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I think I have found my paradise. For the past 2 weeks Lauren and I volunteered on a small farm on the desert coast of Peru. The place was called Jihuay, though in no way could it be considered a town or city. It was just a cool Peruvian hippie named Alvaro, his animals and the beach. To reach Jihuay we took a series of buses from La Paz to Arequipa, where we hung out for 2 days before taking another long bus ride to Chala. Arequipa was a really nice city, it would've been cool to have more time there but we have lots of places we'd like to see in Colombia and Ecuador so we wanted to keep moving. They told us at the bus station in Arequipa that the ride to Chala was 4 hours. Unfortunately for us they were wrong, really wrong. We left at 4pm and didn't arrive in Chala until almost midnight. After 5 hours I had to go up to ask the driver how much farther it was for fear that we had already passed it. But we hadn't, we were just in for a longer ride than we had anticipated. At least we did get to watch one funny movie; the others were crap, as they usually are, but the last movie they played was called A Million Ways To Die In The West and it's hilarious. It was dubbed in Spanish so we couldn't even understand all of it, but we were still laughing more than anyone else on the bus. Given that I found it funny in Spanish, I can't wait to watch it again in English. We finally arrived in Chala super late and stayed in the first hostel we could find, which was a pretty disgusting place. But there were 2 beds, the room was cheap and we were tired so we didn't care how bad the place was.
The next morning we got up at our leisure and set out to try to find our way to Jihuay. We would've taken a collectivo but our bags were so big that there was no way we could squeeze inside one of those, so instead we splurged on a taxi. It was 20 soles for the half hour ride to Santa Rosa, the small town that sits atop the hill overlooking the beach of Jihuay. From Santa Rosa we walked almost 45 minutes down the hill to the farm. We rang the bell at the large wooden door and a tall, older hippie looking guy answered. Alvaro was to be our host for the next 2 weeks, I was excited. We were immediately greeted by 3 large barking dogs and 3 other volunteers that were staying there. All 3 of them happened to be American, what are the odds? Lou had been there for 3 weeks already and was staying a month in total, and the other girls were only there for a couple more nights. I had gone into this volunteering opportunity thinking it would be a great place to practice my Spanish, but given that we were all American and Alvaro spoke English really well that plan didn't exactly work out.
We wandered around the farm a bit before lunch. There were tons of rabbits and guinea pigs of all sizes and colors in various cages, chickens, grown ducks and little ducklings, and a very pregnant goat. We were told she might give birth while we were there but she never did; instead she just waddled around making me cringe every time I looked at her overly swollen belly and utters. There were also tons of olive trees, rows of sweet potatoes and quinoa, blackberry trees (yes trees, not thorny bushes) and a greenhouse packed with beets, carrots, tomatoes, chard, green onions and alfalfa for the rabbits. There was even an Eco-friendly compost toilet, or dry toilet as they called it, which was basically an outhouse with a giant hole dug in the ground. There was a toilet seat and everything, and after doing your business you were supposed to put a scoop or 2 of soil down the hole. I thought the whole thing was awesome, and didn't smell as bad as you might think; it basically just smelled like dirt. The farm was the coolest place and I was stoked to settle down there for the next 2 weeks.
I don't remember exactly what we had for lunch that first day, but all the meals we had on the farm were really good. They were usually vegetarian and consisted of rice and lentils or beans with veggies and spices, and a beet or onion salad on the side. We also had coffee or tea time like 5 times a day, so I drank entirely too much instant coffee. For breakfast we always had oatmeal with cinnamon and fruit and fresh baked bread if anyone had made any. A couple times we made a delicious chocolate apple blackberry bread, which I suppose was more like cake than bread but I was just happy to bake something, I miss baking. I was more than happy to let others do the cooking, preferring instead to wash up afterwards, and Alvaro was a great cook. I think the food on this farm has been my favorite in the entire 2 and a half months we've been down here. I was very reluctant to leave it behind.
