Overall, I still must say that these were some of the best days in my travels. The days were ritualistic, which is nice when you are traveling! Finding buses, accomodation, food and everything you need for your day-to-day life in another country (in another language!) can be rather exhausting, so the farm was definitely a good time to re-charge with some wonderful, loving people. Not only that, but I was around 2 hours south of my previous post in the quiet, little hippy town of el Bolson!
Since it has been a while since I actually was at the farm, I will write a few excerpts from my paper journal:
Since it has been a while since I actually was at the farm, I will write a few excerpts from my paper journal:
¨This might end up being one of my favorite parts of my trip. I love this place (the farm and el Bolson). So many friendly people, beautiful location and amazing food! I will have to get some recipes for sure. (will post some at the end of this entry) Every dish so far has involved curry and LOTS of eggplant... plus freshly made bread (which ended up being the death of me)! The family here is really quite lovely- 3 brothers, one of them with a wife and 3 children. Its nice to see some more ´traditional´Argentino culture. The family is great and everyone works together to help in any way that they can. My belly is so incredibly happy here. This kitchen is so limited (especially with the fact that its feeding around 20 + people) and yet we get by... without an oven, or a microwave... or a refrigerator! Who knew that humans could still get by without all of these ´necessities´?? ha! I love how I´m finally learning more about the sustainable lifestyle by actually LIVING this way. Perhaps I will stay longer than anticipated (which I did). ´
...
´Today is a slow day. Its been a bit rainly this weekend so we won´t be doing much other than reading, playing cards, and lying around.... So more about the farm. We have been building structures out of cobb and something similar to straw bail kind of stuff. We make bricks and use clay we get from the ground- most things are from around the area. A bit about the people... there´s Katie, from Detroit, who is a person I feel like I´ve known my whole life! Anna, a Swedish girl, who plays in bands (keyboard +vocal), is into fashion and owned a retail shop back home,-- also dates a guy from the band the Shout Out Louds (from Sweden- who I´ve actually heard of!), and she LOVES fast food, so this environment is killing her softly. There´s Emily (Canada) and her boyfriend Dave (UK) who are absolutely adorable. Dave is calm and cool (and incredibly funny, I might add) while Emily resembles a very positive, optimistic, hard-working camp counselor. Margaux, from San Francisco, is an awesome gal who is overly impressed with everything (and forever continues to be, as we traveled a bit more together)! She is so eager to learn anything new about this way of life. Poor thing is sick right now though :(. Luke, also Canadian, is hilarious- his accent is thick and he loves to party... also a great cook. These are most of the volunteers, however I don´t communicate much with the French people because they are quite rude to me... and my Spanish is so poor at this stage. Also, a few people have left already... about 6. I was sad to see them go because everyone here seems so happy and we share so many things in common!´
...
¨Too much time in the kitchen makes me wonder why I´m here. I just want to work outside, like I thought I would be.´
...
´I´ve been having some serious stomach issues these past few days. One of them which made me vomit for 12 hours straight! It was pretty brutal. I just want my mom! At least I know that I´m almost off the farm. I´m really ready now to get out of here. It is time to move on and simply remember all of the good times. We all tried to go trekking for the night just to get away from weird vibes, but got rained out and ended up hitching a ride in the back of a truck (Leo´s- a brother from the farm) to get some helado at our favorite shop. I love it here in el Bolson, but the shitty weather makes me want to run away! It almost looks as if it could be ski season pretty soon here! On top of me getting stomach issues, I guess after I did... it was a domino affect! Every 2 hours, a new person was right there with the rest of us, curled up an sleeping bags and vomiting when the feeling came around. Everyone got sick, with the exception of Margaux and my darling Katie. Microbiology at its finest. I have honestly never seen a microorganism get around so fast! Off to Mendoza Saturday and thank god for Katie taking the bus with me. I´m so tired of long, lonely busrides.´
Now, photo time...
The shed, where you find (almost) anything you might need
Our bottle collection... for many purposes (canning, making champagne, beer, etc)
Our home, greenhouse on the side with tomatoes, peppers,..
canoe, and my favorite car from the farm!
working on insulating la casa de Gabi for this day
Leo working diligently... later to find that our job was a little insufficient- uh oh
Making empanadas, before everyone got too drunk
Our art wall, guess which are mine!
Argentino boys loving eachother (Leo and Fernando)
Dancing on tables (Leo, Alex, and Margaux, who is hidden)
Others (Emily, Paolo and Luke) find other ways to celebrate
Little Lao´s baby booty as he follows his father (Herardo) and I around with mate and hot water!
