Lucky me, I got to experience a once in a year event - 10/17/09

I can´t believe we´ve experienced more excitement to tell about, but it´s true. There´s only three of us left (and still no Tina) so every night we are doing our best not to creep ourselves out about being in the dark, in the forest, an hours hike from help, and with these obnoxsious dogs that do not stop barking at nothing all night. This is no small feat and usually unsuccessful. Nature decided to make it even harder. I went into my room with no wall and Andrea and Rebecca went into their´s. I was laying in bed, trying to relax, when all of a sudden it soudned like giant boulders were rolling down into the valley, then it was dead silence, not even the bugs were making noise, and then my bed started shaking. It lasted like 20-30 second which maybe doesn´t seem like a lot, but I challenge you to experience the smae thing under our circumstances. After the rumbling and shaking I was so terrified I couldn´t move. I yelled outto the girls and asked them if they had felt that too, and they had. I ran into their room where we all freaked the hell out and vented our frustrations that we were left alone, in the middle of the woods, to deal with one natural disaster after another. I eventually built up the courage to go back to my room, but I had a terrible sleep. The past few days we have been working on constructing an extension to the table. Right now there are benches on all four sides, but the actual table only reaches three of the benches which is not only just a poor design, its also super annoying. So us three ladies have been putting our carpentry skills to work and it´s been really enjoyable. We also found this part of the river that has a tiny little waterfall that falls into a calmer pool area with giant rocks all around and purple flowers floating everywhere. I´ve been bathing there every day and I feel like I have my own private spa; it´s gorgeous.

Fire, Fire on the Mountain - 10/13/09

Yet another unwelcomed exciting day in Neverland. No one could ever say this place is boring. We were all hanging around, enjoying our Sunday morning with some breakfast and relaxation. Chloe and Bruno came up from the path and told us, quite exasperated, that the mountain was on fire. Oh god. It is dry season and covering the mountain is just dry grasses. We ran out to get a better view of what was going on and literally an entire mountain, on our side of the valley, was ablaze and racing down the mountain, burning up everything, and in a hurry. We were all alone. Tina is still in the US and Andres (dude that comes during the week to tell us what to do) doesn´t come in on the weekends. So literally we were running the farm all by ourselves. On the one hand, I love this. It´s like we were just given an entire farm, with a fully stocked kitchen, and animals to boot, and we are just set free to do what we please. On the other hand, we have little idea of what the hell we are doing and there is nothing in the way of an emergency instructions manual. So we see the mountain burning up and we decide that, rather than take chances with our lives, it might be a good idea to pack up and go into Tumianuma. I was real unenthusiastic, to underexagerate, to undertake the voyage of hell for the third time in two days, but, it was a better option than burning alive. I packed up my beast of a bag in record time. We decided to take the three dogs, the donkey , and the horse. I was doing everything I could to get the kittens to stay in one of the donkey´s saddle bags, but they would have none of it; they were just breaking my heart. So we were all packed up, ready to go , and we managed to walk up to the spot where we were checking ou the fire before, and it started to rain a bit. We decided to wait and see if the rain would do the trick. Chloe and Bruno decided to take a horse into town and ask Andres what we should do. While they were gone we ate our emergency supply of cheese and banana bread. Always prepared! By the time they returned, the fire was non-existant, the donkey was angry, and we were all laughing at oursleves for overreacting. Andres sent word that we had nothing to worry about which was entirely apparent by then. We were doubled over laughing thinking about what the people of Tumianumba would say if we arrived, fully packed up, with all the animals in tow, freaking out about a nonexistant fire. To be fair, the mountain is completely scorched, but it defintiely didn´t reach the farm. Disaster averted. Today we chopped down a bunch of fica trees to make space for cows on the property. Fica trees have massive thorns, about two inches long, covering every branch, and the thorns have these awful microbes that stinch like a son of a bitch when they stab your, oh lets say, shin, hand, hip, arm, or really any other body part. And the little microbes don´t stop stinging for hours. I was not pleased at all but I have made it clear to Andres that I will no longer be working with the fica during my stay at Never land. He was very understanding.

