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FARMSTAY ECOLODGE OPENING SUMMER 2021

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Volunteering

Earlier this week, I had a wonderful talk with Gloria from Farmstead Talk. We "met" on Instagram, and chatted via Zoom. Ah, the beauty of social media and technology. Gloria is a retired nurse (back at work to provide additional Covid19 support to her community) who lives on a farm in the mountains and embarked on a project to interview one homestead for each of the 50 states in the US. Then she decided to expand her interviews to international projects, which is where we raised our hand, almost

When we agreed to participate in the Vinha da Manta olive harvest, my mind conjured bucolic images of a team of volunteers bundled up in the cold November mornings but stripping down to t-shirts as we worked in the warm sun throughout the day, shaking down olive trees and gathering the fruit they delivered on nets placed on the ground. We had a great team, with eight people flying in to help for the week. Most were Dutch, with two Canadians thrown into the mix – and us, of

Background This year, Portugal has as usual suffered from innumerable fires. Some had natural causes, linked to how dry the year has been, and others were initiated by human intervention – whether unintentional (such as a government worker cleaning the side of the road, his blade hitting a rock and creating a spark, and voila) or criminal (yes, apparently that’s a thing). This happens every year. What is different this year is that two particularly nasty fires, one mid-June and another just a few weeks ago on October 15, have ravaged

Are you wondering what we’re up to? Curious as to what has been going on after the year of traveling around the world and the summer spent learning new skills & volunteering on glamping sites in Portugal? Fair enough. Looking back, I notice that I have been posting very irregularly. Once, maaaybe twice a month. I harbor no misconceptions that this blog is going to turn into daily reflections (we can both breathe a sigh of relief now) but I think I can do better. I want to do better. With that

Senses is a camping and glamour camping (or “glamping”) site that sits between the village of Faia and the Mondego River (coincidentally, they are almost neighbors with our last epic hosts Vinha da Manta! #smallworld). Run by Michel, a sand and ice sculptor, and Natasha, a hairdresser, DJ, and yoga instructor, it is a study in contrasts. The pool area looks like it came straight out of a design magazine, with a weeping willow watching over the kiddie and adult pools, and wicker lounge chairs with white cushions and

Last summer Francois looked up interesting projects in Portugal that we might want to visit or connect with once we landed there come Spring 2017. One caught his eye in particular, and he encouraged me to check out their website – but I kept being distracted (classic) and so the tab stayed open for months. Earlier this year, it finally got to me to have this tab giving me the judgey eye every time I used Chrome. So I finally took a look, and Terra Alta had just started

The Vinha da Manta experience starts with the drive there. Skirting Guarda*, you head to the Mondego Valley which hugs the Serra de Estrela mountain (a natural park and the only place you can go skiing in Portugal). Through a few picturesque villages – including Chaos! – that boast a gorgeous view of a dammed (not damned) lake, you then turn towards Faia before finally seeing a sign for Vinha da Manta that takes you up a dirt track lined by old stone walls. Arriving at Vinha da Manta,

The last official stop on our around-the-world honeymoon was Costa Rica, the country so renowned for its breathtaking nature and a government that manages to stay at peace with its neighbors in spite of not having an army. Having been there however, Costa Rica to me is a bit like prom – or a high school dance for those who did not grow up in the US. It’s something you hear so many stories about, see in movies, and have such high expectations for that when the day comes

While in Colombia, we spent two weeks volunteering on yet another great project we found through Workaway: an eco-tourism Bed & Breakfast (B&B) called “Finca Agrreste”. The name is inspired from the word “agreste” with one “r” which means “savage” or “wild” in Spanish. The property lies a few hours North of Bogota, between the towns of Nemocon – known for its salt mine – and Suesca. The manager, Felipe Galindo, used to work in petrochemical engineering. Today, he manages six B&B properties in the general region of the

Up in the hills outside of Rocha, a small town North East of Uruguay’s capital Montevideo, sits what looks like a hobbit house. Three geodesic domes built of wood, mud, and thatch sit overlooking a gently sloping piece of land called “Tierra Alegre” or “Happy Earth”. This is Juli and Libre’s little piece of paradise. They moved here a few years ago when Juli was pregnant with their son Indi – who has the longest eyelashes I have ever seen and is now two years old. Also a part

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