Weeding in Paradise

After returning to civilization, we were at a bit of a loss of what to do. We knew we wanted to settle down somewhere for a month so Ace could take Spanish classes, and we knew we liked Cuenca when we passed through. We also knew there was an animal refuge there that might be fun for me to volunteer at while Ace studied- the problem was that the only info we could find on the refuge was through a volunteer agency that wanted me to pay them several hundred bucks to work for free, and that the office would be closed for the next 4 days anyways due to Dia de los Santos and Cuencan independence day.

We were wandering around Vilcabamba aimlessly when we bumped into the two men who came to look at purchasing El Condor when we were up there. We chatted a bit, and they mentioned they´d just been out to another farm that accepted volunteers, and invited us to come visit it with them the next day. We agreed and went out to Garden of Paradise the next day, where the two very interesting owners invited us to stay with them through the holidays starting Monday. We agreed and headed back to our hostel, where we discovered that the 30ish American guy staying next door to us had just bought a farm and was accepting volunteers. We had a fun Halloween evening eating fries and drinking beer at the local expat hangout with him, his twin brother, and some other of his friends. Yay networking!

The next day we headed out to Garden of Paradise, where Norie and Richard put us up in their beautiful guest quarters. I won´t even get into the missions of the anti-nuclear activist/archealogist/bestselling author/motivational speaker/ multilingual owners or the many things the future will hold for their property…their website will tell you all about it if you´re interested!
http://www.gardenofparadise.net/Garden_of_Paradise/Garden_of_Paradise.html

We spent Monday through Saturday there, sanding railings, digging trenches, watering countless trees and plants, weeding, and more. We had a lot of fun conversations and good meals cooked together, but the highlight for both Ace and I was definitely getting to edit the first half of the book Norie is currently working on. So cool! On Thursday we went into town and made some phone calls. I did manage to get a hold of the animal refuge on my own, without the expensive middle man- yay!

On Saturday morning we said “goodbye for now” to Norie and Richard and took the extremely curvy 6 hour bus ride back up to Cuenca. Fortunately, the bus driver was much less insane this time and we weren’t fighting back nausea for the entire trip like last time. Once in Cuenca, we set about looking for a decent hostel that would cut us a good deal for a one-month stay. After checking out a bunch, we ended up at La Perla Cuencana, a cozy little family-run place with a kitty, kitchens, internet, and one decent shower with gives hot water (as opposed to the other 5 freezing cold showers). We’re keeping that hidden-away jem as our little secret.

We’re settled in very happily here now. Ace started his classes today (he’ll be doing 10 hours a week of private lessons in the mornings, and hopefully volunteering with me on Wednesdays) and I’ll start my 4 hours a week of after-volunteering lessons tomorrow. I’ve been out to the refuge twice now, and am really enjoying getting to know the wonderful owner and his family and getting to get up close and personal with so many amazing animals. I haven’t felt super useful, but hopefully that will change as I learn more and am able to take on more tasks on my own.