Crazy Adventures in the Life of a Redhead

Happy New Year! I have celebrated at length with my family and friends during the glorious Christmas and New Year’s season, and I am starting to settle in. Before embarking on my next endeavor, I would like to complete my final entry for my journey in Ecuador. At the end of my internship, my mom came to visit me in the magnificent country of Ecuador. This marked the fifth time she accompanied me on one of my travel sojourns. With only six days, I planned an itinerary that kept us in one geographical region of Ecuador, minimizing the time we spent on travel. We started in Otavalo and the farm where I worked, returned to Quito for two days and finished our trip together in the Cloud Forest of Mindo. Overlooking Mojando Lake Otavalo is a small mountain town in the Sierras of Ecuador, home to many artisans specializing in alpaca wool production and crafts. Every Saturday artisans and merchants set up shop around the square and welcome tourists and locals alike to haggle and buy

My final days passed quickly, as all my days passed on the farm. With many activities needing attention, I had no time to think of the end until it was upon me. Here is what I wrote for Finca La Amistad’s website ( www.fincalaamistad.net ): In a short nine-week space, I experienced an enriching internship of diverse opportunities to get my hands dirty and to learn by doing. Waking up every morning to the vista surrounding Finca La Amistad gave me endless pleasure, and working in that environment was exceptional. I reveled in the chance to take a nearly empty garden and turn it into a productive plot, providing vegetables for our daily meals and for an occasional sale to customers. Shelly and Nelly are open to new ideas and praise work well done, and Karina is very knowledgeable regarding microorganisms and organic fertilizers. I will cherish my time here in Ecuador, and I bless their future efforts. I know that Finca La Amistad is going to be pivotal in launchi

Some of the trees we received from City Hall. Not too promising, but I hope they live! A line of 23 trees line the road by the lower granadilla vineyard. City Hall of the county of Ibarra attempted to beautify one of the county parks with thousands of trees, but somewhere in the politics of the project, the idea was never implemented; the trees were left to wait, dying in the process. Finca La Amistad was the benefactor of this project-gone-awry when employees from City Hall dropped off 800 trees on the farm at the beginning of last week. Unfortunately, these trees were in sad shape. They had been growing in small plastic bags for two years, and their roots were struggling to escape, even poking through the bags. It was amazing that any of them had survived.  I'm pleased with my work. This is one of the little trees that is pretty healthy, covered with extra fertilizer to help stimulate growth. The farm hired four workers to dig holes, averaging lab

Upon returning to the farm from my trip around Ecuador, it amazed me how much had grown in those ten days I was gone from the farm. Although my garden was overgrown with weeds, the plants were thriving. I spent about 40 hours removing the weeds and tending the plants. Now, I smile every time I pass the ¼ acre plot. Everything has increased in size. With some rain and sunshine, my plants are thriving. In fact, I will be able to plant more seeds and transplant more plants because some of my crops have already been harvested and more room is now available for other vegetables.  My potatoes are mounded and mildly mulched. Next week I will mound and mulch some more .   Four rows of beans and corn In the short two months that I will have spent here, I have been able to see growth and harvest of many different crops. The beans, corn and potatoes I had planted before I left on my trip have sprouted. My carrots are finally asserting their feathery fronds for all

In Cotopaxi National Park --> Since arriving at the end of September, I had been almost exclusively on the farm in Ibarra, in northern Ecuador. Although I have loved being on the farm, dedicating my efforts and time to the activities of this peaceful milieu, I was happy to be able to explore some fantastic parts of Ecuador. My boyfriend, Alex, joined me for a nine-day adventure around central and eastern Ecuador. We traveled to Cotopaxi National Park, where the second highest peak in Ecuador is located, to Tena and La Selva Vida (the rainforest) and to Ba ñ os, a breath-taking area of waterfalls and green-gilded mountains. I found this snow-capped peak quite mesmerizing, as it appeared from and disappeared behind the clouds. Cotopaxi National Park is about one and a half hours from Quito, the capital, so it was our first stop. We stayed at a fabulous hostel in the middle of nowhere at 11,000 feet, where all our meals were provided. Even though we did not summit t

I am likely the slowest corn, bean and squash planter in the world, or in the bottom tier with the rest of my American muchachos. I need to take bean-flicking lessons. After being instructed how to take three beans and flick them into a small hole on the ground that I had just made with a spear-like tool, I went back to bending over and carefully placing the beans and corn into the hole. I tried flicking; really, I did. They went all over the ground like 52-card pick-up. I decided that bending over and proceeding with turtle speed was more efficient than trying to beat the hare to the finish line. My trench zucchini plants are growing well! I planted half an acre of one of our fields with bush beans and a quarter acre with pole beans and corn. The squash I planted along a trench that had been dug in the granadilla vineyard to allow water to flow through the land. In the field, the corn is intercropped with beans, squash and amaranth—a high-protein, gluten