Never Thought I´d Find Never Land- 10/10/09

After being booted from the Rhiannon Community (I still can´t believe it, evil bitches) I decided to try my luck at another WWOOFing farm called the Never Land farm which I had heard really wonderful things about. Also, I don´t think they kick out their volunteers... However, my coming to the farm was about as dramatic as it gets. I took the ridiculously long journey down to Vilcabamba, stretched over two days filled with incredibly uncomfortable bus rides and really crappy hostals. FInally the day arrived to venture onto the farm which required an hour long hike through the woods. In Tina´s email (Tina owns the farm, she´s a midwife from the US) she said that taking the 4:30 pm bus to the village where the path starts would be adequate time to arrive while there´s still light. Wrong, so totally wrong. The bus was ever-so-slightly late which in Ecuadorian terms basically qualifies it for being on time. I arrive to the jump off point, Tumianuma, with my (at least) 60 lbs back pack, another small backpack, and another small bag. Upon starting my trek I passed a very old man who asked me if I was going to Tina´s place. When I said yes he seemed concerned and said I was starting out quite late. It doesn´t take a genius to figure out I should have taken that as a sign to turn back immediately, but of course I didn´t. At first I was more or less enjoying my hike although I was sweating like a pig and gasping for air on the uphill bits, my bags weighing me down. This part of the country is so beautiful, my absolute favorite; so I really welcomed the exercise and views of the valley. The directiosn I had ben given were on the vague side but I was assuming it would become clear where I should go, so I continued on the path. So wrong again. I was walking for like 20 minutes when I took a wrong turn. At the time I obviously didn´t know it was a wrong turn, but it was. The path started getting a bit hairy and I realized that it was getting darker and quickly. I knew that the farm was by the river so I decided even if this wasn´t exactly the right way it would get me there. I´m walking and walking and it´s getting quite dark now and I come to a metal gate. The directions specifically say not to go through an metal gates and if I come to a metal gate I´ve gone the wrong way. Shit. NOw I started to panic. I had passed some houses on the way so I fugred I could just yell for help, but no one answered. I started freaking out a bit because now its getting really dark and I´m 15 minutes in the wrong direction. In Ecuador it gets dark crazy fast. I decided to high tail it back to the main path. I arrive and it´s night time, I mean it is really really dark. There´s a house so I go up to the gate and screamed as loud as i could, hoping someone will hear me. No one was there. NOw I´m absolutely panicked, sweating, with a million pounds on my back of crap I have to carry, alone, in the wilderness, hyperventilating, choking out tears every few seconds, and I have no tent. Oh, and my flashlight batteries are nearly dead. I considered the possibility of just setting up my mostquitoe net and sleeping bag for the night but that´s a freakin joke. I´ve just barely resolved my issues with being afraid of the dark. And, literally, there are poinsonous snakes and tarantulas common to the area. So I decided since I have no idea how to get where I´m going, I´m just going to have to take the path back which I know, and try it all over again in the morning. So I´m walking, again with all of my stuff, at break neck speed (for the situation), still sweating, still screaming for help, and I actually cannot see more than three feet ahead of me. All I needed was a camcorder and foundtains of snot coming out of my nose and I could have been in the Blair Witch project, but I pushed those thoughts out of my head. I fell twice over rocks I couldn´t see. The first time my adrenaline was at an all time high so I shot right back up. The second time I was so tired and closer to getting back, so a tad more relaxed, and the weight from my pack pinned me to the ground for a while. That sucked. I also skinned my knee and shin pretty badly and the bruises that are still forming are sure to be nothing short of impressive. Finally, exhausted and sweaty, I arrived back in Tumianuma and went to an old couple sitting on their porch. In one sentence I told them I got lost I need a place to stay is there a hostal please help. These people were so nice, brought me water, and offered me a bed in their home. I relaxed on their porch, helped them fix their DVD player (press the power button), and we watched a DVD of music videos by indigenous Ecuadorian musicians. It was god awful, that DVD. The next morning they gave me coffee and crackers which I wolfed down after not having any dinner the night before. One of their daughters offered to take me up to the farm for $5, as long as I took the heavy bag and she took the two light bags. Not exactly the most altruistic move I´ve ever witnessed, but my whole body hurt, my knee was throbbing, I was tired, and scared of getting lost, and I really didn´t want to carry all those bags, so I agreed. She was moving a hell of a lot faster than I was but she delivered me to where I needed to go. There was only the one small obstacle of crossing a super sketchy rope bridge before I arrived and was greted by the breying of a donkey. It´s the most excitement I´ve had in a long time and I hope for some really comparatively dull moments in the future. When I arrived I was told TIna is actually in the US, that they havn´t really been doing much work and we have the weekend off (I arrived on Friday). The guy in charge barely gies us any direction, so a bunch of us went raspberry picking for half the day and thenjust kind of hung out and cooked meals. I think this is one of those places where if you tell them exactly what you want to do, you can do it. This works for me but I get the feeling that some of the other people are frustrated. Oh well. There´s a lot of fruit and avocado trees, lots of animals. We´re basically in a valley with a beautiful river right next to the site. I have my own room in a rather odd, open air building, that looks like it´s either unfinished or been destroyed. It´s a little creepy because I don´t really have a wall on one side, just sheets, but with my mosquitoe net I think I´ll be okay.