I don’t even know if I can say ‘volunteering’ at this stage, because this week has been an absolute breeze. Every day has felt like a Friday!

I should rewind to Saturday evening. After we returned from Santiago we prepared for a pizza night with the French couple, Hugo and his girlfriend Babi.

Babi is a herbalist so she made a herby tomato sauce for the bases that I had rolled out for everyone. We each decorated our pizzas with an erray of colourful toppings. Hugo made guocomole which we had with corn tortilas for starters, while Hollie worked through deep frying a cauliflower to go with a Korean style bbq sauce. We had an absolute feast! We sat around a fire, and talked… Mostly about food. Babi said that she has a friend who lives in Antigua who may be able to put us up whilst we are there, so she has given us the number for her!

On Sunday Hollie and I made a milkshake as we bought a new packet of powdered soy milk (big thanks to the creators of Delisoy). We crushed up berries and banana and it was DEVINE! So fresh and tasty! Such a nice change up from water/or hot lime and ginger.

Then Hollie and I took a stroll up the hill for a change of scenery. Climbing a dry slippery hill in crocs was not my best idea, but it worked out somehow. We got to see the view from a much higher point, although that meant it was super super hot! We ate the left over pizza and headed back for a refreshing swim!

The French couple cooked up a delicious curry in the evening. We got a tin of coconut milk in Santiago, and it was so refreshing to have something other than a tomato based meal!

On Monday we said Au Revoir to the french couple, and then Hollie and I had a lovely (easy/shady/not dusty) task to clean the coffee leaves and chop up some wood. Allysio looked at the pile of logs I had chopped and said ‘muy bien’. I get the jist that we surprise him a lot with the work we do, as he has said this a few other times as well!

After work was the first time it had just been Hollie and I on the land! We were able to go commando in the lake for a swim and a wash without a care in the world… Well except for those pesky Fisher men!

I then decided to experiment with making some museli cookies. I mixed up museli, banana, cinnamon, panela, water, oil, salt and flour ( I didn’t need the flour)… I fried them, and put some in the muffin tray and held it above the flame. I was happy with the outcome, the museli has raisons and nuts in, so they feel like a good on the go hiking snack. Hollie didn’t like them, and said they were too rubbery for her. I said that I’d made enough for the week, and Hollie laughed and commented ‘those won’t last you the week’…. (they did, I had 1 left for Friday!).

Tuesday came and we were greeted with another lovely task of weeding the pineapple field. It’s actually mad to see pineapples growing. The fact they take so long to grow as well…. Between 1-3 years… So consider that if you ever waste a pineapple, it took all that time to grow!

Duing the break I discovered that I could turn the museli cookie things into a kind of cereal, so I had this with milk, and black raspberries. The picture may not look appetising, but honestly, it was great… Even Hollie liked it. Or maybe we’ve just been eating too much museli and anything tastes good at this stage.

After the break we had to remove some of the leaves from the dead tree and place on a bit of land called the ‘Milpa’.

After this we did some washing…. Check out how gross the water is on first soak. When I say we are dusty people, I am not exaggerating.

Then we spent the rest of the day sunbathing (responsibly with sun cream of course, factor 60 for the chest, back and hands, and factor 15 during the earlier ‘cooler’ parts of the day and 30 when it’s mega hot on the arms legs and stomach…face cream with factor 50 and a hat always…. Gotta be stragetic and safe in the sun), making the most of the relaxing time we have left here, being able to read books… I am loving the discovery of E book on the play store (thanks Anna) and trying to harness some more Spanish.

At dinner Hollie and I discussed how we could actually stay longer here. We don’t have an overriding want or desire to leave. We aren’t fed up of washing in the lake, living outdoors, sleeping on roll mats… we are completely at one with this lifestyle. We are eating super healthy, exercising, enjoying the chilled pace and ultimately the comfortability of it all (which is funny because there’s not many comfy places here). We could happily do this for much longer, however we want to be able to see more of Guatemala, but all the while we are stationed here, we cannot do that.

Wednesday came and I fed the dogs as usual and sat and ate a banana. I could see that the boy dog (sorry I can’t spell his name… Okatah?!) was eating Mirpah’s food, so banana in hand I dashed up the hill, and before I knew it I had STACKED it over a plant, I lunged forward towards Okatah (that’s one way to get him to stop), and landed hard on my right hip and hand onto a root. The banana was a goner, the dogs were licking me and I felt like I was having a whitey and was going to pass out. Sorry I’m so dramatic. My hand hurt a lot, but it wasn’t broken or anything, and my hip is bruised and will be a nuisance for sleeping on the hard ground, but no major injury was sustained.. Thank god because getting anywhere for medical attention quickly would be… Well impossible!

Work wise Wednesday was another chilllllled day as Allysio came late as he was rowing over with the lumberjack, who was finishing off the main trunk of the poor tree that fell over. He advised that we weed the tomato plants. This didn’t take long, so we also harvested some, and watered the sorry looking things.

It was a gorgeous day across the lake, a perfect day to be working on the allotment with this as our work view.

