This is the Life!

It´s kind of surreal being here in this moment. I´m at home in my mind, but really so far away. As I start this blog (in a notebook) it´s 8:30 on Sunday morning. I´m sitting on the sand, surrounded by small fishing boats and listening to the waves crash in front of me. I love being at the beach again, and when the cloud cover melts away, it is more beautiful than Virginia Beach (where my parents reside). I´m soaking up my last few hours of weekend relaxation in Canoa, a toursity, but quite sleepy town 10 km outside of Rio Muchacho farm.

Rio Muchacho has proved to be an amazing experience so far. The owners, Dario and Nikola, are very dedicated and truly know about farming sustainably.

On Sunday night, I took an overnight bus ride from Quito to Bahia. I arrived in the wee hours of Monday morning and took a tricycle taxi to Guacamayo Tours. I basically camped out on the sidewalk for a few hours until the tour company opened. Throughout the morning, other volunteers filtered into Guacamayo as well. By 2 pm, when we left for Rio Muchacho, there were five of us in total. Our journey started with a boat taxi from Bahia to San Vicente. Once on the other side of the water, we found a Rio Muchacho truck and jumped on board in the back. Nikola had warned us that these trucks seem to be able to hold ridiculous amounts of people and stuff. She was right! There were 12 people (at least), water jugs, hiking backpacks, boots, and bags of fruits and veggies spilling out the sides. I never thought for a moment everything would make it to Rio Muchacho (the community). For the next hour, we revelled in the beauty of the ocean and surrounding vegetation. I wanted to pinch myself...this place is far removed from the Ecuador I´ve lived in for the past two months.

Andres and Me on our way to Rio Muchacho

Rio Muchacho (the farm) is located next to Rio Muchacho (the river). However, right now, the river looks more like a creek. The rainy season is supposed to last until the end of April, but in reality, there haven´t been strong storms since February. And yes, the crops are suffering. Just to give you a taste of what we have at the farm...the garden is filled with peanuts, turmeric, ginger, papaya, bananas, sesame seeds, pineapples, lettuce, sugar cane and peppers (the spicy kinds of course). I´m sure there are other crops, but my mind is in vacation mode right now. Not all are producing fruits right now. In fact, we just planted the lettuce this week.

The accomodations are basic but surely nice. It kind of looks like we are living in a tropical paradise...wooden houses with thatched roofs amidst palm trees and other flora. I live with three students, all of whom are studying some form of science for a semester in Ecuador. The entire farm uses composting toilettes. Kind of neat and they really don´t smell badly...at least so far. Kind of odd because on the farm the toilette paper goes in the toilette, whereas elsewhere the toilette paper has to be put in a trash can.

Compost Toilette

All the meals at Rio Muchacho are vegetarian except for eggs and the occasional tuna or sardines from a can. As much as I like vegetarian food, I haven´t had much of an appetite this week (to be explained later). As other blogs have disclosed, breakfast is the best meal. We always have fruit salad with granola and some sort of other carbohydrate...pan de yucca, polenta cakes, polenta with egg or (so I´ve heard) french toast. Lunch and dinner always consist of rice with salad and a protien (often in the form of nuts or nut paste). Soup and juice is served at lunch too. We eat out of bowls and drink from cups made from the Mate fruit. Our ¨spoons¨are made from the fruit as well.

My initial inclination is to say that Rio Muchacho will probably be my favorite volunteer experience in Ecuador (when talking about the work/education). I do, however, miss my friends from La Hesperia. I actually speak a decent amount of Spanish on the farm, which is a nice change. I´ve also started a part-time farming course, taught by Nikola. She is a wealth of information about all kinds of farming. The course runs 4 hours a day for 3 weeks.

Every week, the morning job rotates. We start the day at 6:15 am. This week I worked with 4 other volunteers to cut a high-growing form of grass (they call it pasto here), sugar cane and corn, which we then shredded for the hourses and cows. We also had to clean out the droppings and old food from the stalls. Oh, I think it should be mentioned...all the animals at Rio Muchacho are used for their excrement (in various compost systems). Baby pigs are sold in the community, but we don´t eat the animals. After breakfast, at 8:30, I take the farming course. Those not in the course, head to the garden to work in agriculture. Following lunch, the people taking the course head to agriculture jobs, while the other volunteers often work on special projects near the main house (painting, sanding, building, working at the local school).

Guinea Pig Compost System

Okay, I think that´s enough for the first week. However, there is one update from the last blog. After dealing with the ¨suicide plant¨rash for over a week, only to watch it expand to other areas of my body, I decided to see a doctor on Easter. The rash, as it turns out, was not caused by a plant but rather by some abnoxious bacteria. The doctor thinks it entered my system through a cut. I am currently on meds four times a day. The downside of the med is that it takes away my appetite. However, for the most part, the rash started to go away immediately. The only issue is that as the bacteria rash seems to be subsiding, another one (or two) are making their presence known. I´m guessing the one on my hand is some form of poison ivy, but I´m not sure about the one on my forearm and legs. I´m definitely frustrated with all this itching and much to my dismay, there really aren´t many doctor options around here.

Hasta Luego,

Becky