Río Muchacho

This past week, the BCA group took a trip to an organic farm.

We had our last session of our Pre-semester course on monday and then 1AM monday night we left on a bus for Río Muchacho. I fell asleep right away and slept until I realized we were stopped. Our trusty bus had broken down. Perfect. We were about half and hour away from our destination of Canoa and the bus wasn't working. We waited about an hour for another bus to come and take us to Canoa. While we were waiting, we ate our packed ''lunches'' even though it was like 6:30 in the morning.

Our bus finally came and we transfered all of our luggage and were on our way again. We got to Canoa, which is a little beach town very similar to Montanita. We had about 4 hours or so to be on the beach and get something to eat for lunch. We laid on the beach for a while and met a very interesting guy named Juan. He was offering us free surf lessons and speaking pretty poor english, but at least he was trying. haha. He seemed like he was drunk or something because he couldn't seem to remember any of our names or where we were from because he asked us all multiple times. After we finally escaped Juan, we went and found some lunch. I got a cheese sandwich and some french fries which was probably the most american meal on the menu. =]

Then we were finally on our way to Río Muchacho. Río Muchacho is an organic farm and everyone there is vegitarian. So, needless to day I ate mostly rice and fruit the whole time. I politely shared my vegetables with everyone else. =] Also, they have animals (like most farms) but they don't use them for what you think. Like I said, they're vegetarians, so they don't eat their animals, they use them for their poop. That's right. They use thier poop for compost. They have horses, one donkey, cows, pigs, chickens, cuy (guinea pigs), goats and worms. Yes, they use the worm poop too. Also, their toilets are compost toilets as well, so they use human feces to fertilize the fields that grow the food for the animals. Yummy, huh? =] Along with the organic food, we weren't allowed to use our own shampoo. It had to be organic as well. I don't think I could have lived like this for more than a few days...

We got there around 5 PM and moved all of our things into our cabanas and hung around until dinner at 6. After dinner we had a meeting with the couple who started the farm. The husband, Dario, is Ecuadorian and his wife is from New Zealand. They just told us how things work and gave us the layout of how the rest of the week was going to go. They also split us up into three groups that would work each morning with the animals and things. After our meeting we headed up to the kitchen and they showed us how to roast coffee beans to make coffee. Unfortunately, I don't like coffee so I couldn't enjoy it. But everyone else got a small cup and they said it was pretty good. We all went our separate ways and headed back to our cabanas for the night.

They next day we got up and had fruit and granola for breakfast and then we went on a tour of the entire farm, including the school that is also on the land, and is also organic. It was interesting but very long and in spanish so I tuned out quite a lot. We all got to make our own rings out of the seeds from this one really tall palm tree. They're like wooden and pretty sweet. We got back from our tour and had lunch. And I can't really remember what we did after lunch until dinner, but it was probably really cool. =] After dinner we got to roast cacao and make some chocolate sauce that we poured over some delicious pinnapple. It was sooo good. =]

On thursday, it was my teams turn to work with the animals. Well everyone else got assigned a job and I was supposed to work with the cuys, but the people I was supposed to work with never showed up so I got to help out with breakfast. I cut up most of the watermelon, the bananas, and some other fruit. After breakfast we went into the fields and some guy with a machete cut all 23 of us down a banana leaf for our lunch. I was really confused why we all needed one, but I quickly understood once we got back. We laid our leaves over the fire one by one and let the heat turn them a nice dark green and then we stripped the leaf part off the stem and filled the leaf with our lunch. It was a pretty nice little lunch carrier. =]

After we all had our lunches ''packed'', we were ready to head to the monkey forest! I got to go on horseback! My horses name was ''Tornado'' (spanish, not english) because he was jet black just like Zorro's horse. =] It was so flippin' sweet and now I wish I had a horse of my own so I could ride whenever I wanted. I was really sore afterward, but I'm sure if I rode more, that wouldn't happen. But it was about an hour and a half ride up to Mamá Jovíta's house. Once we got there, the group who had walked there had already eaten their lunches, so we stopped and did the same.

Once we were all full, we headed into Mamá Jovíta's house. She is a 97 year old woman who, I believe, is taken care of by the people at Río Muchacho. She just talked to us for a few minutes and showed us the things that she weaves by hand. Her kids tell her to quit weaving because she's so old and it's not good for her but she obviously doesn't listen to them. =]

After the last two people arrived at the house, we went on our hike up to the monkey forrest that is right behind Mamá Jovíta's house. Hike is a really relative word...it was more like a legit climb. I was using my hands because it was so steep. Some parts were soo muddy and reeeeaaally hard to climb and I about fell down the entire mountain, bringing everyone behind me along with me. We finally made it to the point where we could see monkeys and I was huffing and puffing. Soo exhausted and the monkeys were mad at the dog who had followed us all the way from the farm so they started peeing and throwing poop at us... =\ We didn't stay up there too long and we decided to start making our decent. This was equally as difficult as the climb up there. We were slipping all over the place but we all made it down safely. =]

Then it was time to visit the ''waterfall''. We rode our horses while the rest of them rode in the truck, which got stuck twice in the first few rivers that we crossed. =] It was quite humerous. But while we were waiting for the truck to get out of the second river it got stuck in, Kelsey's horse passed out. It was eating the grass and plants and the harness around it's neck was too tight so it couldn't breath so it just legit passed out while kelsey was on it. She fell into the river with our guide Ginson who was trying to rescue her. She was fine and so was the horse but it was pretty scary to watch a horse just fall over.

We got to the waterfall and a few people decided to swim in it, but we were only there for like 15 minutes. We then headed back to the farm. It was soo fun because I finally got my horse to trot but then he just decided to full out RUN! It was amazing. I need a horse.

After we got back we had free time until dinner so we played cards. We did this a lot here. =] Haley, Laura and I taught Daniel how to play euchre. I don't remember what was for dinner this night but i think it was like spaghetti kind of. It was real good. Then after dinner we had a campfire down by the river. Daniel told some rediculous story about ''pink potatoes'' that had no point at all, and I shared a few Red Herrings. =] All in all, i think this was my favorite day there.

In the morning, we had, you guessed it, fruit and granola for breakfast and then we gathered all of our stuff together and were on our way home. We stopped in canoa again to let some people off because they were gonna stay on the coast for a few more days. We got home around 8:30 and I was soo tired. It was a really fun week but I am NEVER going to be a vegetarian. I like meat too much. =]

We don't have another big trip until the Galapagoes at the end of October, so I dunno how much I will write on here, although I will try.

Orientation is Tuesday and classes start Wednesday. Let the semester begin! =]


Hasta Luego



World Traveler