La Finca Organica Rio Muchacho

Greetings from Quito once again. On Tuesday morning a little before seven thirty, I rolled into Quito aboard a bus from Canoa. My month long adventure on Rio Muchacho Organic Farm was completely over.

I would say that I was really sad to leave the farm, but that would be a bit of a lie, and if there´s anything I learned from my fellow Ceiba students while at the farm it´s that I really, really do not enjoy it when people tell lies. I will try to not diverge into too many details, but instead will focus on the positive aspects of the farm.

Rio Muchacho Organic farm is located about 20 km from the coastal town of Canoa. Canoa is known to have some of the best surfing in all of Ecuador and there are plenty of surf bums in town to prove it. The surfers of the local persuasion are also quite fond of foreigners, maybe too fond for their own good and definitely too fond for my enjoyment. I am glad I only spent one weekend in Canoa, I found the eagerness and persistence of the men to be borderline disgusting. I don´t find them telling me my Spanish is excellent or that I dance really well as flattering.

Anyway, moving on to the farm. Rio Muchacho Organic Farm was started by an Ecuadorian, Dario and a New Zealander, Nicola. They also own and operate an ecotourist agency based out of Bahía de Caraquez, a city not far from Canoa. The farm is one of the ecotourist destinations for the agency. On the farm there are a number of animals including chickens, guinea pigs, pigs, cows, horses, a donkey, and worms. Zero waste is made on the farm and all animal waste is composted and cycled through the farm system. In addition the farm is vegetarian, so none of the animals are eaten. I tried in multiple ways to find out why there were so many pigs if none of them were eaten and I never got a clear cut answer. Some of the pig pens are connected to the biogester where methane is collected. Unfortunately the burner isn´t connected so the methane isn´t currently being used for anything. I also did find out that piglets are sold, so I guess the pigs are mostly kept around as a money maker for the farm.

As a volunteer on the farm I had a pretty routine schedule. Every morning I started work at 6 AM. Everyone had a prebreakfast routine. The first week I was on the farm I shoveled shit in the horse corral and cow stantions. I also helped feed any animals that were in the corral instead of on pasture. The second week I was on the guinea pig routine. Guinea pigs are traditionally eaten in Ecuador, but the little guys at Rio Muchacho are there more as a model of a way to raise guinea pigs and use their waste. The guinea pig houses/cages are placed above worm composting bins. So their excrement feeds the worms and produces high nitrogen compost. The guinea pig routine was pretty easy, it involved cleaning the cages, feeding the little guys grass and ground corn and then doing some odd jobs like bringing firewood to the kitchen and cleaning rubber boots in the river. Then for my final week on the farm I was on the irrigation routine. It was a little lackluster since we were still in the rainy season. I had to water in the greenhouse which isn´t so much a greenhouse as it is 6 wooden posts with a plastic ceiling. Not the most stimulating routine but it did allow for me to sneak an early morning orange from the orange tree in the middle of the garden. How delicious!!

Breakfasts on the farm were the best breakfasts I´ve had in Ecuador. Finally I found a place that values breakfast as much as we do in the States! Every morning we had a huge fruit salad topped with granola and then a fried bready item on the side. My favorite bready item was pan de yuca, yuca the plant that feeds the tropical world makes a gummy substance that sounds gross but definitely satisfies! There was always fresh made tea and fresh brewed coffee made from beans that were grown, dried and toasted all on the farm! A few times, after some Canadian tourists had visited the farm, we even had real maple syrup to finish off the meal! I forgot how much good maple syrup can improve something, but have no fear Wallners, I won´t be stepping out on the family syrup anytime soon.

After breakfast we always did agricultural work in the garden. Some days we would be planting. There were quite a few things grown in the garden including maiz, camote (sweet potato), basil, ginger, sesame, melons, watermelon, peanuts, ají peppers, other peppers, cucumber, achoncha (a hollow fruit of some sort, it wasn´t ready so I never tried any), Pepino Indio (Indian cucumber), pumpkins, squash, tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, yuca, beets, beans of many varieties, papaya, banana, cacao, coffee, mango, oranges, limes, zucchini, lemon grass, okra and more that I am sure I am forgetting. Needless to say, there was never really a dull meal to be had. Besides planting we did a lot of tasks that any garden needs, weeding, mulching, turning compost piles, harvesting finished compost from worm bins, pruning trees and shrubs, harvesting fruits and vegetables, watering and whatever else was needed. I really enjoyed the garden work, it reminded me a lot of home and all the gardening I have done there. I almost felt homesick, but there was too much going on to let it take hold, thankfully.