We didn’t have much else to do, Allysio had advised that we wait until he was finished doing the tree, but by 12 he hadn’t appeared, so we started to make a big lunch for us, Allysio and the lumberjack. I made breads, Hollie made guocomole and the amazing cauliflower bites with bbq sauce, we also did chips and had left over ratoulie. The guys arrived in perfect timing as we were dishing up, and no one left unsatisfied. We have a slight lanagauge barrier, but Allysio rubbed his belly and was not able to eat seconds…. Hollie and I on the other hand felt that it would be rude to leave the chips and the cauliflower, so we polished these off.

We were expecting a new volunteer in the afternoon, a guy called Fred! He arrived as Hollie was face timing her girlfriend Amie, so I went to greet him off the boat and show him the ropes. Fred commented about the Canadian weather, although he did not sound Canadian to me. I commented on this and he said well French-Canadian… So I just assumed he was born in France and then moved to Canada. After I had made a few references about France, and the French volunteers who has just left, it came to fruition that people in Montreal speak French, and he is infact, not from France. What a revelation…so it turns out all my school friends know this, did we even go to same school…… I really hope I’m not alone in not knowing this until now…..

Fred and I made some pesto pasta and Hollie later joined us. We did the traveller speil.. ‘where do you come from, where do you go’…… Its all very cotton eyed Joe the traveller small talk before you can get to real stuff. And then as darkness was thrust upon us, we said our good nights.

Thuraday came and as I opened the tent I could smell coffee brewing. Fred offered me a cup which I didnt decline, a sugary milky coffee was truly appreciated. Allysio arrived and despite Fred saying he could only speak a little Spanish, he was having what sounded like a compensive conversations with Allysio, so this was handy to translate job wise. The job today was moving the freshly cut logs, or doing something with a machete. I asked if this was a ‘lighter job’ because he didn’t know if we could move the logs. But we moved the logs.

It was a windy day, and we were working Inbetween the shade and the sun, it was the perfect combo, and I was really enjoying this task. I felt sad for the logs as I think they’re just going to be used for fire wood… Which seems like an injustice to such beautiful pieces of nature. I wanted to get more pictures of us working, so it’s not just all food. So this is me carrying logs.

After the break we chopped up the smaller branches, and I found a comfy rock to sit on, and saw away. Hollie and I chatted, and I was so content in this moment. I wasn’t clock watching waiting to finish, I was well and truly in the moment and enjoying every second.

After work Hollie and I went for a wash. Due to the high winds the waves came at us thick and fast, giving our hair a thorough good clean of all the shampoo and conditioner. It was an especially rejuvenating wash. However at this point my towel is so dusty, that I wash just to dry myself in dust. I may be happy to stay here, but on the other hand, I will be running to the launderette as soon as I see one.

Hollie, Fred and I had a curry with salad for dinner and talked about our home towns, gentrification, food (always food), the weather in our countries and the difference it takes to drive across the whole of the UK (about 9 hours) to driving across all of Canada (3-5 days). Hollie and I retired to the tent, ready for our final day tomorrow!

Friday came and thankfully the harsh wind that had been blowing a gale all night had calmed down. I was quite concerned that another tree would fall down and crush us in our sleep…. Not that I could sleep much!

We carried on with the sawing of the logs, which was a great job sitting in the sunshine, listening to music…dnb specifically… It turns out 160bpm is the perfect sawing rhymth.

After the break we were moving the bigger logs. Allysio put us all to shame when he moved a gigantic log, on his head! I didn’t get a picture of him in action, but this is the log. It has some interesting patterns inside.

Then Fred and Hollie gave it a go, I tried to do it but there wasn’t anything to put the log on to help raise it up. I did pull my weight rolling them up the hill though.

We got put to work in that final hour, but we pretty much cleared all the logs. Teamwork!

And then it was 12pm, and we could hang up our gloves and put our tools away. Opur 3 weeks of work was officially over!

So what a journey. Starting the week with constant thoughts of home, thinking about getting a corner sofa on finance when I get back, craving all foods, to being so content with being here, I could happily stay.

This may have seemed like a food blog at times because we have been eating so much, and maybe I haven’t focused on the eco farm side of things, but in all honesty we have just been given tasks to do, and we’ve completed them. There hasn’t been much work which involves learning a new skill or doing something completely unique to this piece of land.

I would say that I’ve come away with life skills though, being able to make do with the ‘basics’, having to be inventive and thinking outside of the box, or outside of the oven!

Theres been lows: The toilet which consists of a seat on a shallow bucket, and is a place where you are guaranteed to get bitten by mozzies. The gas (mostly a low for Hollie, but I feel bad for her being stuck with me in a tent)… And I honestly couldn’t think of any more… Oh loosing the hammock on day 5 was a bit of a bummer.

The highs: swimming naked in the lake, the incredible views, time to read books, learn Spanish, (Hollie is learning the harmonica), learning to cook new things, eating a healthy diet, tent life!, the dogs, knowing we will have 3 meals a day and have fresh drinking water, the perfect balance of exercise/manual labour and chill time, learning a new card game – President, discovering new music, harvesting fresh fruit and herbs, not looking in a mirror all week, not wearing make up all week, not worrying about my hair, getting loads of sleep, getting to do this with my best friend.

Yeah, it’s been pretty special here. It’s an experience that I will treasure for a life time.

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