After lunch we settled into our room in the 2-story guest house. For the first few nights we shared a tiny room with 2 sets of bunk beds with Lou and a French guy named Ivor, who showed up only a couple hours after we did. It was a bit of a tight squeeze but it worked. The 4 of us spent the entire afternoon after lunch playing Monopolio, which is of course Spanish Monopoly, so that was that. It's difficult to say Monopoly is actually fun because even if it starts out that way, by the time you sit around playing it for 4 hours it becomes a matter of deciding that enough is enough and it's time to quit.
The next day we had our first day of work. The schedule on the farm was to have breakfast at 7:30, work from about 8 to noon, have lunch and then spend the rest of the afternoon having leisure time. A pretty fair work schedule if you ask me, I think we should all have a 4 hour work day. Alvaro had asked Lauren and I to weed and trim down the 6 alfalfa beds that were growing outside because they had been attacked by an insect pest and all the alfalfa was basically dead. The task didn't seem too daunting at first, but we quickly realized how many weeds there were and that this was going to take us a while. The work wasn't difficult though, and I like pulling weeds so the 4 hours passed quickly enough. In total I think it took us a week to finish all 6 of the beds, so that was the majority of our working contribution to the farm. By the time we were done the alfalfa looked much healthier so I'd say we did well. After we finished in the alfalfa beds I spent the last few days in the greenhouse, also known as El Cuarto Tranquilo, watering or liberating the alfalfa in there from yet another pest, a parasitic vine that wound it's way around the base of the plant and eventually killed it. One day we transplanted an herb from inside to outside, so I got to do a bit of planting which is always fun. The most difficult day of work was probably the day I cleaned the duck cage, a 2-person job that I tackled all by myself. I first had to drain their stone pond of all the filthy water and then scrub it out so it wasn't so disgusting. It took me a couple hours, and all the while the male duck was threatening me. I liked to think that when he was wagging his tail it meant that he was happy to see me, but the continuous hissing and head bobbing seemed anything but friendly. I just kept telling him to relax because I was doing him a favor and he never attacked me so I guess deep down he knew I was doing something good for him. I cleaned their pond as best I could and felt it was still a bit dirty when I was done, but I must've done a good job because as soon as it was filled back up with water all the ducks jumped right in and started bathing; they seemed so happy it made getting covered in poopy duck water worth it. There's nothing like a clean pool I guess.
Sundays were our day off so since we had arrived on a Friday, we only had one day of work in the alfalfa beds before we got an entire day off. Alvaro's buddy Percy came by and offered to take us in his pickup truck to see some nearby ruins. Lou, Ivor, Lauren and I all piled into the back of the truck while Miguel, another acquaintance of Alvaro, sat up front with Percy. The ride started out innocently enough, until Percy started driving faster and faster on the super curvy cliffside roads. Given that we were in the back of the truck, we all felt a bit uncomfortable with the reckless driving. When Lou told Percy that his driving scared her, he looked genuinely shocked and had no idea why she would say that. If he hadn't been so nice as to offer to take us to these ruins I probably would've commented that we were afraid of his driving because we all understand the laws of physics (well, more or less). When riding in the back of a truck, hearing tires squeal around every turn isn't exactly comforting. The ruins themselves were pretty cool; at one point we saw piles of human bones and rows of skulls, some with their teeth still intact. Seeing all those bones was a little freaky, it almost didn't seem real that they could still be left there after hundreds of years. I'm glad I got to walk around the ruins but I was definitely relieved when we got back to Jihuay safely.