Following lunch we usually had 30 to 45 minutes to take a siesta or chill out. I spent most of that time relaxing or sleeping in one of the many hammocks on the farm. You know you are in a great place when there isn´t a shortage of hammocks! Afternoon work was usually spent on ongoing farm projects. I helped with the revitalization of an area surrounding a new tourist cabin that is in the midst of being built. I was partnered with Sheena and she turned out to be not the hardest of workers. For nearly a college graduate she sure lacks initiative and always had to wait for someone else to come by and tell her what to do instead of just starting to work on her own. I was a little less than pleased to work with her, but so it goes.

Unfortunately, since we were simultaneously taking a class on organic agriculture with Nicola we didn´t have as many afternoons as I would have liked to work on our project areas. In the end though I helped lay rocks that outlined the path, pulled weeds, removed rotting wood and trash, planted a few dozen new ornamental plants, and helped but up a rock wall at the base of the cabin. So the area definitely shows some improvement and even the before and after photos are pretty neat.

Speaking of the class, in retrospect I would have elected not to take it. It was a lot of review and I feel like at this point I will learn more from hands on work. I have spent five years in the classroom, it´s time to do something with these hands! In addition a couple of the other Ceiba girls were less then enthusiastic about it as well and all in all it just wasn´t that much fun for any of us.

As volunteers on the farm we also had a weekly cultural afternoon. The first time we walked to a giant strangler ficus tree. The roots on those trees are spectacular! That same day we went to the workshop on the farm and did artesania, or made jewelry out of Tagua nuts. Taguas is known as vegetable ivory, it has a really hard nut that can be sawed, cut and shaped. We made rings and pendants for the most part. Our second cultural afternoon consisted of a rather unsuccessful attempt to catch river shrimp, or crawdads in Rio Muchacho. We caught a whopping two and then never even got to try them, it seems the kitchen ladies made them mysteriously disappear. Finally last week we went horseback riding. I hate horseback riding. Five minutes in I was ready to get off and walk the horse back to the corral. I thought that 10 years ago when I went for a ride with our dying Girl Scout troop that I never would have to go again, but I was wrong! The Rio Muchacho horses are suck skinny little things that felt bad anytime anyone rode one, much less myself! On top of that it is the rainy season so there is mud everywhere and though my horse never fell there were a few too many close calls. I also am pretty sure the horse knew my dislike of riding on his back so as payback he led me astray into every weed tangle along the road. I came back with a nice shallow but stinging cut on my neck from when a vine was in too close of contact with me! At least I survived in one piece. I hope I never have to get back on the literal saddle!

Work ended every day around 4 PM and then we were free until dinner at 6 PM. Sometimes I would read or play cards during this time. Sometimes some of us volunteers would chat and just hang out. I enjoyed getting to know the other volunteers. There were three Germans, two of which were brother and sister, a young British guy, a UW alum (small world, right), and then the last week we were there, 2 Canadians. Quite a world mix. On top of that there were 6 farmhands, 4 of which were 20 somethings as well. I tried to talk to the farm guys but I got fed up with all the conversations about beer and dancing so I kind of gave up on it. I´m sure they think I am boring and don´t like to have fun since I didn´t play cards with them that much or take more than one trip to the tienda (aka a garage where the owner sold beer out of) with them. I don´t really care though because I found a lot of that to be a distraction for the Ceiba girls that participated. In the end I think some of my fellow UW students missed the entire point of the internship, they are no more aware of organic agriculture and its connection to conservation than they were before we went to the farm. On top of that 2 of them never really wanted to be at the farm, it was the only option they left themselves with and I don´t think they had much invested in their time there. In the grand scheme of life I guess a three week internship doesn´t really matter, but when other people set expectations for you, whether it is a professor or a supervisor or even just a friend, I think it is your responsibility to follow through. I don´t think 3 of my fellow Ceiba girls did that, I think they missed the point.

In the end, I feel sort of neutral towards the farm. I will fondly remember the other volunteers (non Ceiba) and conversing and working with them. I will miss the garden, the delicious food, the animals (especially the kitten and the piglets), the hammocks and the sounds of the night. However I won´t miss the incessant flirting and giggling that I had to listen to. I won´t miss having to hear about the ¨crazy weekend¨in Canoa for the entire week. I won´t miss how disgusted I felt when the girls I was working with could so easily overlook that most of the farm guys they were flirting with were married men. I don´t care if we are young, studying abroad and looking for a good time. There are lines that shouldn´t be crossed.

In the end, I am glad I had the chance to be on the farm. Though it was not the highlight of my semester and I spent more time being frustrated and annoyed than is probably healthy, I think I learned some important lessons. I am ready for the next adventure and I am looking forward to traveling with my sisters and Kara!!