Eco Truly Park

Now, had I written this blog the first day we arrived at Eco Truly Park it would have gone something like this:
We made it to Lima after an alright bus journey and to make it even better, Fraser and Gubby accompanied us (or we accompanied them) to Lima on the same bus and even stayed in the same hostel. What a treat. We were so burnt out from the hike that we decided it would be more fun to go groccery shopping and make a huge dinner all together and watch Jackass 3D before we spearated the following morning...and since Fraser is our resident Master Chef, he of course would cook a magnificent meal for us to devour.
We decided to go for a Mexican feast with corn tortillas, salsa, guacamole, chicken and all the trimmings. It was devine and we topped it all off with a movie about men who play violent and dangerour pranks on each other for the sher voyeristic glutteny of people like me, Al, Gubby and Fraser. We honestly did not leave the hostel other than our few jaunts to the groccery store and the ATM machine while we were in Lima. We just wanted to stay indoors really and recouperate from the hike. The night came and went and soon we were giving cuddles and making plans to meet up again when we all get back home to London in a few short months.
Before we knew it, we were on a Z bus (a very local bus) on our way to the Eco Village for a few weeks or more. I guess I should have been scared when the taxi driver turned the corner heading to the bus station when he locked all the doors and rolled up all the windows, telling me in Spanish while looking at my face in the refelction of his rear view mirror that this is a VERY dangerous area so be careful, but I felt fine. Maybe I should have been afriad when we got on the Z bus and I was trying to explain to the busdriver where we needed to get dropped off when something clicked in his head and he said, "oh, Hare Krishna" and ushered us to our seats assuring me that he would let me know when we needed to depart the bus. Perhaps I should have been concerned when the bus driver pulled over on the side of a deserted road on the top of a large sand dune and pointed to the bottom of the sand dune as where we needed to go so we basically had to slide down it on our backpacks. But it wasn't until we actually arrived and we were ushered into the temple for a Hare Krishna birthday party, which lasted for 5 hours and consisted of singing, chanting and reading from a prayer book when I was really concerned.
I think that we missed the hyperlink from the website that led you to the Hare Krishna bit, as I do NOT recall reading that this place was a Hare Krishna Ashram and we were now stuck here. I think the best part was learning about the toiletting...the compost toilets that are used, which are made out of a large plastic garbage can with a hole cut in the lid and a toilet seat affixed to said lid where you deficate and urinate into the garbage can and then throw sawdust on top, like a kitten burying his poop in a litter box. That wasn't even the worst part...the worst part is that each morning, 3 volunteers (we are volunteers) have to take these two large compost toilets to the giant rectanglar compost heap and dump the dump onto the fly-laden pile. Then, we have to fill a bucket with water and clorox bleach and wash the compost toilets clean...oh and the lids as well. Where are we? In some sort of hell?!
Luckily, I did not have access to the internet and was unable to leave you with this image of our lovely eco village, as we have now been living on this Hare Krishna eco farm for a week and what a difference a week makes. It is funny what you can get used to in a week. So now, the blog I will be writing goes something like this:
We arrived at the Eco Truly Park and were ushered into the temple for a very long and somewhat painful birthday party/ceremony for one of the spiritual leaders. There was a lot of singing and chanting, but there was also cake and vegetarian pizza so Al and I held out and were strong so we could reap the rewards at the end...the food. We had not eaten since breakfast that morning and it was pushing 10:00pm by then. We met some of the other volunteers...a doctor from London named Sophie, a American who carried her own water filter named Kristen and a Australian who brought an unusual amount of hats and scarves for travelling named Kate. We have also learned that KAte has developed a habit of swallowing her toothpaste during each tooth brushing session so after heaps of abuse from Al and myself, she has not become a spitter and tells us each morning and night that she has spit...she loves a bit of positive reinforcement. Kate is a funny sweet girl who has taken to working out wth Al and I at the beach every single day in additioan to our mroning yoga sessions. She is quite hardcore and despite the tightest Achilles tendons ever, she still comes running and never moans.
We also met Angela who had been on the farm for about 2 weeks and she is kind of the den mother helping all the newbies get adjusted and become acquainted with this place. She is quite protective of us all and has purchased rubber gloves for cleaning the toilets (yes, there were no gloves prior to her purchasing them and we were actually doing this chore sans gloves). Sophie was a real hoot and told us the "real deal" about this place and some of the chores we would be expected to do, but unfortunately after a small incident in which she tried to stop one of the sadistic children living on this farm from torturing an animal, which they do on a daily basis, and the father had a tiny fit, she decided it was time to leave. Additioanlly, Kristen left a few short days after we arrived as well. She really did not like the toilets at all...I mean not one bit. She wouldn't even sit on the seat so I just cannot imagine how dificult it was for her to poop. Bless her heart. She just met her threshold after a week or so.
