Neverland Farm!

This is me outside the hostal in Cuenca, in front of a HUGE avocado tree! This is the day we went to the market and I got sunburnt a bit, before heading to Loja, where I met Kena the next morning.


This is my room in the hostal in Loja, the one that cost $5/night, hence the smallness and minimal decorations. The bed was also very uncomfortable, but hey no complaints, it was $5!


Me, duh, on the bridge between Tumianuma and the oh-so-enjoyable trek to NF.



I knew my bags weren´t made for long trips, and luckily this walk was only 45 minutes, but PUHLEASE, how uncomfortable! The duffle bag that I have jam packed was used as a backpack of sorts, as the straps rubbed into my shoulders. So then I switched it to the front and had to push it to one side so I could see where I was going. However, I am still glad I didn´t buy a backpack for this trip, thankyouverymuch Mom! ;)


About 15 minutes later I could barely take another step, so we took a break and I relaxed on my bags!



Kena, my travel partner, with his uncomfortable and bulky gear!


My room, in the "mural room" (view the murals on the walls), with my glorious sleeping bag that is WAY TOO HOT here. I usually sleep outside of it in just a t-shrit. The annoying thing is how there are 3 cats, a mama with her 2 kittens, that live outside and want to always sneak into our room. Not a big deal except that we´ve been told they pee inside we have to shew them out as fast as we can! Bugs aren´t all that awesome at night either. The headlamp unfortunately tends to attract bugs to your face too!


My and Kena´s room at night. We use candles for most of our light since only Tina´s house and the kitchen have electricity, solar powered. I still have fear of lighting matches so whenever I want candles lit or want to use the oven, which is gas, I have to ask Kena (I´m embarrassed to let too many people know this silly fear). Also please note the ever present laundry line that I need for drying out my clothes. Instead of taking them to town or something to get cleaned, I usually just wash them with my Dove bar of soap in the shower, which is outside with warm water by the way!


My very serious work outfit. The boots are helpful while working in the weeds and splashing in the water. But since they are plastic, black and tall they get my socks soaking wet with sweat by lunch time. My socks also get very dirty, but they are stil good to use regardless. Also, the purple headband is a constant part of my attire, maybe a splash of color (always fashion conscious I am), an attempt to keep hair out of my eyes, or just a new addiction...who knows?! I also smear on the bug lotion and sun screen every morning and sometimes will don the ever fashionably sexy sporty glasses (the guy on the bus told me this creepy story about how an extra layer of skin can grow on your eyes if you don´t protect them so I try to wear them often). I switch between about 3 different t-shirts, luckily Kena let me have one of his because I didn´t pack much cool weather clothing. And always wear the capri kacki work pants--I´m good looking, right??!!


Last Friday we worked with caca de la vaca (cow shit) all day. Here Kena and I are sifting some of the older, much drier caca through the sifter. It was an all day job for the 4 of us (me, Kena, Julien, Laura) as two shoveled shit onto the sifter and 2 sifted. Even though I wore gloves, by the end of the day I had a nasty blister on the palm of my left hand, which is added to the blister I have on my left thumb from shoveling earlier that week.


After lunch (which is the biggest meal of the day here) we have a bit of time to hang out. Usually we just sit around the kitchen table until Tina or Carlos or someone rallies the troops, but last Friday Kena and I went to Tina´s house where we read stories outloud to each other from a kid´s book of stories for reading out loud and then just sat. Here you can see our elevated feet on the coffee table in front of the couch, overlooking the mountains from Tina´s bedroom (a common hang out place because it has lighting, couches, a library, games and music).


What´s a farm without weird bugs? I don´t know the name of it or anything, but I don´t think it is poisonous and Laura even thinks people eat the juice inside of them...who knows?!


Here I am cooking in the kitchen at night. With the electricity only in the kitchen, we use candles around the dinner table, and all the moths flock to the kitchen light which is super gross when they´re flying around your head. I´ve really gained confidence while cooking here because we have so few ingredients and no prepared food so whenever you want to eat you actually have to cook. Some of the masterpieces I´ve made include oatmeal cake, buterscotch brownies, banana bread (the only sweets we´ve had while being here--leave it to me to bake even if we don´t have butter, eggs or vanilla), lots of oatmeal cooked in citrus juice, oatmeal pancakes, roasted veggies, smashed green bananas (they use a lot of green bananas that are really yellow bananas that haven´t ripened yet, like for soups or a puree of sorts), ratatouille and much more! I´m having fun, learning a few new things and realizing my style of cooking involves lots of oats and veggies.


