Day 4

Jon's friend eating a katydid this morning... not sure what to name her. She's makes her web at the bottom of our path...
This beetle is not dead... Conan flipped him over and he was struggling to get right-side up again. Unfortunately, the camera doesn't capture this well...

Our first day off, and I am the first to wake. I decided to try drinking some of Kim’s medicinal mud this morning before breakfast in an effort to encourage detoxification and get rid of my eczema. It is made of dry subsoil from the property here, and it’s a beautiful red color like the rest of the soil. One tablespoon stirred into a cup of water three days a week, with a 15 day break is how it is prescribed (or just once a week)… but it made me gag, and I couldn’t get down the muck on the bottom. Kim says it’s just as well as many of the good properties are found in the liquid above after you stir it.

After everyone had gotten up we rallied for our first journey into town at 9:30- officially too late (though we didn’t know it at the time).

It’s so dang hot here if you don’t do things early, and by the time we got our butts up the hill we were a sweaty mess. The cows watched us from the field as we climbed. We caught the bus promptly though, and on arriving at the giant grocery store we discovered that we still had quite a walk to get to town.

We made it about an hour before everything closed for siesta, and did some brief emailing at an internet café before getting kicked out. We spent siesta walking around town, ducking out of the rain when it came, and walking in the sun when it was out. Here is one of the many parks in Obera.

The hooties came, and made a new friend.

We tried ‘Milanese’ for lunch, one of Argenitna’s traditional foods (it’s like chicken fried steak, according to Kimberly) and then headed back to do some more emailing before leaving town. We went shopping in the craziest grocery store I have ever been in- everyone has the bumblies and leaves their carts wherever they want. They make you check all bags and purses at the door, or carry them around with you in a locked bag. Everything is processed except for a small selection of fruits and vegetables, which didn’t seem very appealing, but we all managed to find something to leave with- mostly chocolate.

It felt like a long day, and when we got to the bus stop just after 6 we were hungry and ready to be back on the farm.

We stopped every bus that passed to see if they were going to Villa Union, but none were, and finally, just after 8pm our bus arrived. Unsure of where to get off, we asked for a lot of help, and the other passengers thought we were CRAZY for getting off the bus in a field in the middle of nowhere, in the darkest dark (the new moon was last night). Kayla said that she feels like our eyes would adjust in the dark, but we didn’t need to test it. Just as we got to the driveway Kim and Marcelo arrived to pick us up, worried that we would have no light to find our way home by. It felt so good to get back to the farm- so peaceful compared to town. Life here is beautiful. It’s good to be home.