I’m beginning to feel like my days have a regular routine, but this morning was slightly different. With a new volunteer I was suddenly the expert, and I had to show Sara the ropes. Although she spent the first little while getting her orientation from Martijn, I at least had to feed the pigs by myself. A daunting task when they don’t fear you. I made the same “shh shh” noises and brandished the same stick as Pablo, yet they don’t fear me as they fear him. Apparently I need to whack them a little harder.
On top of my lack of heart in terrorizing the pigs, the farm was over ridden by warrior ants. They are the meanest little buggers I have encountered. Yesterday one got my toe, but today they had claimed part of our house. Before we started working, Sara scared me by implying that the ants were on the ladder up to my bed. I was concerned because that ladder is the only way up or down and if it was taken over by ants I would have to be crafty to avoid injury, either by the ants or of my own misadventure. Luckily they had only invaded one of the pillars of the building and during the course of the day avoided my living space. Something I appreciated immensely.
By the time I finished feeding the pigs and mucking their pen I showed Sara how to prepare and spray the plants using our made-on-site organic pesticide. This all was complicated by the continued presence of the ants. Although Pablo just bulldozed his way through the lines of ants, my shoes did not permit such brave actions. Therefore I had to circumvent the entire house pretty much every time I wanted to do something. Like clean the pig dishes or prepare the pesticide. Everything took me longer to do thanks to this added complication. Sara and I sprayed the plants and discussed composting toilets, folk and blues music, and other such topics. We also weeded the verdolaga beds (a plant similar to purslane) and cleaned out a new bed.
We didn’t end up finishing the bed thanks to the warrior ant invasion. They had one line going directly through the beds we were working on. Instead we transposed the young hibiscus plants, pulled the former cilantro plants out of the beds, and generally avoided contact. Instead Sara and I started harvesting the seeds of the verdolaga plants so that they could dry and be used soon to plant in the freshly weeded verdolaga bed. Ultimately it was Pablo who had to finish off the hoeing of the new beds. Partially because we were told to stop working as well.
One thing I have an issue with is that we don’t continue to help Pablo. In part I don’t mind, because I’m ready to eat at that point. But it’s strange. Like I am willing, able and ready, yet I’m sitting there reading a book and stuffing my face while he continues working. I’m sure he is used to it, but I sure as hell feel lazy when you hear him slaving away cleaning another bed or something else similar.
Afternoon was another day of lunch, eat, read. Pretty easy going, obviously. I sent some of my dirty laundry to be addressed. Sadly this did not include my dirty pants I was currently wearing. I had to be satisfied that at least my bathing suit would no longer smell like mould and my first t-shirt I wore here was being cleaned! Then Sara, Martijn and I pilled into the blue pickup here and headed to another farm, Finca Magdelina, in search of Martijn’s cat. Apparently Donald loves the company of humans so much that when there is a lull in people here he escapes to Finca Magdelina for some companionship.
The road to and from the Ecolodge/farm is atrocious. It’s actually fine if you are walking (and don’t have high blood pressure), but in an old pickup you need to be prepared for some jostling. I was practically sitting on Sara in order to give Martijn enough space to change gears. Somehow we made it work and with no problems arrived at the farm to search for this red cat. But what really happened is that Martijn enquired with the staff there about Donald while Sara and I explored the gardens of Finca Magdelina.
While the farm is well established (i.e. oldest) and has some charm, it certainly doesn’t compare to Totoco Lodge. Nor does it compare to the farm here. Albeit it is larger, however the only “farm” I saw there was coffee plants. Which frankly isn’t what I’m interested in. Although perhaps staying in their hostel would be more typical than living in my little loft. However, I did enjoy the gardens at Finca Magdelina a lot. They had some shrubbery with incredibly coloured and curly leaves, beautiful flowering shrubs, and the tallest marigold plants I have ever seen. I even saw my first fire flies. Strangely something about walking in the farm at dusk with the fire flies all around it was just one of those magical moments that I always treasure.
We took a walk through the coffee processing on the farm and then headed back to the restaurant and ordered fish in hopes of luring Donald out from the grounds. Sadly we were unsuccessful, however apparently the fish was amazing and sort of made up for the fact that we didn’t end up leaving +1 cat.
The last thing that happened this evening was that the power went out. Sara and I stood looking at the stars while Martijn fiddled with the wires. I have never seen so many stars in my life and it was fascinating to see some of them fade away with the now invisible clouds. To cap it all off I saw a shooting star. Just to cap off the entire day.
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