There I was nestled in the beautiful mountains of Vilcabamba. I would volunteer for a week at the local organic farm with no communication with the outside world! My bus ride proved entertaining into Vilcabamba. I met Alfredo, a local from Lojas whom I would have the pleasure of sharing cramped quarters for our 10 hour voyage to Vilcabamba. It took us some time to start our ackward exchange of language. Eventually we got into a flow and for some reason I was incredibly shy in our conversation and would go into fits of giggles when I couldn´t pronounce or figure out what he was trying to communicate with me. I had an especially difficult task of trying to get him to understand that I wanted to know what the Spanish word for Easter. Think about that for moment-- trying to convey Easter in another langauge-muy dificil! All of the hand gestures that normally accompany me in these contexts would prove useless to me with Alfredo. That coupled with the fact that I could not stop laughing hysterically really made our exchange interesting for me! I did get out my notebook and tried to draw a picture of a church because I was committed to him understanding what I was tyring to convey. My art work only confused him further!! I did meet a local Vilcabamba hippie converted to an ex-pat from California on the bus earlier, and I pushed my way to the back of the bus to ask her what the translation is for Easter. I repeated the words in my head till I got back to our seats and now we were finally on the same page! Then I wound up introducing Alfredo to some of my favorite musicians via my i-pod. It was truly challenging to choose which artists I would play for him
since I wanted this intercultural music exhcange to be good for him. He requested Michael Jackson and I gladly obliged! We were singing some old school Michael J into the night. I can´t imagine what we sounded like together on the bus to the other passengers, but I imagine they were glad my battery was low and we weren´t able to sing for too long! From Lojas I took another bus ride to Vilcabamba. The scenery was some of the best I have seen in Ecuador thus far, but it is now a ex-pat, hippie town with mucho gringos. There were gluten free cookies as far as the eye could see! I was picked up by horse and donkey with Ive, the owner of the farm. If you want to meet a truly dedicated person then he is the person to meet. He has been at Sacred Suenos for over 6 years creating a permaculture farm. Not only did he want to create an agricultural system that creates sustainability by using the land and the natural resources for the farm he did so on bad soil! He didn´t want to displace families from good land and he chose the arduous task of making his farm flourish from bad soil. The farm is still not self sustaining even after all this time, but that hardly deters his passion or committment to this type of living. Fortunately though in the next few years he will have a self sustaining organic farm. Having had the pleasure of working on the farm gave me a new perspective on many things. Helping with planting vegtables to macheting the overgrown vegetation was truly inspiring. I felt like a bad ass learning how to use a machete and make the trail more appeasing to the travelers that come up and down the trails. Seeing how much time it takes from planting the food to harvesting really made me appreciate our meals each day. Plants and animals were not in short supply at our location in the montañas. Joe was another volunteer that I would spend a lot of time going on various treks and learn all about the farm from and he unfortunately has donkey drama. Yes, donkey drama. The first time Joe came to Sacred Suenos he had the bury a deceased donkey on his second day there! I can´t imagine arriving at these rustic chambers and enduring all of the elements on the farm and then on my second day helping bury a dead donkey. He wouldn´t be able to walk down that specific trail because of the recent burrial! Bonnie was the other donkey at the farm who was alive and well. Bonnie is as challenging as you can a imagine a donkey to be for any person. Ive is the only person that can get her to listen. She has quite the trek with food and supplies up the narrow and often slippery trail to Sacred Suenos and is hesitant most of the time getting up the trail with her loads. Joe of course, with his donkey drama, had issue with Bonnie listening to him. There she would stand in stubborn and obstinate-will not moving. Joe is a calm and tranquil hippie from England who didn´t deserve all this donkey drama! Then to make donkey drama matters worse one evening Joe came up with Bonnie who had a tank of gas tied to her and down Bonnie goes! She falls over and starts breathing heavy because apparently the rope was tied far too tight! I am trying to hold up the tank of gas to relieve the pressure and Joe is instructing Fran to get a knife quickly. Fran goes into the kitchen to grab the knife and on her way out she picks up the puppy and starts petting it! This really added to our donkey drama! Joe is like what the f***! Luckily, she snapped back into action and we got the gas tank off of Bonnie and all was well again. Phew! Poor Joe is sweating and stressed out, but he stayed committed to making sure Bonnie is ok and tied her up in a nice spot for the rest of the evening. Having the time to be in nature and cultivate the land with donkeys in tow is an experience I will not soon forget. Sacred Suenos is a special place that gave me some time and space to connect to mother earth. Next time I see a donkey it will remind me of my dear friend, Joe for whom my experience at Sacred Suenos would not have been the same without him.
