We´ve been at the farm for a week now and are preparing to head south to Los Torres Del Paine for a week-ish of backpacking. Can´t wait!! Jehan and Roxanne finally made it to the farm after many unfortunate adventures (cancelled flights, being scammed by taxi drivers, and illness). Jehan is, unfortunately still sick and will not be coming with us on the trekking portion of the trip. We´re sad to leave her behind, but she´ll be staying at the Chacra Millalen which is a wonderful place for her to rest and get her energy back. We´ll be meeting up with her again in Buenos Aires post-trekking.

The past week had been crammed full of siestas, reading spanish novels, chatting with 8 year olds, and eating five times my weight in fresh veggies. Life on the farm is commune-style, with everyone taking turns for cooking and cleaning. We all eat together for lunch and dinner every day, taking a moment of silence before serving the food and then sitting at a huge wooden table under the willow chatting and relishing in the goodness of fresh food that we´ve all worked to grow. It´s very gratifying and i have a new-found appreciation for gardening and playing in the dirt.

As far as working goes, we begin at 9 am and go until 1, and our duties have included picking veggies, weeding, preparing garden beds for planting, and transplanting baby lettuce. We´ve also helped with cleaning and with cooking milanesas de soja (soy). Milanesas, though usually made with meat, are a traditional dish and, in this vegetarian version, consist of lots of grains and spices, mixed with water to form a dough, rolled out, cut into patties, and then boiled. Delicous!!

Afternoons are pure laziness with a minimum of two naps under fruit trees. Several days ago, post nap, we walked the 5 km under the three o´clock sun with two enormous gomas (tractor tire tubes) to a river. Nick, Joanna (another wwoofer), and spent an hour floating down the river in the gomas, waving at the curious argentinians on the riverside as we passed. We got the impression that tubing wasn´t a typical argentinian activity, based on their stares and funny comments. It was glorious to drag our feet and arms in the crisp water and laze under the azure sky and massive mountains. And, to our suprise, we suffered only minor sunburns, thinning ozone and all! Huzzah!