Rio Muchacho, Ecuador

If you follow the equator to the point where it intersects with the coast of Ecuador, you will find our approximate location. We are living, learning and working on the Rio Muchacho Organic Farm (www.riomuchacho.com) for the month of August. The farm is owned by an Ecuadorian-New Zealand couple and produces all kinds of fruits and vegetables to feed the staff, volunteers, and seemingly endless stream of tourists and school groups. Our course instructor, Nicola, was raised on a farm in New Zealand, works as an inspector and certifier of organic farms, and is incredibly knowledgeable in all things related to growing food.

On the farm there are composting toilets, cabins made of bamboo, and a variety of farm animals. So far we have been learning about different methods of composting and getting our hands dirty in the garden. Each morning starts with the "routines" at 6AM - a group of tasks that have to be completed before breakfast, and which everyone rotates through. Mia was quick to sign up for breakfast fruit chopping, but Chris held out in hopes of "sleeping in duty"...and ended up in pig doodie. Lesson learned: the early bird chops the veggies.

Building a "hot" compost pile with layers of dry leaves, green weed clippings, slightly aged horse manure, and straw. Over the next month the pile will heat up, decompose, and turn into high quality fertilizer.

Rows of newly transplanted kale and Chinese cabbage. The cut off plastic bottles help protect the seedlings from leaf-cutter ants.

The Ecuadorian kitchen stove. Bread is baked in a compartment below the open fire.

Mia's 6AM routine is to chop fruit for breakfast.

Chris' morning routine is to feed the ten huge pigs and shovel their poo into a compost pile.

Chris planting radish seeds.

An example of the living quarters and showers- largely made of bamboo harvested onsite.