We quit the fica, built a table, and found the waterfall.

My sincerest apologies for not updating... things have been a bit hectic as of late. We are currently making plans to head to Peru to see Machu Picchu and the Amazon. I promise a full update as soon as the planning chaos subsides... here are some photos from the farm in the meantime.

All my love.

The story, as of now, told backwards.

¨As for those who so exalt incorruptibility, inalterability, I believe they are brought to say these things through their great desire to live a long time and through the terror they have of death. And not considering that, if men were immortal, these men would not have had an opportunity to come into the world. They would deserve to encounter a Medusa´s head, which would transform them into statues of jasper or of diamond, to make them more perfect than they are... And there is not the slightest doubt that the Earth is far more perfect, being, as it is, alterable, changeable, than is it were a mass of stone, even if it were a whole diamond, hard and impenetrable.¨
Galileo Galilei, Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi

Andrea and I are back inVilcabamba for the weekend in order to use the internet and purchase some necessities to take back to Neverland Farm. It´s a sleepy town sunk deep in a crevice of an expansive mountain range (part of the southern Ecuadorian Andes). We´re deep south- close to Peru. (I can smell the guinea pigs already, haha.) Vilcabamba is known as the town where everyone grows young but their fountain of youth secret remains safely treasured in the soul of this valley. This is the cultural center of Ecuador. This, the Loja Valley, is where poets and writers and artisans of all crafts find their muse, their ambition, their energy.

Tomorrow morning we will bus back down to Tumianuma (un pueblito home to no more than 100 people) and, from Tumianuma, hike through mountain trails for about 45 minutes to reach our farm.
Maybe you would like to know a bit about this ¨Neverland¨farm...
First thing every morning when I wake up, I take a quick bath- feels more like a baptism with how shocking the cold water is to my nerves- in the river that runs alongside the farm. Sometimes I gather the passion fruit which has fallen off the trees overnight. It´s become my new favorite snack. The volunteers make breakfast together. Sometimes we milk the cow and we always have to collect the eggs from the chicken coop (though so far the hens have been very lazy with their production). Lunch is prepared for us (by Sylvia who is mentioned just below) and is ALWAYS fantastic. Afternoons are ours to relax and explore the land. There are hiking trails, swimming holes, and Andrea and I have learned to saddle and ride a horse on our own!
We work in the morning with an Ecuadorian couple who is tending the land while the farm´s owner, Tina, is visiting the states. Honestly, we´re only had one real work day because the past week everyting was in transition- all the old volunteers left and a new bunch (including Andrea and I) arrived. My family is going to make fun of me but so far, we´ve just cleared huisache (they call it fica) from a cow pasture. Yes, I´m rolling my eyes with you.
We´ve been collecting alot of produce from all around the farm- tomatoes, carrots, lettuce, avodados, onion, sweet limes, cilantro, basil, wild blackberries, and pinapple to name a few. I´m learning about farm life around here from Andres.
*phew* I could say so much more but I´m already rambling.

We will be here for about 3 more weeks and then Andrea and I are relocating to a cacao farm much closer to Guayaquil. There we will be tending the banana plantations and learning how to make artesanal chocolate.

I already have a new amazing bread recipe.

My mind still feels flooded by this experience. I´m not entirely convinced that these memories later on in life will ever seem anything other than a dream. I am learning things bit by bit. You can try to change the world or you can let the world try to change you but to demand perfection, in either regard, would be to completely miss the point.

Hasta luego, mis queridos. I miss you all and love you dearly.

I play with machetes and the chickens eat dog food.

Andrea siempre esta´cocinando.

El cielo por la noche.

Yo, claro.

El gallo y el perro (Stewbie).

Lo que comemos.

El jardin.

Maybe seeing is believing but I´ve been on this farm for the past five days and still I feel as if I´m transcending reality.

For the weekend, Andrea and I are in Viacabamba, a small sleepy town hidden in the southern region of the Ecuadorian Andes. So far we´ve spent five days on our first WWOOF farm, ¨Neverland Farm¨, and have already befriended 9 WWOOFers, 3 dogs, 3 cats, 3 kittens, 3 chickens, 3 horses, 1 cow and its calf, a rooster, and a donkey.

I´m not sure how to begin again from where I left off so, for now, I´ll just post some photos.

Exhaling

Estamos en Ecuador. Ya visitamos Quito y Guayaquil y no podemos descansar. *WHEW*

Starting out in Ecuador has been a whirlwind experience. It´s physically the most diverse *small* country in South America- we´ve crossed mountain passes, seen plains expanding with banana plantations, and curretly are situated between the tributaries of the Rio Guayas.

Our time in Quito was short but our hostel, a "little Europe", was really wonderful... it spoiled us with its complimentary roof-top-terrace breakfast the two mornings we were there. Andrea and I hiked nearly the entire Old Town our first morning in Ecuador. In hindsight, that was a daring move to make considering we were not yet acclamated to the altitude and every single street is a "montanita" which somehow always progress at an incline until you give up walking, get a taxi, and he turns the next corner to reveal the *only* street that descends. "Que lastima!" I will say (and Andrea would absolutely agree) aside from the Oswaldo Guayasamin museum, our favorite part of the day was breaking for lunch. We DEVOURED a local dish... sopa de pappas con aguacante y queso (potato soup with avocado and cheese). One thing is for sure, I will be leaving South America nine months from now with a notebook dedicated to recipes detailing the flavors of this continent.

The second day (Saturday) we left the hostel after breakfast and departed on what we were told would be a six hour bus ride to Guayaquil. HA! The journey was not only considerably longer than six hours (okay, only nine but still!) but apparently we reserved the "supermarket" bus- se vende TODO! First, we received nearly an hour lecture on how to maintain a healthy lifestyle which included details on the health benefits of ginseng (an ingrediant, of course, contained within the suppliment tablets for sale). Nearly every hour on the hour began with another passenger standing up, delivering his sales pitch, and passing out the items for sale. The more pushy ones simply shoved their items into your hand and then demanded your cash. I solved this problem by conveniently falling asleep everytime someone "had an announcement to make". Yeah, some announcement- "senoras y senores, por favor, dame su dinero". Indeed.

Guayaquil has felt the most hospitable thanks to the generousity of family friends who have taken both Andrea and I in as if we were their own daughters, sisters, granddaughters. My grandmother put us in contact with her dear friend, Alegria Valensuela, and she, her daughter, and her granddaughter picked us up from the bus terminal when we finally arrived in the city last night. She fed us grilled cheese sandwhiches for dinner, made us hot chocolate, and demanded we finish the last of the cake she had prepared that morning- life is rough, right? Today, Maria, one of Alegria´s daughters, took us on a tour of the city. Guayaquil is the economic ceter of Ecuador, so very modern (expecially compared to colonial Quito) and industrial/high tech. Andrea and I are both eager to arrive at the farm, though. City life is great but also exhausting and offers little to no sense of stability.

I´m trying to upload photos but blogger and I aren´t getting along so well. Let´s hope I win this battle.

Hasta luego, mis queridos.