We Don't Bolivia Anymore

For the past two weeks we´ve been farming in Ecuador near Mindo (up in the cloud forest) and we´ve met some awesome people. Our hosts Ingo (a massive German dude who randomly has a signed copy of Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler, slightly intriguing) and his wife Genny (from Ecuador) have only lived on their farm for a year so even though the place is really modern (with a hot shower, yes!) there was a lot of construction work to crack on with over the two weeks we were there. Their three daughters were lovely, particularly Lyia (being only two years old, absoloutely adorable and clever as hell, can already begin to speak three languages as Ingo only speaks to her in German, Genny only in Spanish and English she learns from her parents and volunteers...shes gonna be a reight bird!)

There were 10 volunteers altogether on the farm apart from the family, and having a hottub on hand after a hard days graft and camp fires at night made this place even better...Thanks to our pals and hosts for a fabulous fortnight! Here come the piccies....

Iguanas that were in a park in Guayaquil, a city in
Ecuador we visited before farming

Ingo and Gennys farm near Mindo....the place would be really pretty early morning in the cloud forest when half the mountains were covered....

Chicken for dinner tonight guys...let´s get this baby gutted

When Emiliano shoved his hand right up inside it actually
squawked as he touched the voicebox..
.that was pretty creepy...

Just love how Lyia watches her papa with intrigue...

Get washing up lads!! You know your place...

We had fresh hunny that Ingo had taken from his bees that day...

We managed to build 120 steps up into the forest for Ingo...made it much easier to climb up and bring down heavy pieces of wood on your shoulders to build the pig pen...

Tank - this guy was in real trouble on our last day of the farm as he
hunted four sheep and killed them including a baby lamb..
.Ingo was not impressed losing out to approx 800 dollars...
the dogs are still only pups just under one year old...pretty intimidating...

The other pup Dozer...they´re actually brothers although it didn´t stop
Dozer trying to get some backdoor action...ewww!

Our good buddy Emily...pretending to work...clearing was the worst job so we´d find
ourselves chatting a little too much!

Just knuckling down to some card games while Ian works on his Rick Mayall impression...

Em feeding the chickens...they´re so stupid but fun to feed they just crowd round you,
takes half an hour to get their food into the house...

Come on lads...keep your eyes off those sheep...

One day while feeding the chickens we came across a new pal who couldn´t get over the
concrete gap for food, so we gave him some separate...awwww!

Genny feeding the pups...

This is the resident chainsaw guy...he got quite a reputation for himself when he tried to feel
up one of the female volunteers who were left alone with him...safe to say he had a massive
bollocking from Ingo and the ladies were not allowed on their own with him after...he´s 70!
Dirty bloody dog...great with the chainsaw though...

Breakfast time...

On this day we had to walk all the way to the river to see where Ingo wanted his dam building...
Lyia is too lil to walk so in the back of Ingo´s backpack she goes...such a cutey!!

Off for a mornings clearing with machettes...

Em dressed as Peter Pan...

The boys are getting the hottub ready for the evening...takes about 8 hours to heat this baby with fire wood...bloody great when it´s ready though!

Greenhouse talk...Ian wanted to learn some good tips for our veggie garden when we´re older...hehe

There are orchids all around Mindo and really beautiful ones too...

This is Ingo´s horses head that he wanted placed at the red gate upon entering...he wanted his farm to have a godfather vibe I think...

You could catch lots of beautiful butterflies about the place too...

Ian´s favourite piggy...we called him Norman Bates as the only male pig...the rest were female
characters like Carrie, Misery, Annie Wilkes...he was a right horny bugger...

Joel accidently knocked his poopy bucket over the edge of the toilet shelf one day...
he had a lot of cleaning up to do...

Em and Em...

Just laying out new flooring to make a path into the forest....

Joel with Carrie...

Took us 3 days to build the new pig pen...em made the door with Ingo and can now drill like a pro...or something...

Emiliano doing his Italian gangster impression...

We went to Mindo after farming to visited the butterfly farm where they hatched from their catalysts and the farm was also full of orchids...was really pretty...you could also get the butterflies onto your body using banana juice...