Here is Julien, a volunteer from France who has been traveling through South America for the past year and a half, who learned Spanish once he arrived and does not know English. He is a very hard worker in the field and is seen here standing next to a fire of burning weeds. We worked a LOT with weeds and this one time they burnt a section because it was too thick to just cut through. Weeding is a task I still do not enjoy whatsoever, but I know it is important to do and with a lot of others working alongside me it isn´t as daunting.



Weeding, oh yeah baby. And yes, I actually do work here sometimes, not just pose for pictures!


Michael and Emma around the dining table. It is a large table surrounded by 4 benches and in the center is a huge lazy susan where all the food is placed so you can help yourself. Sometimes the chickens get up on the table and we have to push them off because they aren´t the cleanest of animals. Also the cat will beg super annoyingly along with the dogs at times--it is a farm...


My all time favorite spot on the farm: the hammock. I have read numerous books here already and try to get my daily dose of hammock time. There is a stereo above the hammock as well which is great for a super relaxing break.


I still love washing dishes, and here I am doing just that at the sink outside of the kitchen. Lucky for us we have hot water and the water is potable right from the tap! We have created chore lists where we sign up to do different tasks each day, so I still get my fill of dish washing in!


The compostable toilet. Isn´t it beautiful? This is just the privacy wall here but the toilet isn´t all that exciting to show off. It has glass bottles and is made of adobe. It is a beautiful experience at night time with all the stars clearly seen around you.


Yeah can you believe it? I barely could. Me, near a horse! I am slowly loosing my fear of horses. I´ve petted them, lead them, and even fed them some sugar (which was hilarious because they couldn´t shove the whole bit into their mouths but tried to so they ended up dripping a sugary like substance onto the ground). At the farm we have 3 horses and the white mare is by far my favorite because she´s old and muy tranquila, or chill.


I´m ready for a tough day out in the field--bring it on Mother Nature!


We take occasional breaks while working out in the field. That day we were working in the garden, digging up the super nasty weeds that covered the entire field. I was super sore the next day. Here I am talking with Dalton, one of the university students that was at the farm for the week. It was a great opportunity to continue pracicing my Spanish and I learned a lot about other lives people have in Ecuador, outside of the community in MP.


Kena on the hike eating a square of sugar, with the beautiful view behind him.


Lounging on a tree, eating a passion fruit, enjoying the view and the breeze in my sports bra...ahh, the life in Ecuador is SO hard :)


The hikers, taking a break in the shade. Luckily I didn´t bring anything, besides my water bottle in Kena´s backpack, so I wasn´t in as much pain as I could have been in!


The river below, to the left is where our farm is, and we headed straight up, above the surrounding mountains!


Me and Julien catching the wind to cool down.

On our last night with the group of volunteers, we all walked into Tumianuma to Norman´s house for a little party.

Hey! It has been two weeks and let me tell you that two weeks here without internet is like months in "the real world"! Let´s see oh yeah I remember where I left off. I was actually sitting a few computers away from where I am right now on a Monday morning. I was with Kena (who I met in Loja and I´ve been traveling with since) and we were waiting for the bus to take us to Tumianuma, closer to NF. We grabbed the bus and it took us an hour to get to Tumianuma because there were so many school children on the bus at that time. We went to the one store in the pueblo and talked to Gloria, who owns the store, about how to get to la finca de Tina (Tina´s farm, aka Neverland Farm, NF). We thought we understood so we started out. Our directions were detailed but after a few minutes we weren´t sure of where we were going so decided we were going the wrong way. When we traced our steps back we soon realized we were going the right way the first time. We found this out with the help of this old guy who wanted to help us and said if we paid him $5 he´d take us there. We were pretty sure we could do it on our own though and I was a little nervous since he was carrying a machete (a common tool here but nevertheless a bit worrisome to me!).

