At one with nature and a million little black midges

After doing nothing and enjoying sunsets on the sea in the sunny town of Máncora, I said goodbye to Beth and headed up north to Ecuador, stopping for the day in Guayaquil to visit my auntie Katuska's family,  Marlene, Fransisco y Suzanne y Valeska. We had a lovely day of eating, going on a hospital tour of Guayaquil and in fact a bit of sleeping. Such lovely people, thank you!

I got a night bus to Quito, had breakfast with the lovely Sara who I had met at my uncle & aunt's wedding  when I was 7, and got another bus to Mindo...

El Gringo Alto 

The farm is owned and run by Ingo, a 6"9 German with a big beard who is one of those people for whom nothing is impossible, his lovely wife Genny and 3 lovely daughter, Elisa, Emily and Laia, 2 huge dogs, cats chickens, goats, llamas, sheep, and pigs. They have only been there just over a year so there is not only farming but a lot of building and new projects.

As well as feeding and watering the plants and animals (the pigs are my favourite) and cooking we work about 6 hours a day, doing a variety of things, many of which I never expected myself to be doing.. Like playing around with machetes clearing paths and forest land up the top to plant new banana and fruit trees and clear space to build new cabañas, planting trees, lots of weeding, collecting various animal poo to make poo-tea fertiliser, soaking mushroom logs, laying concrete around a newly built terrace, carrying planks of wood up and down a big old slope, building steps up the slope, and peeling and washing lots of crates of onions and potatoes.

So the work is really hard, but the evenings are lovely sat around the bonfire or playing cards, or even under the stars in the hot tub we heated up one day.

On Sunday we just did some wood shifting and then went for an adventure, found an unlikely path through the forest and down a big cliff drop, and then walked down the river bed for an hour and a half before hitting the road back home, very wet and exhausted followed by an afternoon of Bohnanza.

One of the roosters went loose in the top bit of the farm and one day decided to wait for me in one of the greenhouses I was watering. Managed to catch it, and the next day we ate it after watching it being beheaded and skinning it.... 

Two-year old Laia helping out

The farm also has beehives, and one night we were treated with some of the most deliciously rich honey I have ever tasted in my life..

And even I have not been spared from being bitten all over any bare flesh by the millions of little black flies that are everywhere..