there. I went for a little stroll near the water and the little shops and then decided to do some sunbathing. Normally I’m not a big fan of the beach, just because (and I know this sounds slightly ridiculous) there is sand everywhere. It sticks on everything and even after a shower you have the idea that it’s still there. I went anyway. I brought my towel and some smoothies I bought in the supermarket in Inca. It was actually quite nice. I figured out that, because I was on my own I enjoyed it a lot more. The sand was still sticky, but at least I was able to do what I wanted. I went into the sea, had a little dip, looked at the fishes and then back to my towel and I did that as many times as I wanted. Also I had the time and so I made sure I was all dried up and almost sand free before I put my clothes on again. I really enjoyed it! For dinner I went to a restaurant called ‘Cappuccino’. They had an organic quinoa salad over there and so I had that, together with a very expensive organic lemonade (8 euro’s for basically 2 glasses). It was delicious though, but knowing there are lemons growing everywhere in Spain I thought the price was just crazy. I stayed a little longer, just to watch the people and then again I went for a little stroll through the little streets and then walked back to my car. It started to be a little dark already and so it was time to go back. It was a lovely day!

The next morning we left to fly to Geneva, where we will be staying the rest of August. So a lot of goodbyes and not knowing I’d come back here again, I sure enjoyed this week!
It did break my heart to leave the cat and I hope he’ll be fine. I’m still thinking about him and wish I could do something for him. ❤

Did you go to Mallorca? Or are you going? Let me know if you know ‘Acai’ or if you’re going after reading this. You can leave a comment or show me by using #PlanetManel on Instagram. Thank you! X