Aquí

7 Marzo, 2014

today, i made it to the farm. it’s in the mountains and it’s beautiful. as with most landscape, the wonder is difficult to capture with a camera phone, but find some attempts below.

the owner lizzie and her son are british, but her partner is canadian. the other volunteers are a family of four: husband, wife, daughter, son. also british. lizzie and her son speak fluent spanish, and no one i’ve come across so far in the nearby towns speaks english. lizzie has a spanish language program online i’m going to do on days when i don’t have energy to go and speak to natives. she also teaches yoga down the street, so you know i’m all over that.

the pictures you see on the blog that lizzie has are of the hostel she and her partner own in the nearby city: torvizcon.

they have built a similar house and another wooden house on the farm where i’m staying, but lizzie and family live in the former and the other volunteers (also a family) live in the latter. right now, i’m living in a caravan next door to the other volunteers. i will move into the volunteer house once the family is gone in april.

the weather is mild. around 75 during the day; around 50 at night.

and omg, the stars are so clear at night i feel like i could reach out and touch them.

the volunteer couple is nice: kirsten and jason. kirsten is chatty and motherly, very good in the garden; jason is chill and handy, likes to build things. both are silly and make up alternative lyrics to songs with their children, who are home schooled. the children are also silly and chatty and cute. kirsten is a professor on a one-year sabbatical and i don’t know what jason does.

lizzie is funny and talkative too. she’s built so much of this land, it blows my mind. three houses, almost completely solar powered. she has a permaculture system with water, composted food, animal waste, and other materials that is completely self reliant. she even uses old bottles, cans, and plastic to build and insulate the houses.

on the farm, there are chickens, llamas (hence my background photo. llamas are native to peru, but they are also on this farm. so i'll be pretty familiar with them by the time i return to the states), dogs, cats, almonds, grapes (yes, they make wine, but wine season has passed), asparagus, cabbage, artichokes, lima beans, mint, and the list goes on and on. of course she’s had volunteers along the way (like me) to help build it all, but she started the project, participated in it, and has kept it going. i’m impressed, overwhelmed, excited to learn.

today, i tried not to nap, but couldn't help it. i slept for 2 hours between 1 and 3pm. but that’s not bad, right? i think i’ll be able to get to sleep tonight.

wish me luck.

my room/caravan

kitchen area

bathroom area

compost toilet

garden area

pool

outdoor bath, water heated by lighting a fire below

storage room, steps made of tires

pollos! i fed them yesterday...

llamas!

lizzie's house, she started building from scratch 7 years ago.

entrance to the farm

surrounding mountains

city of torvizcon, where i walked for 30 minutes to use the internet and make these posts...