A Week in Our Lives – La Costa
By Izzy S. and Emma M.
¡Hola Amigos! Our days have been packed with many experiences and activities since we arrived here in Ecuador. Here at Rio Muchacho, we are familiarizing ourselves with traditional Ecuadorian cuisine. Most of what we eat here is produced on the farm and includes lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, especially plantains. The food is mostly vegetarian except for the occasional chicken or fish included in our meals. We have tried many traditional dishes including Arepas and Pan de Yuca.
¡Hola Amigos! Nuestros días han estado llenos de muchas experiencias y actividades desde que llegamos a Ecuador. Aquí en Río Muchacho, nos estamos familiarizando con la cocina tradicional ecuatoriana. La mayor parte de lo que comemos aquí se produce en la granja e incluye muchas frutas y verduras frescas, especialmente plátanos. La comida es mayoritariamente vegetariana, excepto el pollo o el pescado que se incluye ocasionalmente en nuestras comidas. Hemos probado muchos platos tradicionales, como las arepas y el pan de yuca.
One of our activities included participating in the process of picking, cracking, drying, and grinding coffee seeds for the coffee we drink at breakfast. Lunch and dinner consist of lots of rice, salad, and juice from fruit on the farm. The kitchen staff is always happy to tell us about the food we are eating and some of us have helped cook.
Una de nuestras actividades fue participar en el proceso de recolección, craqueo, secado y molienda de las semillas de café para el café que tomamos en el desayuno. El almuerzo y la cena consisten en mucho arroz, ensalada y zumo de frutas de la granja. El personal de la cocina siempre está encantado de informarnos sobre los alimentos que comemos y algunos de nosotros incluso hemos ayudado a cocinar.
One of our recent excursions was a trip to La Isla del Corazon to see the mangroves. As our tour guide told us the mangroves are the “lungs of the world”. We took a boat out to the island, and from there we got into canoes to paddle through them. We learned about several types of mangroves, including the red mangroves, which never die.
We also learned about the process of photosynthesis and how the plants around us use it to stay alive. Once we got out of the mangroves, we went bird watching and observed some of the endemic species, many of which are endangered. After our boat ride, we took a short walk through the mangroves and were able to plant some seeds in the mud.
También aprendimos sobre el proceso de fotosíntesis y cómo las plantas que nos rodean lo utilizan para mantenerse vivas. Una vez que salimos de los manglares, fuimos a observar las aves y vimos algunas de las especies endémicas, muchas de las cuales están en peligro de extinción. Después de nuestro paseo en barco, dimos un pequeño paseo por los manglares y pudimos plantar algunas semillas en el barro.
The AMIGOS crew has also been doing lots of community service. One of our most recent projects was beautifying the Casa Communal which is a local community center. The Casa Communal was originally a school that Rio Muchacho’s founder Dario began. It was destroyed by the 2016 earthquake. We scraped and sanded down the walls so that we could repaint them. After an hour and a half of meticulous work, we finished, and it looked brand new.
Dario said he received many compliments and thanks for our help. Soon we will return to the Casa Communal to help plant trees and finish beautifying it. In addition to our work at the Casa Communal, we have also helped out around the farm in several other ways, such as weeding, picking plants, feeding animals, and building a lagoon/shrimp farm.
Darío dijo que había recibido muchos cumplidos y agradecimientos por nuestra ayuda. Pronto volveremos a la Casa Comunal para ayudar a plantar árboles y terminar de embellecerla. Además de nuestro trabajo en la Casa Comunal, también hemos ayudado en la granja de otras maneras, como deshierbando, recogiendo plantas, alimentando a los animales y construyendo una laguna/granja de camarones.
