Hey guys, Ben here with a quick update on our last week and a half!
As the sun beat down, we hopped aboard the old, rustic ferry that would shuttle us to the island of Omotepe. Although the boat leaned significantly to one side and was packed with both people and random junk, the ride was rather relaxing and uneventful. The boat ride provided a nice break from driving in the van while allowing us to soak in beautiful views of the volcanoes.
Eventually we arrived at the port in Moyogalpa, unloaded our bags, and headed down the street towards our hostel. We were all feeling pretty energetic and antsy upon arrival at the hostel so we hopped back in a van and went to the beach for a quick swim. That night we ate some grilled chicken cooked for us by the locals and went to sleep early, in preparation for another day of traveling and our arrival to Finca Bona Fide.
When we finally made it to Bona Fide we were kindly greeted by Mitch and his two dogs. Mitch is one of the directors of the farm. He’s a very chill man and knows a great deal about sustainable farming and permaculture, two main focuses of the farm. We spent the rest of the day relaxing and familiarizing ourselves with our sleeping quarters. It was fun to meet the rest if the Bona Fide community consisting of other staff and volunteers. Since we’ve been here there have been about 30 people living and working on the farm together. Everybody was extremely welcoming and eager to make friends with us.
For the next week and a half we worked in the mornings and took part in workshops in the afternoons. The work is sweaty work, work that inevitably makes us filthy and stinky! Jobs range from digging up plants and replanting, transporting wood, cutting grass with machetes, feeding the chicken and other livestock, and much more. Although the work is hard, it has been really fun to do these hands on jobs and see how our work pays off.
Our days are rather structured which is nice because were kept very busy. At 6:00 we wake up and get ready to start work at 6:45. We work until 8:00 when we break for breakfast. Meals here have been fabulous, consisting of many freshly picked veggies, rice and beans. The only thing is that there’s not much access to meat for meals due to lack of refrigeration (which can be tough for us guys sometimes!). Anyways, after breakfast it’s back to work. We work hard until twelve, have lunch together and spend the afternoons in workshops.
Our workshops have been really cool! One day we made chocolate from scratch. We roasted the cocoa beans, pealed them, ground them up and mixed them with sugar and assorted fruits from the farm. The final product was outstanding. If only it lasted longer! Some other workshops have consisted of yoga classes and tamale making. I have never done yoga before, and I have realized I really enjoy it. I never thought it would be challenging, but I soon found out my preconceptions were very wrong. I think the whole group has really enjoyed bonding over group yoga sessions. The tamale making workshop was just as fun and although it was hard waiting two hours for them to steam over the fire the wait was well worth it. The chicken inside was perfectly cooked, tender, and well accompanied by cooked veggies. The group is looking forward to our basket weaving workshop tomorrow and hiking one of the two island volcanoes on Saturday.
Lastly, I should mention how beautiful the farm is. Many of us have been struggling to cope with the extreme amount if bugs, but we are constantly surrounded by lush plants and amazing views. The farm is perched ob the side of a mountain about 500 ft above Lake Nicaragua. It is quite a spectacular thing to be able to shower outdoors standing facing the lake and volcano as the sun sets. These luxurious aspect of our farm living makes the issue of the bugs seem insignificant. The large kitchen acts as the hub of the farm were we all congregate and hang out together for meals. We break up into cook crews and rotate cooking meals every few days. After dinner, we make attempts to hang out and chat some more but more often then not we realize how exhausted we are and head of to our beds so we can rest up for another day at Bona Fide.
That’s all for now,
We’ll be back with some more soon!
-Ben