I (we) are writing you this update from the small town of Canoa, located on the Northern coast of Ecuador. Currently I am lounging in a hammock at our beach front hostal after being woken up by a pan flute enthusiast who decided to raom the streets at 7:15 this morning, not that I´m complaining. Thus, I now get to sit and reflect on this past week (thanks to my duty as ¨blogger¨) so that the rest of you can live vicariously through our experiences.
We spent our time up in hills by this coastal town at the lovely organic farm of Rio Muchacho. The surroundings were green and lucious (especially considering the season); the buildings were glorified wooden cabins that were dripping in hammocks, bugs, and pen air window-walls; and the food was primarily fresh from the finca (farm) – organic, vegetarian, and full of flavor. The lack of meat certainly started to wear on a few individuals as the week went on, most likely a withdrawl from the westernized diet, but no long term damage seems to have been done.
In short this place is a perfect representation of sustainability, so much so, that they didnt even have trash. All food waste was either composted or fed to the pigs, all humand and animal waste was turned into fertilizer to be used on the farm or sold, and natural rain water catchements, as well as, water conservation and treatment processes were used for drinking, cleaning, and irrigation. The garden itself was then planted in a way that emphasized biodiversity (in plants, animals, and bugs), seasonality, lunar cycles, and the local ecosystem. Nicola and Dario, our hosts, have been improving their practices for the past 20 years, more or less, developing new projects that encompus sustainable agriculture and livelihoods. This includes their environmental school (the only school in their region), indroducing new crops that will thrive in the coastal ecuadorian climate, and buliding their popular ecotourism/volunteer lodge that supports the many locals and traveling individules who are interested in this type of work. But what might we (the volunteers) do you might ask?
Well each day they provided a new lesson on either organic framing principles, the concerns with conventional farming, the ¨how to¨ on being sustainable at home, composting, and the influences of lunar cycles on farming and life in general. Speaking for all of us, I would say we learned a lot, especially considering the work it takes to run a place like this…..
Each morning we started our day at 6- 6:30 with daily ¨chores¨ before breakfast. This meant cutting grass-hay with a machete for the horses, collecting vegetables from the garden, feeding the chickens/pigs, helping in the kitchen, and for the lack of a better term – shoveling shit. I think we can all agree that Simone can atest to the wonders of shit shoveling seeing as she lost her boot and nearly her whole leg to a 4 ft deep pool of pig cacca during a terrential down pour.
The rest of our days were then spent in the previously mentioned lessons, touring the farm, making handicrafts our of seeds and mate (goard like fruit) , eating, siesta, lounging in hammocks, making Nick and Michael L do the dishes for sleeping through morning chores, playing with Manchas (the 3 month old dalmatian puppy…. so cute), participating in ¨band practice¨, änd doing farm activities.¨¨Farm Activities¨ is code for weeding, heavy lifting, shoveling shit, squating in mud, planting seeds, and pretending to understand spanish.
Our last day we took off back to Canoa and found this beach side hostel thanks to Sarah… our ¨cribs¨for the week. Luckiliy we got the last rooms! And friday night we spent a better part of our time salsa dancing – pretending to salsa dance at a local spot right on the beach, my personal favorite. Jealous yet?
That about covers our past week, and now we are off on our next adventure – the language school in Cuenca with our homestays (which are so far amazing… but more on that later.)
please direct all questions and concerns to personal emails.
Ciao!
Erin & SAM I AM (our band… we are unbelieveably talented so stay tuned for recordings and CD artwork)
photos: valentines gifts homemade, SAM I AM album cover, seedlings, manchas, the lodge-cabin, and the beach at canoa.
