I have been in Colombia for 5 weeks now! I´m loving everything about being here so far. Blog posts are few and far between. We do not have internet connectivity at the farm, so when I want to get online I can either walk a short distance to an internet cafe and use their computers or take a taxi into the city (about 30 minutes away). I´ve been going into town a lot more recently because I´ve really missed city life and it´s a good fix after a week at the farm in a small village. Here comes a little about where I am and what I´ve been doing...
 |
| freshly ground chocolate! |
The farm-what it´s all about:
It is an eco yoga farm which means it maximizes the use of sustainable products and local resources. We have a large garden with herbs, beans, vegetables and some flowers. We also have a fruit tree orchard with papayas, bananas, plantains, and some other fruits that I don´t know the english names for. The fruit tree orchard is quite large-there are 2 located on opposite ends of the farm. We are currently in the process of moving some trees from one area to the other for better exposure and soil changes. We harvest and use as much from the land as we can. Every meal has at least a portion directly from the farm with the rest from local vendors or farms. The food is amazing! Every meal is so delicious! It is a vegetarian farm and I now understand how people who eat less food of the world, namely no meat, can get bellies-it´s happening!
 |
| the garden |
Location:
The farm is located in the southern part of Colombia near the salsa capital, Cali. I am 3 hours north of Cali and about 8 hours south of Bogota. Cartago is the nearest city, 30 minutes by taxi or an hour by bus-the local school bus that is. It is a small city that does not receive many tourists. I love that! The farm is in a village with about 400 people. There are other farms in the village, but no other eco farms.
An eco structure, cabana, has been built on the farm and I am currently living in it. It´s made from wood from the trees in the area with mosquito nets as windows. It´s really awesome because it feels like I´m sleeping outside! They are building 2 larger cabanas on the property now.
We are located at the edge of the Cauca River. Sometimes I swim in the river, but the current is ridiculously strong, so I stay close to the edge. The village pumps water from the river for daily use. We use the river water for everything except drinking. We purchase bottled, filtered water from the city to drink and fill up our tanks a few times each month.
Work:
As volunteers at the farm we work for 3-4 hours each day. Work can change day to day and depends on what is needed at the farm, what each volunteer wants to do and any new projects that are developing. Some of the regular duties are cooking, cleaning, working in the garden (planting seeds, weeding, watering, etc), cleaning the grounds of the farm. I have made a few shoe racks from local wood and a bookshelf. We recycle everything and try to reuse a lot of it. We pack all trash into bottles (from water or soda) until they are hard, then use them to build structures. So far, we´ve only used them to help stop water flowing away from plants or trees-very important-but we plan to extend the brick built recycling area on the farm using the "eco bricks".
There are a lot of volunteers who come to and from the farm. Most stay for about a week, but some stay longer-one month or so. When I first arrived there were 2 girls who had been at the farm for two months. I´m not sure how long I will stay here, but I´m loving it more and more as the weeks pass. I start formal spanish lessons next week and I think that will keep me here for awhile, not that I was ready to leave otherwise. The unfortunate thing about not having great wifi or my digital camera with me is that I have no photos to upload. I will try to get somewhere soon to add pictures (the ones here are from a friend-thanks Malou!), but for now you must read to know what´s going on :)
