For the past three weeks I have been living in another world. Well that’s what it feels like at least. Life on the farm is so different to my life back home – I have learnt and experienced so many new things in such a short period of time. And I’ve met some awesome folk from around the world that I know I’ll stay friends with for years to come!

The farm is truly remote – it is accessed by a long dirt track which winds (often steeply) through the forest for a few miles. Greg, the owner of the farm, built this track himself – it took him three years! Before that the only access to the farm was by boat from across the lake.

There are two main buildings on the farm: the barn (one mile walk from the lake) and the lodge (right next to the lake). We spent the first couple of nights at the barn as there were guests renting the lodge. There is no electricity at the barn and the toilet is a drop-toilet out on the edge of the forest. It was fun to stay there for a bit and then ‘upgrade’ to the relative luxury of the lodge!

A typical day on the farm starts with a big breakfast at 8am. If you’re on kitchen duty you have to get up at least an hour before that to cook something yummy for everyone. We’d usually have something like pancakes or French toast with a fruit compote and hot oatmeal (porridge) and loads of fresh bread.

At 9am we’d start work. What we did varied every day. Jobs included: bee-keeping with Jorge (see separate post), fence-building, wood-chopping, hauling/stacking firewood, digging drainage trenches in preparation for the rains, blackberry and hazelnut picking, dealing with the animals (pigs, sheep, cows, geese, chickens), digging for potatoes or other vegetables, helping with some carpentry (constructing a hut for the geese, planing boards), etc etc. Sometimes we’d all work together but mostly we split up into smaller groups. One person would always be on bread-making duty – churning out at least nine loaves of bread each day in a wood-fired oven. By lunchtime at 2pm we were famished!

Lunches were awesome – its amazing to see how different people can craft some truly tasty meals out of a very basic set of ingredients. It was also amazing how much I could eat after a long morning of physical work!

After lunch we were off for the rest of the day. Sometimes we’d go swim in the lake or take a hike (there was a spectacular waterfall about 1 1/2 hours round the lake shore, accessible only by swimming the last 50-100 metres (so no photos, unfortunately). More often I’d go for a post-lunch nap and get some Graham-time!

One one afternoon we took the boat round the lake to some natural hot springs. You have to dig a hole in the sand and the (very) hot water rises up to fill the hole. You can then add some cold water from the lake to get the temperature right. It sounds amazing but at the end of the day we were just sat in a fairly shallow muddy puddle of warm water. Ah well…

In the evenings we’d play cards (the game of ‘Golf’ was a firm favourite) or Mafia, make our own dinners (usually left-overs) and use the WiFi – when it was working.

There was also a hot-tub near the lodge. It took a good two days(!) of heating using the built-in wood-stove to get it to the right temperature but it was amazing to sit in there late at night under the stars!

On our last day we had an asado (grill). On the farm, this involved slaughtering a sheep – a process that, although not exactly ‘fun’, was really interesting to witness and be involved in.

Rupanco Farm will doubtless be one of my favourite memories of this trip. I met some great people there, shared a lot of laughs and even some DMCs (an abbreviation I learnt at the farm, standing for ‘deep meaningful conversation’). It was inspiring living so close to nature, attempting to do everything in a way that respects and preserves the environment around us.

When I get home I plan to start making my own bread – and you’re all invited to come round and try it!

(Here’s a video made by Adam and Karen, an American couple also working on the farm)