About Kokopeli
About us
Castellers
A tiny hamlet with ancient stone buildings, a restaurant without even a notice to show it is there, where the lady of the house serves local delicacies she cooked that day on the chance that someone might just show up. The menu is in a strange language spoken only by the inhabitants of the region. All this- in a beautifully green area, with waterfalls and wild mountains, far away from the busy road. Most of us would call this an exotic place and would guess they needed to travel to the end of the world to reach it.
Kokopeli-Adventure invites you to make the acquaintance of places such as this just a hop away from the noise and bustle of Barcelona!
Our specialty is creating unique trips for small groups in the area of Barcelona, Catalunya, the Pyrenees (both the Spanish and the French sides) as well as the Basque Country, Asturias and the Picos de Europa. Our aim is to give our clients the most direct and personal experience of the sites, to bring them to places the average tourist will probably never reach so that at the end of the visit they feel they really got to know the locality and the local people.
At Kokopeli-Adventure we offer trips that are personally suited to the individual clients and their preferences. Would you like to travel in a van? - by all means! Would you prefer motorbikes , or perhaps 4×4 off-road travel? Why, no problem! Would you maybe like to combine horseback riding or mountain biking? That too is possible. What about the culinary area? Would you like to see vineyards and small wineries? How about small hidden restaurants up in the mountains or out in the fields? Maybe you prefer going on foot? Trekking in the Pyrenees, Kayaking?
Castellers
Kokopeli-Adventure offers you all the possibilities. It is important to us to be flexible and to be open to your ideas and desires. We don’t have stop-watches. This is your trip, and it will be at your pace and in your good time. With English speaking guides who live and work in Barcelona, we offer you the chance to visit this magnificent area with us, and to really get to know it. Our guides number photographers and experts on Spanish culture, who prefer the personal experience of working with small intimate groups. Whether you choose a day-trip in Barcelona or a two-week excursion among the peaks of the Pyrenees, we promise you an experience which will be different, unusual and unique!
Why should you choose us? For our experience and our thorough knowledge of the area, our attention to the smallest details which make all the difference. And what do our clients say? You are welcome to go to the feedback page
About Guy
Guy Reifenberg
Kokopeli-Adventure was founded by Guy Reifenberg, a qualified guide and photographer who loves adventures in the great outdoors as well as good food. He is a graduate of the Geographic Photography College and has a BA degree in Government Diplomacy and Strategy.
He has a deep, long standing and thorough acquaintance with the North of Spain and the Pyrenees. He has wandered around the world - for instance he spent a year traveling through central and South America with a 4×4 vehicle, and four months on a motor-bike in Europe followed by a month on an off-road bike in Turkey. He taught at a school for barmen as an expert on whisky, beer and wine and has written several articles on the subjects of alcohol and motor-bike traveling. Guy is also a horseback riding instructor and is willing to try every form of extreme sport. By the way - he prefers his coffee strong, double and “corto” Having tried, tasted and experienced, Guy decided to make his home in Barcelona and to combine all his interests in Kokopeli-Adventure.
From an Article about the Pyrenees
My first experience of this area was in ‘98 while on a trip through Europe. Two days in Barcelona were enough for me to know that this is where I want to make my home. The narrow alleys of the Gothic Quarter, the architecture, the lively night-life and the special atmosphere of the place have made Barcelona one of my favorite cities in the whole world. But these are not the main reasons for my choosing to live in Barcelona. The main reason is what is just close by. Just a short drive from town brings you to the cliffs of the Costa Brava which descend into the see, and right next to them, the Pyrenees mountains rise in all their glory, hiding within them ancient villages with houses hundreds of years old in which people continue to live. There is an almost confusing variety of local gastronomic specialties and above all those spectacular and breathtaking views! Then there is an immense variety of extreme sports activities - kayaking, rafting, canyoning, horseback riding, mountain biking to mention just some.
Summertime is the main festival season in the area. The Festa Major is one of the main festivals and is celebrated in each town and village in the area. The festival is a good excuse for a great deal of drinking, music and food. Every celebration is a reason for flames and fireworks, human-tower competitions and parades of giants and figures with grotesque heads.
The beginning of July is the time for the festival if St. Fermin in the town of Pamplona, and I joined the many others in the traditional running in the streets with the bulls -an exhilarating experience, but definitely not to be recommended to all and sundry. And guess what comes right after the run? Drinks and more drinks!
There are many more ceremonies and festivals, and in most one can perceive ancient roots within the old local customs, some dating back to pagan practices.
The writer is Guy Reifenberg
About Kokopeli
Kokopeli Adventure
Kokopeli is a mythological wandering figure which appears in the tradition of many Indian tribes such as the Hopi the Waihukam and the Zoni in the south and western parts of north America. According to myth, Kokopeli influenced fertility, fertility of the earth and the transition from winter to spring. By tradition, Kokopeli used to go from village to village playing his flute and bringing happiness and making everything flourish wherever he went. Some traditions have it that he sometimes played pranks, but his appearance always enriched the lives of those who came in contact with him.
Kokopeli, as he appears in our logo is a combination of the traditional Kokopeli together with another wanderer, Snufkin, the lovable figure from T.Jensen’s books. This combination of the two figures represents for us the enriching element of the travel experience. The spiral of smoke which comes out of our Kokopeli’s pipe in the logo evolves into the route he walks. The spiral, like life itself, is dynamic.
Our progress in life is not a straight line that leaves the past behind, neither is it a circle which returns to the starting point, but rather a spiral movement. Each experience or event in our life creates the movement, and like in a spiral, we distance ourselves from what was in order to return to it from a different view point, a new outlook, so that the spiral becomes our route through life.
