Down on the Farm

On Tuesday morning - thankful that the AC in our room despite being noisy, had worked efficiently - we both braved the shower which gave us copious amounts of hot water. A 700 metre trek with our bags to the pick up point - there are no taxis in Canoa - left us both in need of another shower.
Time for an excellent breakfast in a little cafe over the road and then on to the Rio Muchacho office to sort out some paperwork before our 25 minute drive to the farm. Unfortunately the recent rains had washed out one of the bridges so we had to leave the truck and complete the journey on horseback -  a novel experience for us both and in full sunshine and 30C. Thankfully our guide strapped our bags on an extra pony so that we only had to focus on staying in the saddle for about 30 mins.
Rio Muchacho is a small - 10 hectare -  organic farm and ecotourism business which also ran a private school for the local kids - although the school had been shut down this year due to a change in government regulations about private schools.The place is run by a Kiwi lady and her Ecuadorian husband - Nicola & Dario -who started the project about 27 years ago. Their focus is on organic farming and permaculture and they have planted fruit trees, vegetable beds, coffee and cacoa and keep pigs, poultry, guinea pigs, a couple of cows and of course the ponies.
We were greeted by a very friendly but quite serious young German volunteer - Niklas - who showed us around the whole place in a couple of hours and also explained how the routine worked and also the meal times and the composting toilets . There are about 12 volunteers - German students hear for a year under a government scheme and some French-Canadian students - with one parent in tow - who are working here as part of a month-long  school project. Also a couple of other tourist visitors like ourselves.

An interesting start - we spent part of the first afternoon making chocolate from cacoa beans which had been fermented for a few days and then dried in the sun - the result was very tasty - particularly with some fresh mango, pineapple and papaya from the farm - almost made me forget the no alcohol rule for 5 minutes or so.

On day two we started by gathering fruit and vegetable in the garden and preparing a pack lunch - wrapped in banana leaves - before setting off on a horse trek to see the Howler monkeys - which we found obligingly close to the trail after about 90 minutes on horseback.
 Then on to the Waterfall for a swim and lunch break before back on the ponies for the journey home.  That's the longest I've been on a horse for about 40  years and perhaps the longest ever for Linda - assume the pain and stiffness in the nether regions will develop overnight!