Next stop, Ecoparque Uruguay

Marilyn, January 8, 2015

The next phase of our adventure began Tuesday morning when Teo, Javy, Gene and I packed up our eleven (small) bags and backpacks, handed over the key to our AirBnB apartment in Montevideo, and set out to find a taxi to the bus station.  It was pouring rain, and no one answered our call to the taxi dispatcher.  The concierge of the building we were staying in came to our rescue, went and knocked on the door of a guy named Raul, and arranged for him to drive us.  Besides being willing to get out in the rain and haul us across town, the other great thing about Raul was that he didn't mind speaking to me in very slow, clear Spanish the whole way there.  Turns out he has a daughter whose family lived in Atlanta for thirteen years.  Most of the rest of our conversation was about vaccinating cattle.

The bus station where he delivered us is next to Montevideo's port, and is not the same station as the one we had been to before, on the lower level of a fairly classy shopping mall.  It is perhaps the least appealing place I've been to so far in Uruguay.  Javy had his first encounter with a squat toilet, which he declined to use.  After an hour wait at the station, it was nice to get on the bus and head away from there.  Our two-hour ride took us to the small town of Aguas Corrientes.  I had been instructed to ask the driver to let us out at the bus stop next to the bust of General Artigas, and he did, a few minutes ahead of schedule.  After a brief wait, we were met by Steve Scott, the owner of Ecoparque Uruguay, which will be our home for the next two weeks as we serve as WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) volunteers.

Ecoparque Uruguay is a short drive outside of Aguas Corrientes.  It is a large and lovely expanse of land with an interesting history.  A hundred years ago, it was owned by European engineers who had come to the area to build a water purification plant.  They had a prefabricated stone house, which is still standing on the property, shipped over from England.  Somewhere along the line, someone else bought the land and built some other structures, including a hall to be used for meetings and events.  Steve has owned the property for four years now, and I had gathered from his website that he wanted to turn it into both a model farm for experimenting with and teaching organic farming methods, and a conference or retreat center.  The reality is, though, seems more to be that he's just trying to keep one step ahead of the forces of nature that cause weeds to sprout in the garden, grass to grow to tall in the lawn, and humidity to peel paint off walls.  It's more than he can manage on his own, and that's where WWOOFers come in, exchanging 20 hours of work per week for food and lodging.

Our home at Ecoparque Uruguay

Our kitchen

Steve works hard to live as much at peace with the wildlife around him as possible.  No pets or domesticated animals are allowed, and one of the first and only rules that Steve taught Teo and Javy was that they are not to chase any birds or animals.  The animals have rewarded Steve's efforts by being surprisingly comfortable around humans.  A falcon stayed perched on his tree while we approached, and Steve says there are lots of foxes that will come visit from time to time.  (Teo spotted one in the shadows last night.)  We frequently see large tegu lizards strolling through the grass on their way to their holes under the swimming pool.  The trees are full of noisy cotorras and their amazing nests.  These little green parrots, which we first saw in a Montevideo park, live communally, and they work together to build huge nests out of spiny branches.  One chunk of an oversized nest fell to the ground here, and we got to inspect it up close.  There are multiple tunnels built into the mass of thorns, where the eggs are laid and the young are protected from predators.  It's astonishing to think how something like this could be constructed with just beaks and claws.

Tegu lizard

Teo next to a fallen cotorra nest

Tunnel inside nest

After showing us all around, Steve invited us to have lunch with him.  He served us a wonderful meal out under an enormous century-old eucalyptus tree, and told us a bit of his story.  He came to Uruguay in the late 1960s from Salt Lake City as a Mormon missionary and grew to know the language and the people.  Although he left the church shortly after his two-year assignment here, the experience set him on a course to work in Latin America as a distributor for Crocs shoes.  When this property became available at a price he couldn't refuse, he embarked on the Ecoparque project.  He lives here about nine months out of the year.  His experiences and insights fueled great conversation over lunch, and left us looking forward to more during our time here.

Unexpectedly, two carloads of guests appeared before we finished our meal.  They were three French couples who had driven over from Santa Lucia, the closest town of any size.  One of the women was an acquaintance of Steve's who he had met at a local market.  She is an artist and told me she has done several murals locally, which I am eager to see.  Her husband had come with her to talk to Steve about some work that Steve needs done on the swimming pool.  Also with her were her sister and brother-in-law, who are visiting from Réunion, an island near Madagascar, and her brother and sister-in-law, who are visiting from France.  After they had explored the property, we all gathered in Steve's house for drinks and conversation, which switched between French and Spanish, with a few words of English mixed in.  It was fascinating to me.  At one point, Steve and the artist's husband became engaged in a drawn-out disagreement about the work that Steve had asked him to do, and while Steve had to struggle to remain patient, I appreciated the exchange because both of them kept repeating the same words and phrases over and over, and it was wonderful comprehension practice for me.  I also noticed that all of these guests practice the two-cheek air-kissing ritual for greeting and saying goodbye, unlike all the Uruguayans I've met who are satisfied with one "kiss" on the right cheek.  I guess it's a French thing.

Around 9 p.m., we were treated to one more surprise of the farm, an amazingly beautiful sunset.  Pinks and purples filled the whole western sky, and the peace of the evening, so different from twilight on the beautiful but busy beach in Montevideo, enveloped us.

The next morning, we began our farm work.  Steve showed us how to weed and thin plants in the garden and set the boys to work cutting dead flowers from the beautiful flower beds.  The major task, however, was raking and hauling grass clippings from the lawn after Steve mowed.  Gene and I got a strenuous workout, and Teo and Javy had a chance to hear me expound on the subject of developing a good work ethic.  I also had plenty of time to contemplate and question John Holt's theory, which I recently read, that when children see their parents doing real, meaningful work, they naturally want to be part of that work.

After our four hour work shift, lunch, and some reading time, the boys and I walked into town to get some treats.  As this will probably be one of the few chances we have to practice Spanish while we're here, it's something I want to make part of our daily routine.  Hopefully we will become more successful with it the more times we do it.  The long walk in the hot sun apparently baked every Spanish word I ever knew out of my brain, and the guy at the little tienda probably thought I was an idiot.  I've always said that in order to learn a foreign language, you have to be willing to make a fool of yourself.  I suppose I should be glad that I've got that requirement met, in spades.

Dinner (the first I've cooked in five weeks) and a rousing game of baseball in the yard with the boys rounded out our day nicely.  So far, it seems that our experience here at Ecoparque will be full of opportunities for rich learning experiences, restful enjoyment of nature, and meaningful family time.  I am feeling very grateful that we have the chance to be here.