Fin de semana en el campo

"Now more than ever do I realize that I will never be content with a sedentary life, that I will always be haunted by thoughts of a sun-drenched elsewhere." - Isabelle Eberhardt

This past Friday my host family surprised me by letting me know that the next morning we would be heading to visit my host dads uncles farm in the country.

On Saturday morning, we woke up at 5:30 and the six of us piled into the car to drive the two hours to Nanegal. I was definitely tired but the views I saw as we drove along the highway were so breathtaking I did not want to sleep in fear of missing it all. 

We arrove at around 8 in the morning and stepping out of the car, were greeted by los tíos and about 6 dogs and a cat. 

We were welcomed into their home, which consists of one room that was their kitchen and another structure entirely which consisted of their bedroom and the town store that they own. We sat down to eat breakfast together of pan with queso (bread with cheese), hard boiled eggs and coffee. I also had the opportunity to try the fruit that surrounds cacao seeds. It was really sweet and delicious. 

The view from their house was absolutely gorgeous. 

After visiting for a bit with the tios we went down to visit their farm. I am so in love with this country, I can't even explain. The picture below is a view of the property on their farm - taken from the car as we drove down the windy dirt road to get there. 

Their farm is filled with yucca, sugar cane, papaya, many different types of bananas, palmito, 7 ponds filled with fish,  chickens running around, a goose - and that doesn't even begin to cover it all. They basically don't really ever have to buy food because they have everything they would ever need to sustain themselves on their land.

Right after arriving we trekked down the hill to the ponds to do a bit of fishing. 

I'm sad to say I didn't actually take part in the fishing but it was really fun to see - and I did pick up a few of the fish that were deemed as "big enough to eat" and proceeded to throw them in the bucket. The other fish, that were too small, were immediately thrown back into the pond. I was told these fish can live up to three hours outside of water. They were still moving about as they were being prepared for dinner.

I also became a butt of my family's jokes as I managed to slip and tumble down the hill into a hole. That was fun. I'm fine! Thought it was funny how my family took pictures of me laughing before actually helping me out of the hole ;p this picture was taken by accident during my tumble. 

And the aftermath of my fall:

We then lugged the big bucket of fish up the hill and gave it to a few people at the house to prepare. We proceeded to walk down the other side of the hill looking for palmito to cut down to make ceviche later that night.  After a few hours of trekking around the hills of their farm we arrived back at the house to this beautiful dinner: 

This is the fish that we had caught as well as yucca and other vegetables from the farm. It was delicious. 

The rest of the weekend I spent swimming in a river, playing cards with my host siblings and cousins, eating delicious food from the farm, throwing water on each other, marveling at the beautiful landscapes and enjoying trekking around the farm and being disconnected from internet etc.   

Here we are playing Carnaval:  

I'll write more about Carnaval in my next post. Until then. Love and peace to you all.