Reflections on Zopilote life. The good the bad and the ugly.

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Life at Zopilote (translation: Vulture) was a trying experience, but not in the way that I had expected. Our first major emotion was a huge wave of relief when we realised that our rather low level of Spanish would be sufficient. Then relief at the fact that we would not be sitting at a ‘reception’ desk all day but actually doing quite a lot. And there the relief ended, there my nervous expectations ceased. My imagination had carried me no further into the negative.

Living Conditions

As mentioned in the previous post, we felt something quite to the contrary of relief as we entered our assigned room on the first night. The living conditions did not live up to my expectations. Of course I wasn’t expecting 5 star luxury but in all my time travelling thus far, I had not come across such a challenge to my comfort zone. I was somewhat ‘out of my box’ as James put it later.

The sheets we were given, for a start, had the perpetual stench of use and wear, the kind of smell that hits you when you walk into a vintage clothes shop. I also have a slightly strange phobia of lumpy pillows, and these ones, to me, were unbearable.

The cabana, ‘culebra,’ (translation: cobra) could quite easily have had cobras living there. It had its fair share of spiders and their webs (both new and very old), geckos and their insatiable shits, giant cockroaches and in the air, the feel of much much more to be afraid of. Our parting bedtime tale from Shodd and Anja (the couple we were replacing) avidly described the night a scorpion climbed into bed with Anja and stung her as she was sleeping. Welcome to Zopilote, your home for the next 3 months.
We were somewhat grateful when some guests arrived and took the cabana and we were given a small festival style tent to sleep in instead. A few spiders still got in but it felt a great deal more comfortable than Culebra, despite the inadequate space. A week later, on my first day off, our training period was over and I spent the day attempting to clean our loft room above the shop, and move us in.

The room, noisily situated above the reception, was similar to Culebra in that the spiders and their webs remained hanging off the insect ridden palm leaf roofing , the bed was a mattress on the floor and, in the past week, Shodd and Anja had caught 6 rats up there to boot. But at least this was home, and a home is what we tried to make it. In the three months there we caught a large rat and, in the last month or so, discovered we were sharing a room with a grillo, a large toy like, plasticy looking insect that looked anything but kind (see picture). I named him Gary however and he did us no harm. We soon got used to him - his brother lived in the kitchen and they moved very little during the day. I just tried not to imagine what they got up to during our sleeping hours. Our room also housed a bat, a wasps nest, some giant cockroaches and we saw several tarantulas wandering around the reception (one lived in the Japanese section of our book exchange) and a baby scorpion (James was stung by a big one while cleaning up the dormitory). Anyway, suffice to say, in the three months I must have toughened a little.

The showers were a different story. Situated outside, it was very pleasant to enjoy the surrounding flora and fauna while relishing the passing sensation of being clean and cool and then drying off in the scorching sun.

The Farm

A word should be said about the farm itself. Situated on a hill and densely covering around 4 manzanas the farm practices permaculture. Permaculture, to put it very basically, is based around the idea of growing mutually beneficial plants together to form mini ecosystems replicating nature’s patterns, and thus reducing the need for human intervention. Fruit trees are grown initially as, once mature, they keep the soil rich and provide sufficient nutrients, water and shade for the less independent plants to grow. Fruit trees take a long time to mature to an independent state however, and thus permaculture takes a long time to reach fruition. Zopilote is only 7 years old and thus not yet mature enough to produce a sufficient quantity or variety of food stuffs on its own. Currently the farm is covered in the fast growing banana trees whose leaves provide great shade and later mulch for the soil. Outside the reception is an endless supply of bananas, plantains and cuadrados (a square shaped banana edible when roar but also great for cooking), all of which are free to guests. At the beginning of our time (the end of the wet season) the star fruits and passion fruits were also producing and as we left (well into the dry season), the mangoes.

There is also an herb garden outside the reception that is watered daily in the dry season and is also free for guests to use. There were 7 full time workers on the farm as well as continuous contractors who were there to do the seemingly endless building and repair work.

All the compost on the farm is produced by people, both from kitchen waste and the compost toilets. It took a while to get used to the fact that most of the plants that we were eating were grown from human faeces but the result was impressive. As yet the farm has no animals excepting the pig who was there on our arrival and killed and eaten in our first week. There are no current plans for animals on the farm and thus human waste will have to suffice.

Cristiano has great plans for his farm. He is currently building a grey water system which will filter all the waste water from the showers, kitchens etc, down through three different pools, naturally cleansing the water of all its toxins so it can be used again for the plants. Nothing goes to waste here. He also plans to get another solar panel and battery to power the farms one fridge and all the lights and other electrical items. Currently Cristiano’s home is entirely powered by solar. Such goals are very impressive when you consider how cheap electricity is in Nicaragua, and how expensive it is to buy and maintain a sufficient solar power.

The People

Cristiano, and his father Bruno, who James mistook for Cristiano on the bus on our way to the farm on our first day, are the Italian owners. Cristiano’s wife Cora (Japanese) and their one and a half year old daughter Lena live with Cristiano in his solar panelled house. Bruno lives in another house, both of which are situated on the farm. Danielle, Cristiano’s brother lived in a cabana, which used to be Cristiano’s house until Cristiano, Kura and Lena went to Italy for 6 months or so and Danielle took over both the running of the farm, and the home.

