Daily life on the farm- After three days of hiking and hangovers, we decided it was time to start farming. If you've ever slept in a two man tent on bamboo at an incline then you know what it's like to wake up on the farm. We're out of the tent and making breakfast by seven. Breakfast is either eggs or oatmeal or some variation of those two. Mario, farm manager/shaman(seen below), arrives at 730 and work begins. We have had the pleasure of weeding and mixing cow/horse caca for compost for the last week. At 930 the bell rings signaling that it is tea time! Today was sweet oatmeal tea. Then a few more hours of work and the lunch bell rings. Lunch is a communal task. Each day one person prepares for the entire group. On our turn we made spicy asian pasta and salad made with greens from the garden. Then a few more hours of work and were done for the day. Despite a little exhaustion, we make it into town almost everyday to buy forgotten grocery items or to treat ourselves to a coke. Then we make dinner which is pasta or rice, onions, eggs, and aji(the best spicy chili). Then we play cards with the girls(seen below) and read/listen to music.

Night of the 24th...

On Friday we let loose (on a budget) and got beer, pizza, and went hot tubbing. Very American I know. In reality this entails walking twenty minutes to town (including our daily jump over rocks on the Rio Vazcun) to buy two dollar personal pizza´s from ¨Peperonis Express.¨Then on our way back up we bought 7 giant beers and toted all this back to the farm. We greedily ate the pizza. Then taught the girls Hearts (the card game) while playing a power hour amongst ourselves. Camden won on the last hand with a well executed (astonishingly well for the last few minutes of power hour) shooting of the moon. From there it was on to the hot tub! Tipsy river crossing is not what you might imagine. Though I did soak my foot on the way there drinking actually improves rock jumping form (because you aren't afraid to actually jump). The hot tub is the concrete block we found that collects natural hot water from the mountain. Getting back is harder. As we very unsuccesfully balanced one and then the other foot on the edge of the rock we dried and dressed. Crossing back over I forgot that there is actually a really easy leap from one larger stone to the middle of the river and there to the other side. So Camden tried it the hard way. He found a string of rocks connecting just enough to get him accross. But the jump was so far that, though he made it, he landed off balance. From my point of view all I saw was Camden land a huge jump, then take a step right into the water. One stone sank into the water, so I was forced to remember the actual crossing point. One of many great nights.


When it comes to conversation between me and Ben, we are never short of things to talk about because of one topic in particular. Food! Most people might see the beautiful flowers while hiking in the rainforest, but even with the constant stench of horse poop we are talking about pumkin pie and steak with blue cheese. This happens when you cut meat and cheese out of your diet. So when we arrived at sunday market we could hardly believe our eyes. Organized chaos in the form of food stands. As we walked through people would call out trying to sell us blackberries, strawberries, pineapples, pork, soap, and more. This would have been the equivilant of window shopping for really hungry people, but the food was extremely cheap. We bought a pound of pork from a woman who was hacking it up with a cleaver and trying to show us the different cuts she had despite the fact we had no idea what we were looking at. I didn't even know it was pork. Each stall had a similarly distinct smell and character. After a good hour of shopping, we had spent only 9 dollars and were ready to have some lunch. The pretty girl with an entire roasted pig infront of her caught our eye. We asked how much and she just kept saying as much as you want. Finally, Ben just asked what we could get for a dollar. So she started tearing the pork apart with her hands. The endresult was the best lunch we have had in Ecuador.