We spent the majority of most afternoons lounging around, playing cards, baking or playing with the dogs. The sun didn't grace us much with it's presence while we were there but still we went to the beach a few times, which was only a 5 minute walk. One day Lou and I spent like 3 hours at the beach just chatting; she was so cool to talk to and apparently we were so deep in conversation that we didn't even realize that much time had gone by. I'm glad she was around during our time on the farm, she was really good company. One Tuesday Lauren and I accompanied her to Chala to get some things from the weekly market. We got up early and hiked the half hour or so up the steep hill to Santa Rosa so we could hitch a ride in the van that all the school kids take. We were packed in like sardines, which is the norm down here and always makes for an interesting ride. At the market we picked up tons of supplies and it was really funny to watch Lou argue prices with the vegetable lady. Apparently she had been ripped off her first time to the market so this time she was standing her ground. I'll give it to her, she sure knows how to negotiate a fair price, something I still have yet to learn. I get ripped off all the time and I know it, but she's fluent in Spanish so it's a bit easier to get what she wants I guess. I'll get better at negotiating eventually, I hope.
We also spent a couple afternoons hiking to see the penguins and sea lions. The dogs would accompany us on all our walks, which was always fun. Alvaro has 3 adorable giant dogs named Lola, Sumac and Ary. Ary is the puppy of the group and she's definitely the biggest puppy I've ever seen. I'm horrible with dog breeds but she has a wrinkly smushed up face that bounces around like crazy when she runs and huge clumsy paws that seem too big for her body. Lola is Sumac's mother and top dog of the group, while Sumac is really sweet and subdued, though she tends to jump up and paw people really hard when she wants attention. All the pups were so sweet and had their own distinctive personalities, I miss them all so much! We all hiked up one day to go see the Humboldt penguins, about a 30 minute walk among rocky cliffs overlooking the ocean. We found 2 of them standing on the rocks at the entrance to a little cave and we watched them for a few minutes before they were swept away by the waves and probably continued out to sea to hunt. Alvaro said he had seen as many as 12 in that place at a time, but I was just grateful we saw the 2. Lauren and I hiked out to see the sea lions the day before we left and we were accompanied by Cabezon (Big Head as Alvaro calls him; his real name is Oso, meaning Bear) the little dog that lives up the hill in Santa Rosa. Cabezon comes down to the farm a couple times a week and usually stays for a day or 2. Nobody liked him because he's kind of a jerk; he bites the other dogs a lot and he even bit Alvaro on the hand one night as he was feeding him, not cool. I thought he was a cute little guy, though, and he enjoyed all the love he could get, which I sensed was rare for him. He followed us the entire way to the sea lions, more than 45 minutes wandering lost through rocky desert until we finally heard their call. The sea lions were for the most part smaller than the ones we had in Monterey and they didn't sound the same at all. Instead of barking, they sounded more like cows and goats being slaughtered, so that was interesting. We watched them for awhile, intrigued by their rock climbing abilities. A lot of them had made their way all the way to the top of the little island they were hanging out on, something I had yet to see sea lions do. I always thought they liked to stay by the water so they could slide back in whenever they wanted, but not these guys; these sea lions preferred rock climbing.
