Juan.

The farm hosts don´t really care too much about their WWOOFers. Sure, they set us up with our own apartment in town, but today, Richard brought his wife coffee right infront of us, and failed to offer us any. They never invite WWOOFers into their house and they constantly make fun of us. We can take it, but still, we are shoveling poop for them. The least they can do is be nice.

So to make up for the lack of affection from our hosts, a man who used to be friends with the farm owners has taken the WWOOFers under his wing. His name is Juan, and he owns the 24-hour shop in town. He brings us bread and over the years, has basically equipped the kitchen with pots, pans, and dishware. Thank goodness for Juan. He always says, "Without me, the WWOOFers would starve!" A little bit of an exageration, but cute nonetheless.

The other night, he came over to cook us a torilla, drink wine, and talk to Tammy, while I tried to understand as much Spanish as I could. He also owns a farm in Tobarra and used to have 2,500 sheep and 100 cows until they got sick and he had to put all of them down. He´s also sad because his son, who was supposed to take over Juan´s store, moved away.

He gave us a ride into Hellin the next day and promised to teach us how to make paella. Juan is a good, good man.

Shoveling poop.

When we arrived at the train station to make our journey from Seville to Castilla la Mancha, we noticed something worrisome. All of the clocks said 8:20 instead of the 7:20 that read on my wristwatch. We approached the ticket desk to redeem our train passes, and he told us that we better run to see if could catch the train.

For three days in Seville, it had actually been an hour later than we thought it was because we didn´t realize that there was a time change from Portugal to Spain. Now we were trying to catch a train that was the only train for another six hours. Not to mention that we needed to make another connection, and we would have ended up slumming it on the floor of some gross suburban Spanish train station.

So we made a run for it, dragging our duffles and exhausted from only a few hours of sleep, we saw the train slowly pulling away as we got close. Tammy jumped onto the last set of stairs with her suitcase still dangeling from her arm on the platform beneath her. Her life flashed before my eyes, as I imagined the bag getting caught under the wheels and Tammy being dragged to an unfortunate body mutilation. Thankfully there were people standing on the platform, and a man hoisted her bag up onto the moving train.

She yelled out in Spanish, "There´s one more! Help her too!!" I took a leap of literal faith onto the train, flinging my bag ahead of me hoping someone would pull through and throw it up. Sure enough, another lovely Spanish person came to my rescue. Of course, once we were on the train, the conductor realized what happened and stopped the train. We caught our breathe and sat down to avoid having a heart attack.

We didn´t miss our train, and we ended up travelling for the entire day to reach our next farm in Spain, Viva Iberica. We ran into a bunch of crazies along the way, got served a ham sandwich when we specifically asked for just cheese, and lugged our suitcases halfway across a town to find out that the bus station we were looking for was right next to the train station we had just arrived at. All in all, a frustrating day.

The farm is two kilometers outside of a small town called Tobarra in Castilla la Mancha (yes, Don Quijote-ville). The owners rent a small flat in the town for the WWOOFers, so Tammy and I have our own rooms. Another WWOOFer, Shane, Philly native, has been here for 3 weeks, so it´s nice to meet someone else that is on a similar journey.

Basically my job consists of shoveling horse poop. The farm has around 15 stallions and probably 40 mares, a small veggie garden, a chicken coop, and a goat. So every morning, we feed the horses, muck out the stalls, and end up smelling like ass. After the horses are taken care of, we milk the goat, Carmen, and do any other task that the farm owners Sue and Richard ask us to do. It´s definitely more strenuous than O Monte, but I think a little hard work is good for us.

Seville

We departed O Monte on Thursday morning and arrived in Seville. We were warned by multiple people about pick-pockets in this city, but so far, it feels rather safe. Obviously we are still guarding our bags with our lives, but the streets are more maintained than in Lisbon, giving it a more modern feel.

Coincidentally, the weekend we are in Seville is also Feria de Abril (April fair). Obviously carnivals are going to haunt me for the rest of my life...but the fair in Seville is a whole different ballgame than tractor pulls and funnel cakes.

For six days, the women dress in traditional Flamenco garb and the men in crisp suits. So Tammy and I, feeling slightly left out, went to a department store to try on Flamenco dresses. It was fantastic but the dress didn't quite fit into our budgets or our suitcases.

After our dressing room extraveganza, we ventured down to the fairgrounds. There was a gigantic entrance way lit up and tents lining the streets called casettas. Families or groups of friends rent out their casettas and party in them all day and night. Some have dancing where the men and women Flamenco, stomping their heels and twisting their wrists. Very sexy, let me tell you.

