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Published: October 11th 2005
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AHHH!
Bobby and his new friend! Finally an update...we have been keeping ourselves pretty busy!
We have been at La Hesperia for about 3 weeks now and I don´t even know where to begin.
The reserve is owned and operated by a couple, Juan Pablo and Alexandra, they just had a baby boy named Juan Ignacio, so things have been a little disorganized but we make do. They are a very nice couple in their early 30´s. Juan Pablo´s dad bought the land that the reserve is on in the 1950´s from a friend of his to help him out. Now Juan Pablo and Alexandra run it as a Biological reserve and farm...some tourists come to stay for a few days now and then. The primary forest surrounding the reserve is all protected. There main goals are sustainable agriculture for the reserve and the village and reforestation in the few areas that have been cut down. They also are planting trees specifically for lumber so the primary forest will never be used.
The town of La Esperie came after the reserve, people from the coast came looking for work.
Our typical day here:
7:30am Breakfast
8:30am to noon - Work
12:30pm Lunch
View from the top.
Went on a hike and this is a shot from above! Siesta time
2-5:00pm Work (except on Wednesdays when we stop at 4 to play soccer)
7:00pm Dinner
So as you can see we are not working too hard 😊
The reserve has 3 gardens, organic vegetable, medicinal, and meditation, and also a tree nursery so there is plenty of weeding to go around! In the veg garden we have all kinds of herbs, tomatoes, brussel sprouts, beans, cabbage, carrots and we just planted corn. The medicinal garden is really neat, there is a plant for most every ailment you could think of. We both want to learn more about it. We have 2 women who cook for us and if you need something they just whip you up some sort of tea! Really neat! The meditation garden is just a quiet area made for well meditating..have not yet tried it out.
The farm part of the reserve is worked by 3 men and their families, really nice people. We have pigs, goats, cows (who produce organic milk for us and the village), ducks and chickens. There is also 7 horses on the farm and I have been lucky enough to get the job of reintroducing one of
Dancing Machine
Me getting my groove on at the La Esperie fiesta! them, Charlie Brown to riding. That has been a challenge, he has quite an attitude problem. Bobby and I rode him on Friday and he would only walk around very slowly. Great fun!
The reserve is located above the small village of La Esperie which has maybe 150 people that live there. It has 1 restaurant, a school, a medical center and a small refreshment stand. All of the villagers have been very nice and welcoming.
Bobby and I start teaching English starting Wednesday. We have been to the class a few times already and it is just crazy. The room we have to teach in is about as big as a rectangular bedroom. The kids are split into 2 classes and they are split up in this room by a hanging sheet. The older class is taught by a volunteer named Nicole and she has 7 kids in her class. Bobby and I will be teaching the smaller kids ages 6-10 and there are 19 of them total! So this small room can get pretty hectic. La Hesperia is trying to raise $5000 dollars to build a new school for the English class. We cannot teach in
Fiesta!
Bobby with a few of his favorite pupils! the actual school because it is government run and the teacher drives from Latacunga which is 2 hours away and she wants to leave right when she is done...sometimes she does not even show up. The kids are really sweet and we have some good ideas for the class. It is really hard for them to learn because many of the volunteers stay such a short period of time that there is no curriculum to follow.
Some other projects we have been working on is reforestation, we just planted 28 trees on Thursday since the wet season is upon us, we will plant many more in the weeks to come. We also started growing mushrooms, wee drilled holes in logs and will grow them out of the logs.
We also have been working on building a new volunteer house, painting and staining bamboo. It is almost done!
So as you can tell we have been very busy here, It is just so nice to be outside all day! The weather is great and not too many bugs...yet, the mosquitos will come with the wet season. Last Saturday night we went to the village to a fiesta for
Coffee
We made our own coffee! the anniversary of La Esperie...we did some dancing and had a few beers, great time!
I probably left a lot out, but we will write more in the weeks to come! hope everyone at home is healthy and happy, we love you an miss you!
Love
Cate & Bobby
Oh and we caught 2 spiders..ck out the pictures..freaky!
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Ryan Wisniewski
non-member comment
I'd Vote For Spongebob
Hey there! Sounds like yer havin fun. Wish I was growing mushrooms and climbing a mountain. Anyway.....nothing new here to report. What should I be for Halloween. And you guys need to review these comments so that other folks can see them. Sweet. Already then, bye for now, Lizz says hi! Saty safe. ~ryan