21.08.-23.08.11

CANOA - Finca Rio Muchacho

On Sunday afternoon, 21.08.11 I arrived in the beautiful beach resort of CANOA. Surfers, fisherman and sun seekers are sharing the gorgeous, fat strip of beach. And in addition of surfing, beach walks and biking in the country side a lot of tourists are visiting the lovely "Rio Muchacho Organic Farm".

My plan was to stay for one night in Canoa and the following day I wanted to visit my dear friend Sylvie from Switzerland at the Finca Rio Muchacho who was doing a Permaculture Course at the farm.

But after I had checked into to a random Hotel which I didn't really like, I walked over to the "Rio Muchacho" office and ask for a transport for the next day. But, Andrea who worked at the farm as a "volunteer manager" told me that there was only one transport the same day otherwise I would need to pay for a private transport.

So I quickly walked back and checked out of the hostel and two hours later after I had a huge fish soup at the beach, we drove with two pickups and 10 people to the farm.

The farm was in the middle of the rain forest and you could hardly see the house as it was covered in huge palms and trees. The main house was a huge, open house build out of bamboo and wood and it was just beautiful. After I brought up my back into my room I met Sylvie!!! I hardly recognized her as it was exactly 11 months ago when we last saw each other in Peru…..but is was sooo nice to see her again and we gave each other a big long hug.

After a delicious vegetarian dinner under the three huge palms we went inside the house and chatted until 10pm. We had so much to tell that we could have talked the whole night through ….but as breakfast was served at 7.30am every morning and both of us were tired we went to bed.

On Monday, 22.08.11 we all had breakfast in the nice garden with fresh fruit and granola. The finca was packed with people from all over the world, 12 people who did the Permaculture Course with Sylvie, 6 volunteers, one family and two day guests…..but there was always enough food for everyone.

At 9am I did a tour around the finca, the garden and the RioMochacho School with Andrea, the volunteer Manager and Rachel, another guest from the USA. First we went to the School which Dario the owner of the farm build 18 years ago.

They school was an "open air" school and we were surprised that they had with 42 kids more students than the nearby public school with only 5 kids!!! The school ground had a playground, a garden and organic compost. All the kids seemed very happy when they saw us and tried to talk a bit of English with us.

We then walked back to the farm where Andrea showed us the pigs, horses, cows, donkeys, guinea pigs, chickens etc. and explained to us why all these animals are so important for the farm. The RioMuchacho Farm is an organic and vegetarian farm and therefore they only use the cow, horse and pig s*** to build composts.

Later on we walked over to the huuuge garden with everything in it what you could imagine….papaya, pineapple, avocado, eggplant, onions, beans, chilli, peppers…etc., etc. Andrea told us that only 2 people and a few volunteers are working in the garden.

After that she showed us the "food dryer" where they dry ginger, chilli and various other plants and vegetable. But the most interesting thing for me was the bicycle for pumping up water from the well which they use when they have a power cut….which apparently happens quite often in Ecuador.

In the afternoon we were making our own chocolate sauce out of chocolate beans they grow on the farm. One of the staff was showing us the quick and easy process. First we were roasting the beans on the stove, than we took the peel/shell of the beans and milled it with a hand mill. After that we heated up some milk with honey and sugar cane syrup and added some of the chocolate powder and just stired it for a few minutes. Well…..and that was it!!! We had the most delicious chocolate sauce and ate it with some shopped up bananas…..mmhh and it was soooo yummy!

The next morning I enjoyed my last breakfast with Sylvie and said Good Bye to her ….but we agreed to meet again in two weeks in Quito….if everything works out with our travels!!! After helping Edgar, one of the staff, with printing some bags for the tourist, my private pick up came at 11am. So I sadly said Good Bye to all the nice staff, Dario, the owner and Andrea and left this beautiful place with Edgar.

When we arrived in CANOA the weather was absolutely gorgeous. After having a quick lunch with Edgar I went straight over to the Pharmacy where I then bought my ticket for the night bus to QUITO.

The afternoon I spent at the beautiful beach, swam in the ocean and just relaxed. At 6pm I got changed in the RioMochachu office and went for dinner…..and at 9.45pm I went on the night bus to QUITO.