Annah Rachel wrote:I'm going to Ecuador to study Spanish for a couple months, and then I plan on working on a farm for a few weeks, at least. I'd like to find a place in Ecuador like Ecovillage Ecotruly Park in Lima, Pera. Anyone know of anything??
Madre Tierra is in Vilcabamba, Ecuador. It's a hotel, but they are in the early stages of
volunteer program.
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From the future: An optimist’s view of music
The view at Yves Zehnder's Sacred Sueños farm in Vilcabama, Ecuador. Photo by Jenn Hardy.
Two-and-a-half hours walk up a mountain in Vilcabamba, Ecuador, lives a 34-year-old red-headed farmer named Yves Zehnder. He is a farmer in every sense of the word: this is no side
project, and he has no additional day job. He works hard every day from sunrise to sunset (and sometimes beyond) managing the 10 hectares of
land he lives on.
Fearing that his frustration with our society might turn him into an eco-terrorist, Zehnder left his home in northern Ontario 14 years ago, and five years ago decided to live sustainably in the south of Ecuador. A mere $1,400 in his bank account gave him residency and home became a tent on top of an Andean mountain. He lived in the tent for six months while he single-handedly built the adobe brick communal facilities the farm labourers now use.
At first, life at the farm, called Sacred Sueños, was hard. When he arrived at his mountainside property nothing would grow except bracken fern. The soil, because of the unsustainable slash-and-burn farming in the area, was basically infertile. In retrospect, would he have chosen land with better soil? “No,” he says. “It taught me patience and perseverance. It was an ethical decision to change poor soil into something fertile. I didn’t want to be a frivolous white boy who buys good land and has it all. This way I have been able to find solutions to big problems and share that knowledge.”
This is where you want to go for the real deal!!!
Also check out Neverland Farm just a bus ride from Vilcabamba. If you are hardcore, this is the area you want to be in... Like minded people down there.