We were walking around, trying to feel out the scene, when I felt a tap on my shoulder. Our two Italian hostel-mates miraculously found us (and recognized us from only a 30-second introduction) and invited us to hang out with the people they know in Seville. Many of the young people were really enthusiastic about speaking English to us. One of the girls said it sounds like music...imagine that.


We drank the local drink (wine and sprite) and used the excuse of being stupid Americans to get into a few casettas. A singer in one of the casettas asked Tammy and I if we were Italian, bought us drinks, and then danced with the sexiest woman we've ever seen. Turns out she was from Puerto Rico.

But of course we got hungry and began our search for any scrap of vegeterian food we could find. Everyone that we asked pretty much laughed in our faces when we told them we don't eat meat. One man even told us that we would have to climb a tree and eat the leaves before finding any veggie food at the fair. It was brutal. We stopped at a churro and chocolate place on the way out instead.

Eat your vegetables!

Here are a list of veggies and their benefits. I found this in a book called Grow Your Own Drugs by James Wong.

1. Artichokes: The leaves contain essential compounds that benefit the liver, cardiovascular system, and digestive tract. Leaf extracts help treat indigestion and IBS. Artichokes also stops cholesterol from being produced in the body and prevents the oxidation of ‘bad’ cholesterol.

2. Celery Seeds: They help with gout, anxiety, and arthritis, and can be used as an anti-inflammatory. Also, if you take a lot of painkillers, it can protect against the gastric damage caused by them. You can make celery seed tea by crushing up the seeds, pouring it into boiling water, and straining.

3.Chili/Cayenne Pepper: The spice causes increased circulation which will desensitize pain. It also protects against gastrointestinal infection and can reduce the risk of food poisoning.

4.Cucumbers: Cukes act as a gentle diuretic and are good for intestinal health. So you can poop! They are also used in a lot of lotions and beauty products.

5.Garlic: Other than giving you some rank breath, garlic helps combat colds, the flu, and bronchitis. It also reduces nasal congestion and improves heart health. A diet rich in garlic can also reduce the risk for cancer.

Farming Tip:
If you are not familiar with CSAs, I’m going to explain them. It stands for Community Supported Agriculture. You sign up, pay a fee, and once a week (usually) you get a bag full of vegetables. It is a way to support local agriculture, eat season veggies, and avoid yucky pesticides that are on the vegetables that you buy at the supermarket. Everyone should look into it.

Bambara: the bean of the future

Ok so check it. What continent is severely underprivileged and suffers from hunger and disease? That's right, AFRICA. So what can we do about it? Personally, I feel sick about the problems and injustices going on there, but I'm worthless when it comes to actually making a difference.

My travelling buddy, fellow farmer, and entrepreneur, Tammy, came up with a way for all of us to help the African economy. The key idea here is the bambara bean. It is a legume that grows extremely well in harsh conditions, and can replace soy products for a much cheaper price. Starbucks Coffee has already shown an interest in replacing their soy milk with bambara milk. So there is definitely a market for this new product.

Tammy and her team at Syracuse University devised a business plan to bring the bambara plant to African agriculture, giving communities a chance to thrive economically. The project is called "Ag 4 Africa".

They entered Ag 4 Africa into a few compititions and are one of three finalists in the Dell Social Innovatoin competition. Pretty impressive, considering they were up against 700 other teams. If they win, they will be awarded $50,000 to put their idea into action.

The challenge now is to prove that their idea has support. If you all could vote for her group, it would be greatly appreciated.

Click on this link, create a username, and then click "Promote" next to Ag 4 Africa.

Here is another link if you want to read more about bambara.

O Monte III

I miraculously managed to get Tammy up early enough for us to accompany Doreen to the farmers' market in the town of Olhao. The town depends on fishing, so we walked past a bunch of men in high rubber boots and fishing boats to get to the veggie stands. It was mostly a bunch of older Portuguese farmers selling whatever they grow on their farms...i.e. tomatoes, honey, cabbage, EGGS!, figs, dates, oranges, you know the drill. I also saw nets full of snails, all of which I called Gary.

We acted like tourists and took some pictures, while Doreen checked off some things on her shopping list.

Afterward, we all sat down for Doreen's favorite breakfast, and coincidentally my favorite childhood food, bread and butter.

Post breakfast, we took a nice stroll through the reason I stopped eating fish - a fish market. The dead things were staring at me wide-eyed and hauntingly. It was probably the last thing I wanted to see/smell after eating breakfast.

It finally stopped raining, so we weeded all day. We are getting pretty good at ripping those little suckers out of the ground.

By the way, Doreen is selling this place. She can't afford to keep it on her income from organic farming and renting out the guesthouse.


Farming Tip:

In the process of weeding somebody else's garden, don't pull out a grouping of flowers because they look like they could be wild. Because sometimes they were planted on purpose.