Another day I was persuaded onto the back of Miguel's motorbike, a guy that visits the farm often and has his own sweet potato project. He speaks very minimal English so hanging out with him was a good way to practice my Spanish. He took me to Puerta Inca, the Incan ruins between Chala and Santa Rosa. We saw tons of vultures up close and climbed up on the rocks for a spectacular view of the coast and the crashing waves. The ruins were cool, they were very similar to the pre-Incan ruins that Percy had taken us to the week before. It was nice that Miguel had taken me to see the ruins, but things got a bit awkward when he tried to treat it like a tour and ask me for money, which I refused to give him. He had practically dragged me onto his bike, and he had taken Lauren to Chala a few days earlier, so I just thought it was my turn to go somewhere. He had also taken Lou to Chala one day, though he didn't treat her too well. He made her pay for everything and even demanded gas money, though he had offered her a ride to begin with. I found out all of this afterwards, and was a bit put off by the way he showed me around to his friends, just like he did to the other girls. Apparently he wants his own Gringa so he can be just like Alvaro. Alvaro, by the way, fell in love with a girl from Wisconsin, named Jamie, when she came to volunteer on the farm. She felt the same about him so she moved back to Jihuay to live with him and so far they are living happily ever after. She is super sweet and has a really tranquil, friendly personality. She and Alvaro seem really good for each other, and it was always nice to be around them because they are such generous laid back people. I think Miguel wants what they have, but unfortunately he just makes people uncomfortable trying to be like them. After we went to the ruins we stopped by his friend Naco's house near Jihuay, where I proceeded to get drunk off the bottle of pisco I shared with Miguel and Naco's other friend, who was already pretty drunk. Naco was a super sweet man and he gave me a bag of fruit from the trees on his farm and some of the fresh chamomile herb that was growing in his garden. He was nice to talk to and was extremely welcoming towards me. After finishing the pisco Miguel and I went back to the farm, where we joined everyone for dinner and drank a bit more. Probably a bad idea in hindsight but I was having a good time so I wasn't too concerned with how awful I was going to feel the next day. We all hung out for awhile and then things got really really awkward at the end of the night, when Miguel followed me to the guesthouse and told me that I was the woman for him. I was pretty schmammered by that point so I don't entirely remember how I responded to that, but I'm pretty sure it entailed running away from him to my room upstairs and locking the door behind me. As much as I'd love to meet a guy while traveling, I don't think a divorced 40-something Peruvian fisherman is really the guy for me. Unfortunately after that little event I felt uncomfortable around him and every time he showed up at the farm I basically ignored him.
Besides the Miguel ordeal, our time on the farm was amazing. The people were great (though the Frenchman Ivor was pretty lazy and never really helped out with anything), and the farm itself was idyllic for a girl like me. We got to live the simple life for 2 weeks and I loved it. There's nothing better than picking vegetables for dinner from your own garden (or greenhouse), and the presence of all the animals added a special element. The ducklings were always so cute to watch and I was mesmerized by their tiny little wings; the rooster crowed all day long whenever he felt like making his presence known and strutted around attacking people like a big jerk, as roosters do; the goat loved to be pet and would nuzzle her head into your hand, probably eager for something to eat; the cute fluffy bunnies liked to be pet and held, while the guinea pigs would flee terrified into a corner of the cage whenever anyone approached; and the dogs were a constant source of entertainment. I loved petting them and playing with them and basically I couldn't get enough of them and their sweet faces. I loved working and living on Alvaro's farm and I wish we had had enough time to stay longer. But alas, we only have 2 more months of traveling and 2 more entire countries to see, so it was time to move on and get out of Peru.
On the day we left Alvaro took our giant backpacks up the hill on his motorbike (which was awesome of him) while we walked up with our smaller bags to meet him. We said our goodbyes to him and Ary, who had eagerly followed us up. We waited in Santa Rosa for a couple hours before catching a bus (coming from Chala) direct to Lima with the Flores bus company at 1:30pm for 50 soles. The ride was 8 hours or so and we watched 3 horrible movies, 2 of which were called Machete and Machete Kills Again. If you don't know about the Machete movies, great. You don't need to know about them. When we got to Lima we had a cab take us to a hostel near the South America Explorers Clubhouse, which we visited the next day and left most of the souvenirs and crap we had been lugging around for months. Arriving in Lima was like a wake up call that the outside world exists, and it was not at all pleasant. Neither of us like Lima, and we aren't going to spend more time here than absolutely necessary. For the past 2 weeks on the farm we have been without wi-fi or cell phones, and suddenly we found ourselves thrown back into the social media mix in the middle of a huge city. I can't express how much I miss the farm and how much I enjoyed the time we spent there. Most of all I enjoyed the free, simple and secluded lifestyle that Alvaro and Jamie enjoy. It takes work to keep the farm going, but it's the type of work that is fun and fulfilling all in itself. I hope I find that type of life again someday. Thank you Jihuay for the memories...Ecuador here we come!
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