Emily finds herself babysitting at lunchtime with baby Rio
Relaxing and taking it easy for lunch break
ReKo´s horses, which Anna tried to ride continuously
Leo, mixing more cobb in from of our humble abode
After many cold days and exhausting adventures, we fuck around (Katie pushes Margaux in the wheelbarrow)
Our view from ReKo.... so long! I hope to see you again someday!
I can´t wait to go to the next farm in Ecuador, which will be more like an agricultural farm than the beginning of an ecovillage. Apparently there is yoga mornings too, so exciting!!!
I really loved working at ReKo, however there were many irritating things as well. Some days, I felt as though we were slaves for some rich Argentine family. Also, the family had given me the impression that this was a farm that was all about making honey and working with plants/fruits and veggies. This was a bit disappointing to me, however I did learn loads of information on how to build a house in a sustainable manner. And yet another highlight of the farm was my idea to make homemade bean and potato burritos, Momma Barnett style! I got everyone involved and it was the best meal ever! Margaux made homemade tortillas, I made red beans (its all we had) and potatoes, Emily made fresh delicious hummus (a really nice addition, I might add), Katie prepared veggies and pico de gallo and we even got Paola (the wife of a brother on the farm) to find us some cheese! Delicious!
Our home, greenhouse on the side with tomatoes, peppers,..
canoe, and my favorite car from the farm!
working on insulating la casa de Gabi for this day
Leo working diligently... later to find that our job was a little insufficient- uh oh
Making empanadas, before everyone got too drunk
Our art wall, guess which are mine!
Argentino boys loving eachother (Leo and Fernando)
Dancing on tables (Leo, Alex, and Margaux, who is hidden)
Others (Emily, Paolo and Luke) find other ways to celebrate
Little Lao´s baby booty as he follows his father (Herardo) and I around with mate and hot water!
Emily finds herself babysitting at lunchtime with baby Rio
Relaxing and taking it easy for lunch break
ReKo´s horses, which Anna tried to ride continuously
Leo, mixing more cobb in from of our humble abode
After many cold days and exhausting adventures, we fuck around (Katie pushes Margaux in the wheelbarrow)
Our view from ReKo.... so long! I hope to see you again someday!I can´t wait to go to the next farm in Ecuador, which will be more like an agricultural farm than the beginning of an ecovillage. Apparently there is yoga mornings too, so exciting!!!
I really loved working at ReKo, however there were many irritating things as well. Some days, I felt as though we were slaves for some rich Argentine family. Also, the family had given me the impression that this was a farm that was all about making honey and working with plants/fruits and veggies. This was a bit disappointing to me, however I did learn loads of information on how to build a house in a sustainable manner. And yet another highlight of the farm was my idea to make homemade bean and potato burritos, Momma Barnett style! I got everyone involved and it was the best meal ever! Margaux made homemade tortillas, I made red beans (its all we had) and potatoes, Emily made fresh delicious hummus (a really nice addition, I might add), Katie prepared veggies and pico de gallo and we even got Paola (the wife of a brother on the farm) to find us some cheese! Delicious!
Another tasty experience was Dave´s birthday, where Paola (the best cook, ever) made home made chocolate bran cake with dulce de leche! This was complete with 3 kegs from the local cervezaria!
Other favorite things about el Bolson:
- delicious cervezarias! (spelling??) best beer award so far in South America!
- GREAT landscapes and hikes!
- Wonderful Saturday market with many tasty treats (for example a big waffle with fresh berries and whipped cream, YUM!)
- La Luna (pastrie and empanada shop, the best empanada was the onion and the caprese)
- The Helado shop! (right near the Saturday market) The most amazing ice cream I have ever had, hands down! My favorite discovery was combining the dark chocolate and the crema de mani (peanuts-AHH!)!
Lastly, I will leave you with a couple of amazing recipes...
Luke´s Roquefort Pasta: (a great alternative to good ol´Mac n Chee!)
- Bleu cheese (minus all of the blue bits)... pick a really good mild one
- Doble-creme (whipping cream in the states)
- Salt ´n Peppa!
- Pasta!
(Also a nice addition is adding warm blackberry-fresh or preserves...we went out and picked them ourselves from this huge patch...)
Garnish with mint and ta-da!
...and for a healthier yummy recipe...
Carrot dip... for bread, not for carrots:
- Boiled chopped carrots (Zanahoria in español)
- garlic
- bit of oil (aceite)
- salt (sal)
WHIP! and serve with pita or spread on sandwhiches!
So long Patagonia! Photo from the bus ride out of el Bolson, a very hung over ride with Ms Katie.
No comments:
Post a Comment