The Farm
Trip Start
Oct 11, 2006
1
20
25
Trip End
Apr 25, 2007
Finca Esteban,
Colombia
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
We really had no idea what to expect of the farm, and at first we thought it was within walking distance of San Agustin. As it turns out, Pradera is about an hour drive down a dirt road, and the farm is another forty minute walk from the town. We arrived in Pradera in mid afternoon just as Cicily was riding up into town on her horse with her four month old baby Arco
01 On The Way To The Farm
. We were also greeted by many locals who were genuinely interested in talking to us gringos. It is likely that this was the largest concentration of gringos Pradera has ever seen. Some older Colombians were already half-drunk (or fully drunk perhaps) and proceeded to play us some songs with a guitar and hand-drum while we all sat around with beers and tasted their cane liquor. A few young kids immediately became enthralled with Fran, and as soon as she took out her camera, she was swarmed by a whole group of kids, all wanting to see the pictures of themselves.After a few beers, we all went inside one of the houses, where Cicily had planned to come and make tamales. A local woman taught us how to prepare the tamales, and by this time we were all starving. It was getting late however, and we had to make the walk down to the farm before dark, so the tamales had to wait until later. By the time we finished the trek down the rocky path to the farm it was dark, but Steve was there to greet us in the make-shift lower house. Steve took the two of us up to the site of the house-in-progress, and we set up our tent on a (seemingly) flat area. When we headed back down below we started drinking beers and eating tamales (brought down from Pradera by Hugo), and caught up on old times. This night was also when we were first introduced to Steve and Cicily's Colombian friends, Hugo, Fabio, and Jose, their father Guillermo, and the very unique Carlitos. Later in the night we sat around a fire, where we first heard the songs of Carlitos, which he sings with incredible enthusiasm and passion
02 Some Niños in Pradera
. Carlitos is a pretty small eighteen year old, but he is strong as a horse. His somewhat awkward personality is very much hightened by his self-written love-songs, and at times while listening it is hard to keep a straight face. We also taught him some english words which he was very eager to learn, and upon a (somewhat) correct pronunciation would periodically respond with a ''YES, YES!''. (A real you-had-to-be-there).In the morning, we awoke to the truly amazing view from our tent of the surrounding hillsides of the valley. The farm is situated on twenty-two acres of land, mostly still uncleared. Scattered around the land, some not far from the house, are dozens of tombs left by the indigenous peoples thousands of years ago. Hugo has a method of finding and extracting the tombs, and around the farm are some remnants from inside, such as bones and clay pots. Not far below in the valley is the Rio Magdalena, which begins not far upriver, and proceeds to flow all the way North into the Caribbean (a truly impressive journey). As mentioned earlier, there was a small dwelling on the lower section of the farm that was constructed before Steve bought the land. Here is where their kitchen was located when we first arrived. A short walk up the hill brings you to the cleared land, and the real house. Steve and Cicily designed the house themselves, and it really is an amazing sight. It is a circular wood-frame home built in the idigenous style of the region. The house is three stories, with wood supports, bamboo framing, and a thatched cane-leaf roof
03 Tamales!
. Upon arrival, the cement floor was not completed, and the upper level floors had not yet been installed. The first few days we were there, the priority was installing the toilet and sink, and putting in a UV water filter.We spent our first day at the farm hanging around and eating a delicious soup prepared by Anne, while Steve and the Colombians were hard at work. The second day the two of us along with Gage and Devon went on a hike to a very cool waterfall, with Hugo and Fabio leading the way. The waterfall, Tres Chorros (three streams), was carved by the indigenous people thousands of years ago, so that at it's peak it split into three streams. It was a beautiful, serene place to be, and a source of wonder for the local people to enjoy. Along the hike back Hugo showed us the foundations of an extremely old indigenous town. Dinner that night was again fabulous, something we would get used to in the days to come. The meals we ate were quite tipical but very delicious, especially considering there is no fridge at the farm.
On our third day at Finca Esteban the supplies began to run low. Kyle volunteered to make the trek into town on the back of a motorbike, with Hugo in the driver's seat. Kyle was surprised at how efficient Hugo was at finding everything that was needed in town. Hugo proceeded to buy each type of vegetable from a different vendor in the market, leaving Kyle trailing at his heels. Somehow on the way to the farm on the first day Kyle lost his nice fleece sweater, so he and Hugo took a cab to the town of Pitalito, a forty minute ride
04 Pradera
. Here Kyle bought a nice new wool sweater with an argyle design, and was very pleased with his new purchase. The trip for supplies ended up taking a full day, and the two of them arrived back at the farm just after dark. Fran and Kyle cooked dinner for everyone that night, with an added luxury not commonly eaten, chicken.Very early in the morning the two of us rose, and woke up Devon and Gage so the four of us could walk to the crossroads near Pradera to meet another Colombian friend, Fabian. For the next three days Fabian was to be our guide on a horseback tour to the Laguna Magdalena, the source of the Magdalena River. The trip began with a ride ON a truck (not in it) which at its peak had FIFTEEN people standing on the back bumper of a truck hanging on tight around the windy turns. We arrived for breakfast at the end of the road, the town of Quinchana, which was also where we got our horses. We crossed the river on horseback to begin the journey which took us up and down uncounted valleys and mountainsides. The five of us rode for about three hours before stopping for lunch at a small river. After that there was another 2 hours of riding before we reached our stop for the night.