The other members of the family included Oaky and Amber, the two dogs who lived with us in the reception and swiftly became the loyal and doting friends we needed to keep us sane, and Zoe, Bruno’s rather jealous dog who got very upset whenever Oaky got any attention and took to biting his tail any time he got excited.

Other friends included Luca, Silvia and Pollon (a tiny dog who the rather large Oaky worryingly tried to mate when she was on heat). They arrived around the time we did and stayed for the three months and took over when we left. Then there were the neighbours Paul and Gaia who have bought a huge amount of land and are in the process of building a spiritual yoga commune style retreat there, or so I understood. Gaia was a remarkable yoga teacher and got me hooked. They also had a dog of course, India, who bore six beautiful puppies just before we left. And there was Shodd and Anja who rented a house for a month after finishing work and provided us with an invaluable place to retreat to on days off and drink, vent and play cards.

The Work

Our working day began at 6am and ended at 10pm and was divided into two shifts which alternated daily. The morning shift was generally the most taxing given that you had to get up ridiculously early following a 10pm finish the night before and then had to make the products. At 7am the volunteers show up. There are usually two or three of them and they generally work Monday to Saturday from 7am-11am. Every Monday morning therefore, I had to induct a new group of volunteers, showing them how to use the kitchen and then how to make the particular products we were making that day.
Products include nutella and chocolate, for which Cacao needs to be roasted, then peeled, then ground twice. Panella (raw sugar cane) then needs to be chopped finely and melted with aguardiente (the local moonshine) before the other ingredients are added. For nutella, jars also need to be sterilised which involves lighting a fire (often using rather green wood) and then re-sterilised and sealed by putting them back on the fire (in socks) for another two hours.

For pizza nights, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, we had to make tomato sauce. As it was tomato season we had to make loads of the stuff and then bottle it in old coca cola and fanta bottles, sterilising them as above. Tomato sauce was always the most uncomfortable product to make as you had to work with two fires. One to sterilise the jars and one to cook the sauce. Invariably the wind was always blowing in the direction of the fire you were working on suffocating you with both smoke and heat.
Then there was honey. Luckily we didn’t have to extract the honey from the hives. Danielle and Mattia (a local worker) did this but the bottling was a nightmare. Only after bottling 4 large buckets of honey did I fully comprehend the meaning of the expression ‘like bees to a honey pot.’

We also made granola, which involved collecting and breaking open tiny coconuts called ‘coyoles’ with giant stones, licor (using aguardiente as a base and adding particular ingredients to flavour it such as cacao, honey and lemon, rosemary etc), banana vinegar, paper, coffee (roasting and grinding), marmalade and tahini.

While teaching and overseeing the volunteers in making the above we also had to buy and negotiate for some of the ingredients with the local farmers who helpfully came to the farm to sell their produce. This was difficult at first as we had no idea how much lemons or tomatoes for instance should cost. Once, I made the mistake of buying a large quantity of yucca, only to find that the farm actually grew it. We would also be running the hostel and the shop, checking people in or out, cleaning the cabanas which were helpfully scattered all over the farm, and selling the products that we made.

At 12 noon, a huge and delicious lunch would be served, made by Maiella every day but Sunday when James would treat us. After lunch was generally a more relaxing time and whoever was working the morning shift could start to breathe easy again.

In the afternoon, the relaxing time usually came at the beginning of the shift. Unless products had to be made, all you really had to do was run the hostel and the shop. If it was a pizza night, it would tend to get busy at around 6pm when people from outside would come and buy beers and pizza as well as those staying. Usually we would both be on-hand to work on pizza nights.

Time off

Just before Kura and Cristiano left, Kura offered us the use of her hammock and thus we spent most of our time alternating between reading in the hammock and working in the shop. We both did A LOT of reading. James even got through Tolstoy’s ‘War and Peace’.

James had Wednesdays off and I had Fridays and on these days we would usually escape to the beach followed by a drink and a game of pool at Little Morgans, a nearby hostel.

Reflections

There were tough times although these are already drifting away from my memory the way bad times tend to do and are being replaced by romantic notions of endless fun and pleasure. I had some screaming arguments with Danielle, probably largely due to miscommunication and tiredness on both our parts (although we put it down to a personality clash). James was ever playing mediator and I am greatly indebted to him for putting up with my stressing and keeping me sane.

In retrospect though, the time spent at Zopilote was fabulous. We have both been inspired to start growing our own food and the break in the travelling that it provided was invaluable. We feel like we’ve started travelling all over again and are fully appreciative of its wonders, and the wonders of not working. It’s remarkable how quickly you get used to a way of life, even if it is an unsustainable and ever changing way of life like travelling is.

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Photos

Ometepe: the first glimpse
Volcan Concepcion is the large one on the left. Maderas is on the right. We lived on the left hand side at the back of Maderas in a town called Madronal

The great shave
James shaves off his 3 month beard... at long last

The cru
From left to right: Mailla, Silvia, James and Luca

Stocking the fridge
trust me, these beers are heavier than they look