Lunahuaná - Volunteering, and finishing off an amazing trip...

We arrived in Lunahuaná about 3 hours after leaving Ica.  It was pretty straight forward, a bus to Canete, then a small bus to Imperial, then a smaller bus to Lunahuaná.  We passed several apple and peach orchards on the way in to the valley, and passed a fairly large winding river on the way in as well...

We were dropped off in the center of town, which was pretty small, and every other building was a tour guide to take you river rafting.  I guess that's the main source of income here, besides the grapes, which line the river up and down, and they too, have a major Pisco production going on, but in small, handcrafted, artisan style.

I ran into an internet cafe, and used the net briefly to check for Adam's phone number.  After a few minutes of figuring out the payphone out front, we were connected.  He told us how to get to his property, and we were almost there...

Exactly a month spent at this beautiful property would teach us a lot...It was community living, which neither of us were very used to, and the diet was a little (a lot) different than our previous couple months spent in Argentina...

All in all, this place was amazing, and we learned a ton, from Adam, as well as all of the other folks staying and volunteering there.  Building with Barro (adobe), was one of the main themes employed here while we volunteered.  If done properly, it can really be a beautiful, strong, and inexpensive way to build.

During our stay, we went river rafting, which was very fun, utilizing the backyard river that has some pretty intense rapids.  We visited a Pisco distillery one day, that was very interesting, and had quite a bit of local history, not to mention delicious, well made Pisco...

We also all took turns cooking (for the most part), or at least some of us more than others...Lucy, one of the girls volunteering with us, probably did more cooking than anyone.  Looking back at the meals we ate, there really were a lot of delicious, and interesting concoctions.  One thing I think that's safe for both of us to say, is that we ate enough oatmeal to last a frigging lifetime...

Aticara - Volunteering on an organic farm for 2 weeks!

We left Chiclayo at about 10 AM on a bus to Chimbote, which is further south, and on the coast.  We again had a couple corny movies aboard the bus, and had an unbelievable scenery on the journey.

Out the window were stretching deserts, and jagged coastline in and out.  There were a couple stretches of highway that had signs reading "archeological area, keep out," leaving me wondering if there was some work being done on uncovering some new Peruvian findings...

We reached Chimbote, which is the biggest city in the Ancash region of Peru.  We were warned by the owner of the farm we were to visit, that in Chimbote, we needed to be on our toes, especially with taxi drivers.  We found and old man taxi driver, who was very nice, and took us across town to the tiny bus station heading up and into the mountains where we were to go.

Aticara, where we were headed, was not on our map, or in the book.  Turns out it was the tiniest little town we were to see thus far.  The neighboring town of Corongo wasn't even in our book, and it was quite the sight to see!

We got on the bus to Aticara in Chimbote at about 5:30 PM on a Friday evening.  We arrived in Aticara at almost midnite.  The bus ride was on a very windy mountain road, which we could see nothing outside, of course.  Eilif, the owner of the farm, was there to pick us up in Aticara.

We jumped in his old Subaru station wagon and headed off into the night.  We would spend the next 2 weeks working on his beautiful organic farm, and helping out around the property.

2 weeks seemed like it would be an eternity there, but it went by very quickly.  We awoke the next morning to an incredible view of the farm, at about 10,000 feet (3000 meters) up in the Andes.

Eilif was a really cool guy.  He's Norwegian, and married to a Peruvian woman.  He taught us tons about organic farming.  He is all about doing everything the natural way, and was full of information and insight on everything natural, from planting to animal feed.

Our second week there, we were left alone while he went to Lima with the family, and we were in charge of feeding all of the chickens (about 30 of them), and watering and caring for the crops.

His farm had no electricity, or running water other than a creek, and we were out in the middle of nowhere.  But, it was the experience of a lifetime, of course, and we cooked some great meals, and really got into the feel of being primitive for 2 weeks.  There was a hot spring just down the road, that we visited twice, and during our overall stay there, we had an incredible time.

The house

View from the property

a small view of the farm with a view of some sun chokes and potatoes...

The hotspring just down the road from the farm

Eilif giving us the lowdown on the farm

Danica, with a pitchfork in all her glory

Volunteering at Tagua Lodge, Manglaralto...The work we did

Looking back, and summing up our "work for stay" on the Ecuadorean coast, a lot is to be said...