The landscapes we witnessed on the Laguna trip are absolutely indescribable; we rode through dense jungles, open grassy fields, wet cloud forests, and very cold high-altitude tundras. The amazing pictures we have do not do these views justice. This is simply the most beautiful scenery we have witnessed in our 5 months and 8 countries of travels
05 Batter Up!!
. The hours of riding gave the four boys ample practice at every possible opportunity to pass their ''ciggarettes'' up and down the line of horses, without skipping a beat.The houses we saw along the way to the lagoon gave an entirely new meaning to the word 'remote'. These people living in these houses are literally days on horseback away from the nearest town, which in turn is hours in a car away from any ''city''. We seem to have been slightly mistaken when we thought Cicily and Steve's farm was in the middle of nowhere. The house we stayed in was in a high altitude, and the nights were cold. After dinner the four of us had little energy to do anything but crash into bed, especially considering that we would awake at seven to continue riding.
The second day was filled with yet more incredible scenery, and this day we rode for four straight hours before reaching the Laguna viewpoint. Unfourtunately, it was very very cold and the visibility was close to none, so on our lunch break we saw nothing of the reportedly beautiful lagoon. We had stopped for little more than half an hour before re-mounting our steeds and making the four hour return trip to our lodging, making a total of eight hours on horseback on this day. When we arrived we were all extremely sore, and again we all crashed soon after dinner. The following morning we made a non-stop return trip to Quinchana, and made it back to the farm in the early afternoon to tell everyone of our incredible journey.
The next two days consisted of some serious relaxing around the farm before our trip into town
06 Arco With Something Substantially Large
. The two of us, along with Anne, Al, Devon, and Gage went into San Agustin for some greasy meals and some sleeps in a real bed. Anne and Al left on an evening bus to Bogota, from where they would fly to Cartagena for some good beachtime. That night we went out for dinner at a small cafeteria, and on the menu Kyle and Gage spyed the Bistek a Caballo. Bistek means steak, and caballo means horse...So, feeling brave, they both ordered a horse steak. It was very tender and quite a good meal, and they both felt so proud that they had just eaten horse. On the walk back to the hotel we ran into our friend Eliaser and told him of the accomplishment at dinner. Eliaser proceeded to laugh pretty hard and tell us that it was not a horse steak, but just a steak prepared in a certain way, called the bistek a caballo. This really ruined our fun.The following day the four of us went on a four-hour horseback tour of the surrounding area of San Agustin. San Agustin is known as the archaeological center of Colombia, with hundreds of sites and ruins scattered around the hillside. We saw some really interesting sites, but the real highlight of the trip was galloping at full speed through the hills, with Devon and Kyle's horses leading the way. Fran's horse was old and decrepit, and at one point just collapsed and wouldn't get up, and we are almost sure that it died later that day...no joke. For the return to the farm we brought food replenishments as well as a blender as a gift for Steve and Cicily
07 Our Tent In Front Of The House
. Over the coming days it was well used to make great salsas, juices and dips.In the next week at the farm, some time was spent helping Steve work around the place. We helped to improve and clear the trail up to the house from below, and Kyle helped Steve with some flooring on the second floor. A few days after our return from San Agustin Kyle and Steve moved the stove and propane tank, along with the big table, up to the upper house. The new kitchen space was a huge improvement over the lower house, with much more room to cook and clean. By this time the toilet and sinks had been installed also, and there was clean, drinkable water.
Our last week at the farm we mainly just hung around and enjoyed our time in such a wonderful place. A lot of fun times were spent watching Arco in his jolly jumper, he is just such a cute baby! A few times the Colombians were instructed to bring down beers with them on their way to work, and those nights we all drank and had a great time playing cards and drinking games. One night we even made a beerbong and had a good night with it, reminiscent for us of Gardner Hall, fourth floor. A few times we lit HUGE brush fires on the land adjacent to the house that had recently been cleared. On the nights when we had alcohol, one of the highlights was listening to more of Carlitos' songs. We even translated one song into English for him, and just for fun included some dirty words which didn't belong. A few days after our return from town, Gage and Devon had to leave to return home to Canada after six weeks in Colombia
08 On The Way To The Waterfall Tres Chorros
. The days after their departure were more calm and relaxed, with less partying. When it came the time for our last night however, we celebrated Kyle's birthday a few days early with many beers and many donuts. The donuts were simple, just fried dough covered in cinnamon and sugar, but they tasted fabulous!Leaving the farm was pretty sad for us and we both agreed that we could spend all of our remaining weeks there, but decided it was time to head on. We said our goodbyes to Cicily, Steve, Arco, and the Colombians, and promised to return back to the farm someday. So much had changed at the farm in the short time we were there, and hearing Steve's plans for the place, incredible changes are still in store. We don't know when the time will come for our return, but we know for sure that someday we will again ride in a bumpy truck from San Agustin, and we will again walk down the rocky path from Pradera to encounter a whole new place on the site of Finca Esteban.
The entry you have just read is without a doubt our favourite leg of our journey, and it is hard to imagine that these fun times can be beaten in our remaining 5 weeks of travelling. The stay at the farm was an entirely different experience from just 'travelling'. Our Spanish improved exponentially more in this time than in all of our previous months of travelling combined. The time spent in these three weeks was time spent with true friends, Canadian and Colombian alike, and we learned the culture of another country in a way we had never imagined possible. Overall, this experience is simply unbeatable, and this is the only place that we can say with certainty that one day, we will return home to.
We hope you all enjoy following our activities through reading and viewing pictures, and we cannot wait until we have time to share in person to convey these stories to you. Take care back home everyone, and we will be returning to see you shortly. With Love, Kyle and Fran.
Crib Scores To Date: Kyle: 50 Wins; 12 Skunks. ; Fran: 36 Wins; 8 Skunks
