Ole Muchacho Had a Farm...

Rio Muchacho is a delightful organic farm that takes no trash and makes no trash.  

At the end of filming week, we headed there for a three day getaway.  Friday morning,

we crossed Bahia by boat before squeezing into the back of truck-like car that hauled us

quite adventurously from Canoa to the farm. After what seemed like an hour, we swerved 

into a land filled with cattle and stopped at a small children’s school. 

The Escuela Ambientalista, Dario explained, has a curriculum that streamlines 

environmental practices with elementary school subjects.  Instead of learning arithmetic as we 

learned it, they add up the amount of compost generated by 2 cows for a week.  Their picture 

books are filled with the birds, wildlife, cattle, and insects they will most likely encounter on the farm. 

Each child is given a small chick to take care of and grow into a large chicken.  However, Dario explained, 

the children become so fond of the chicken that many refuse to kill it for food.  Turns out that the people on the farm 

only eat fish and chicken and this meat is served only on special occasions.  Jeremiah was absolutely thrilled with 

the news but not so much the meat eaters in our group. 

Lunch turned out to be delicious. Afterward, two German tour guides led us through a good portion of the 

farm and enlightened us on, among other things, the value of pigs’ manure in composting and creating fertilizer. 

These pigs are never to be eaten on the farm…they are destined for a life of eating and pooping until they get too 

old and are sold to the market. The guinea pigs produce another nice compost material and equally are not

destined for the BBQ house…the guinea pigs from Quito must be very jealous.

Hunger quickly overcame many of us and when the dinner bell finally rang, everyone ate

ravenously.  It was a special dinner- they served chicken!  By the time our bellies had been filled, it was getting 

dark and the bats were flying out above us.  Armed with a candle, a manual powered flashlight, and camera flashes,

we navigated our way into the kitchen after Lorra told us this hilarious joke about mummies that cracked everyone up.  

Turning cocoa beans into chocolate and then immediately eating this novel creation was heavenly.  We begged Edgar 

and Marcos to let us repeat it the second night instead of learning how to make coffee. 

Afterward, we felt our way back to our cabins--- a tremendously scary experience—and slept 

(or didn’t sleep) at the early hour of 11.