The rest of the journey can be deciphered through the pictures I posted. Pretty much it was super uncomfortable, very hot and just long enough to rethink how much junk I shoved into that stupid duffle bag. Once we got there we met some of the volunteers at the farm:
Sam (California) and Pablo (Mexico): a couple who had been studying in Santiago, Chile for the past semester and a half but had to leave after the earthquake.

Leigh (Scotland) and Isaac (Canada): a couple who had been working at a hostal in Quito, Ecuador for the past six months.

Emma and Michael (both from England): a couple who had just arrived and were starting their trip by working at NF.

Tina: the owner of Neverland, about 48 years old, originally from Virginia, has 2 dogs, some cats, 3 horses, and a few Ecuadorians who help with the work at her farm.

Sylvia and Andres (Ecuadorians): a couple who live in Tumianuma and help at the farm. Sylvia is a wonderful cook and helps Tina with the lunches, which are always fabulous. They usually include juice, rice, a salad, a few hot dishes, sometimes meat, and tea/coffee. Andres helps in the field and taught me a lot about composting and the wonderful uses for cow manure!

Norman and Carlos (Ecuadorians): they are as strong as bulls. Norman loves to say my name: "Karrrly" with a rolled r. And Carlos is crazy strong! One day Kena and I were carrying small-ish trees that were pretty long, bulky and a bit heavy. We also carried a long piece of bamba, over 20 feet long and probably over 50 pounds, and were struggling around the mountain. We had to take several breaks and as we were doing so, here comes Carlos RUNNING up the hill with a large, similarly shaped piece of bamboo on his shoulder, by himself, whistling and laughing! Yeah, much stronger than we are.

That was who was there when we first arrived and were able to meet within the first few days. In our first week of work this is what our days were like:

Wake up around 8, 8:30 to eat breakfast and start working by 9, 9:30. Work in the field until 12:30 when we break for lunch. Around 2 we start back up again and work till 4:30. After 4:30 we have free time to read, cook dinner, gather the chickens back into their coop, play Jin (I taught Kena how to play and we have been hooked), or go in the jacuzzi (there is a little river by the kitchen that Kena and I call the jacuzzi because after a large rain it was very powerful; it is cold water but feels awesome after a long sunny hot day). Dinner is around 7 and I usually go to bed by 9 to read.

Some random things from these two weeks:

1. I take a daily vitamin in the morning and a Benedryl at night because I have so many freaking mosquitto bites that without that pill I can´t sleep thoroughly. It is a bummer that my body is taking such a beating here: sun burns, mosquitto bites, spider bites, scratches, blisters, cuts, back aches, you name it I´ve had it...well almost.

2. The weather here is an extreme 360 from the 2 pairs of pants, 2 scarves, 2 jackets, etc from MP. It is SO HOT I wish I could wear less clothes, but the less clothes you wear the more skin you show for the bugs to bite.

3. For the next several weeks college students from a university in Loja are coming to the farm for a week at a time in groups of 5-6 for their practica (kinda like an internship). So this past week, our first week with volunteers, had 5 people, 3 girls, 2 boys (the girls roomed with me as Kena was moved to la bodega, tool room/extra beds with the boys).

4. This place reminds me SO MUCH of the cabin except for the lack of family, marshmellows and redwood trees--there are even marijuana plants around that I´ve heard about, but haven´t tried.

5. Have I mentioned that it is hot and buggie here?! And 2 weeks without the internet is like eternity? I´m going to get internet sooner, like next week, with more updates and actual thoughts just not actions.

6. Yesterday, Saturday, Kena, Julien, Laura (volunteer from Belgium) went on a several hour hike straight up a mountain. We were trying to find Incan ruins but got tired around 2 and were afraid we´d have a hard time finding our way back in the dark. Kena and I returned while Julien and Laura spent the night there. It was exhausting, my back got super sun burnt, but there were beautiful views. Luckily to return only took like 2 hours!

7. Overall I am enjoying myself. I have to look past the bodily pain of itchy bites and sunburns, but I love the nature and the beauty, the slower paced life and the amazing things I can learn from Tina, Norman, Sylvia and the other volunteers here.

Hasta la semana proxima (talk to ya next week!)!