We really felt at home in Manglaralto, and never once felt unsafe.  The town itself was amazing.  Small, nothing too fancy, and easy to walk around in, it ended up being the perfect 'pause' in our travels, and an incredible learning experience.

The hostel, Tagua Lodge, was an amazing place upon entry, but now, after all the work we've done, we feel it's even better!

When we arrived, we walked in the gate, to a nice yard full of trees and plants, and 2 separate buildings and an outdoor, covered kitchen...The back (far) building (2 story), in the rear of the yard, was the owners Luis and Caty's place downstairs, and friends of theirs, Jose and Marga's place upstairs.  The other, front building, also 2 stories high, was four guest rooms, two finished, and two yet to be finished.  Simple cement/re-bar construction for the beams and walls, and the bottom unfinished room was close, but needed mosquito netting, electrical, and a bathroom door.  The unfinished upstairs room needed everything, for it was just bare cement, no doors, windows, electrical, and the bathroom still needed a shower installed.

We started with the bottom room, and Danica began painting murals and walls, and we installed the mosquito netting together.  I continued, by building a bamboo bathroom door, installing electrical outlets, and wiring the hot shower.  This room was to be ours while working on it.  Soon as we were done, we began working on the upstairs room, which needed a ton of work.

 

Mosquito netting on the bottom room

 

Building a bathroom door (bamboo)

D's first imprint at the lodge...

First, I made a railing, which was very necessary, as the balcony was a drop off, and I felt as if I might fall off while carrying up supplies.  We used what we could find around the property, where there was a ton of wood, bamboo of all shapes and sizes, and plenty of hand and power tools, like hammer and nails, saws, drills, screws, etc...

 

 

 

Upstairs railing finished

Danica painted everything in the upstairs room, including a huge lotus flower mural as you walk in, some ocean waves in the corner, and tons of tropical fish on the back walls.  Mark and Carlie, also helpX volunteers, came for 2 weeks, and Carlie and Danica painted, while Mark and I manned the upstairs, continuing construction.  He made some fold-up bamboo windows facing the street, and a bamboo cover for an existing window that showed through, before the ad on.  Mark then did a really nice varnish job over the raw bamboo, and by the time they left, the upstairs was almost done...

 

D's lotus almost finished

 

Mark varnishing

 

I installed a circuit breaker box on the outside wall, and wired the whole room, including the bathroom, and hot shower, lights and switches.  Once connected to the downstairs, main breaker, we had power, and we could see at night!  I added some finishing touches inside, like some bamboo strips to cover the cement edges on the walls, and built a bamboo bathroom door...The room was pretty much finished.

Electrical to the bathroom, with bamboo conduit

 

 

 

 

floor painted, room pretty much done...

 The next project was building and putting up a sign out front, and overall upgrading the look from outside...First it was to build a sign support, and I had an idea to use a pulley and rope above it, which made it sort of resemble a sail rigging on a boat...

 

Support installed...

Building a roof for the sign...

Some palm fronds for the roof...

a haircut...

 

almost ready to hoist up...

Roof's up, and ready for the sign!

Danica's perfectly double sided sign...bout to give Tagua a make-over...

Sign's up, and now for the electrical connection for the light...

 

 

railing at the entrance...

Many other projects took place at Tagua during our time there...I added a ton of new lights to the place, where it was super dark...I made bamboo light fixtures to replace all of the existing outdoor lights, and installed new lights in the kitchen, as the beginning of a kitchen remodel...I added electrical sockets to 2 areas outside, where there were none.  Built some shelves in the laundry area, and put light fixtures in there as well.

Installing an outdoor plug, hidden in bamboo

Another couple, Matthew and Poppy from HelpX showed up, and they began working on finishing an outdoor shower, that had been turned storage space...They cleared the stuff out, and Mathew began skimming the cinder-block walls with cement, then finally plaster.  Poppy added some paintings to the rather dull room upstairs, and we ended up hanging out quite a bit.  I built two hanging wine and cocktail glass holders up on the wall in the kitchen, and then began building a new kitchen counter...

 

 

Tiles atop, and just needing a couple things...

 

 Mathew doing his beautiful varnish job...

 

A brand new kitchen counter!

Looking back, we spent exactly 2 months and 22 days at Tagua Lodge.  We loved it, and recommend anyone traveling to this part of the world, to stay there!