That left me, Al, Kate, Angela and within a few days we were blessed with Lindsay, a no holds barred Norweigen who tells it like it is and does not suffer fools gladly...she is also gifted in the art of team sports, Kane and Becky an Australian couple who are travelling together for about 8 months all around South America - interestingly Al and I met Kane randomly in San Pedro de Atacama in Chile weeks before he met up with his girlfriend...how strange that we would meet him again at this place. Becky is a make-up artist with an amazing knowledge of skin care. She has a sensitivity to Gluten and this makes eating in the carbohydrate infused vegetarian farm something of a treat for her stomach and mouth. Kane is a builder with a desire to live in a non-English speaking country. He really likes to push himself out of comfort zones and boy can he build some amazing baby stools.
Most recently of all Vivi from Puerto Rico who has really taken to the Hare Krishna spirituality and will be taking over the volunteer programme here at Eco Truly Park for the forseeable future, has joined the group and Justin who is seriously Puck from A Midsummer's Night Dream. He is a total eco-warrior and is teaching all so much about globalization, corporate agricultural companies that are destroying small farmers around the world and also leads by example of just how to be free and comfortable in our own skin. Kay Cee is our last voulnteer to enter the clan and despite her 3 week long cold/cough, she is quite the quick witted individual and she too is an eco warrior princess with loads of knowledge to share. I took to Kay Cee right away after learning that she would have been my friend back in my Michael Jackson glove wearing, rat tail having elementary school days and that means a lot. Honestly, this group is quite special and we all bring and take from each other in a sort of symbiotic group relationship.
Our days roll out the same...7 - 9am yoga, 9am breakfast, 930am chore task assignments, 9:30am - 1pm chores, 1pm lunch, 130 - 4pm free time, 4pm - 7pm afternoon workshop and workout on the beach, 630 - 9pm prayers in the temple (only Lindsay and Vivi frequent these), 9pm dinner and then bed. Every so often there are musical concerts or HAre Krishna birthday parties or fire ceremonies, but these are not a usual occurrance. It is surprising just how quickly the day goes by and there have been no times in which we have been bored. There are several chores to choose from each day. These include toilet/bathroom (this is an additional chore so those doing this one also must choose another one. We also try to rotate this chore among 3 volunteers at a time for fairness, as no one has taken a liking to this one), sweeping the temple (not to be fooled by this one, it takes 3-4 hours to sweep the whole thing inside and out and that does not incude mopping time), kitchen duty (one of the favourites, as you get to be in the kitchen out of the sun and learn how to prepare veggie food for 50+ people), biohuerto (the organic garden. This is a tough one on the back, but you get to learn about organic farming and gardening, while getting some exercise), frijoles (pronounced free - hole - es. This is basically when you have to pick all the beans that are ready for harvesting and dump them on some burlap sacks in the sun to dry out before picking the individual beans out of the skin), there are other random additional chores like sweeping the yoga classroom, sweeping the yoga studio, sweeping and mopping the rotunda and lavaplatos (washing all the plates that are left behind when the devotees fail to wash their own plates and cups). Honestly, the only chore I despise is the toilet chore...all the rest are not that bad and doing a chore a day makes the morning race by and kind of makes you feel good; like you are helping the community and not just yourself.
Our afternoons consist of either going into town, which we reserve for Tuesdays only to take a second yoga class with ZuZu our Slovackian pure of heart and soul volunteer coordinator and get an ice cream. There are some incredible flavours of ice cream here in Peru…fig, amore, crema de cielo (cream of the sky) and it is a real treat to indulge after a week of vegetarianism and few treats. There are aslo workshops offered each afternoon, some better than others, but interesting all the same. We have been to an Indian Music workshop, phiosophy of Hare Krishna workshop, art classes and we also spend every afternoon jogging or doing some group workout on the beach. Honestly, there has not been a moment of down time or bordem. It is strange...I thought that I would feel bored or "over it" within the first week, but honestly, I could stay here for a long time. Life is so simple here. You wake up, take yoga, eat your meals, do your chores, have your workshops, go running, shower and bed. Easy.
We do not induldge in the Hare Krishna prayer ceremonies each night in the Temple and if we have indulged, it has been under a slight manipulation...such as, "why don´t we have our workshop in the temple?" We now know that this is atrap, as the prayer ceremony usually starts at about 7pm and this is when the workshops end...very crafty. We are aware though and now we gently guide the workshops to the yoga studio or the reception area, staying away from the temple area at all costs. There are Hare Krishna birthday parties from time to time and those include concerts and bnfires, as well as cake so we do our best to play the part to get some free cake...we are little devils aren´t we?
Overall, we like it here and it is a confortable place to play out a month or so of cheap living to save some money and detox from our year of living dangerously...well, maybe not dangerously, but certainly not stresslessly. We have 3 more weeks to go and I will make sure to give you all the blow by blow of our experiences here at Eco Truly, but for now know that we are happy and healthy and NOT Hare Krishnas...at least not yet...Alex seems pretty happy when she sings that chant...I will have to keep my eye on her!