O Monte II

Today we painted the inside of the guesthouse. Because it was a very rainy winter, some of the walls had water marks and the paint was peeling. Many of the homes here are made of stone, which hold onto the moisture more than other building materials. One of Doreen’s friends told us that once she returned from a vacation, and since it had rained, there was a centimeter of mold on all of the comforters. She had to throw everything out.

Doreen said that many Portuguese paint their homes once a year with paint made from chalk because it’s cheaper. One would think that they would use good quality paint that costs more once, rather than cheap bad paint every year.

Farming Tips:

Another way to keep bugs away from crops without using pesticides is to plant another tree next to it that smells more attractive to the bugs. For example, planting lavender next to grapes will help keep the bugs away from the grapes.

If grapes have been sprayed with pesticides once, they adapt to being sprayed and will not grow to their full potential without the chemicals.

O Monte

We arrived by train to Faro, a 20 minute drive from the farm we were staying at in Portugal, but we had not heard from Doreen, the woman in charge. She was supposed to get us from the station, but she was not picking up her cell phone or her house phone. This could have potentially been the first bump in the road of our trip, but she finally responded to a text we sent.

Doreen picked us up and we hopped into her old, dusty station wagon. She was originally from Holland so her English is great. We talked on the drive to the farm about the corrupt Portuguese government, the apathetic population, and the lack of outputs produced by the country. I really didn’t know much about Portugal before I arrived, but the best way for the info to stick is to learn from the locals.

So we arrived at the farm, O Monte, and it was of course beautiful. Wild flowers were growing everywhere, the house was quaint, and the dogs came to greet us. The farm also acts as a guesthouse, but at the moment, there are no guests. So Tammy and I are staying in the apartment meant for paying customers. It has a full kitchen, bathroom, living room…the works.

Day two, we got a tour of the grounds and she showed us the olive, fig, almond, and carob trees. It is a small farm, but it’s a lot of work for one person to do alone.
The rest of the day, we weeded. Childhood memories of pulling up dandelions on 163 Flocktown Road flooded back to me. Since the harvest of the trees happens in the fall, we are going to be preparing the farm for summer, i.e. weeding, repainting, cleaning…

Farming Tips:

For a tree to grow strong, farmers do something called “graphing.” Like a skin graph, farmers take out a piece of bark of the new tree, and replace it with a piece of the good, flourishing tree. The new tree will adapt and act more like the successful tree. Voila! Great success.

Doreen also told us that avocado trees grow much better when there is a different type of fruit tree next to it. A lone avocado tree is not likely to produce any fruit.

Sintra

Fairytales do exist...at least in Sintra, Portugal.

We took an hour train ride from Lisbon to a little town called Sintra. Pulling into the station, we spotted a stone castle on top of the tallest mountain. We journeyed up to another castle on the opposite hilltop that was colored with pastels and tiled walls. We saw where the King and Queen slept, and where their servants made their meals.

We ate cinnamon and cheese pastries in town, danced with the animals, looked at the local art, and ate lunch overlooking the village below.



In all seriousness, it was unbelievable.

We were blown away by Quinta de Regaliera, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The land was owned by this rich guy who seemed to be really bored, so he built all of these crazy things on his land. His house alone is enough to make jaws drop. The architect, Luigi Manini, spent 12 years meticulously planning, drawing, and building the mansion.

There was also an inside-out, underground tower that we walked down. The more steps we went down, the wetter the floor got and the darker it became. I kept flashing to scenes of Silence of the Lambs. Nevertheless, it was really cool.

Lisbon

Portuguese is supposed to be similar to Spanish, but they sound nothing alike. They pronounce the word Belem as "bleh." Even when people are being helpful and giving us directions, I can't find where they told us on a map because it sounds nothing like it's spelled.

Today I got a phone from this Indian man who was playing Punjabi music videos while I was waiting for his father to unlock it. I proceeded to write a text that cost me 2.50 Euros. So I have to fix that little problem tomorrow.

It seems that Tammy and I have a knack for getting lost on public transportation. It took us two loops on the tram to realize where we had to get off. The fastest walk we had was home from dinner because we only had to make one turn. Good thing we bought the Lisboa card (golden ticket) that gives us unlimited rides on transport.

Today we went to Alfama, charged the Castelo, drank Ginjinha (traditional Portuguese cherry liquor), rode a horizontal elevator, and ate dinner at a veggeterian restaurant.

By the way, the google works in Portuguese so I can't spell check anything. I apologize for any spelling errors!

Arrival to Lisbon

We took at six p.m. flight to Lisbon and barely anyone on the plane seemed to be American. I hardly slept when we arrived at 6:15 a.m. and started off our day by lugging our heavy suitcases over hilly cobbelstone streets to reach our couchsurfing destination at Ana's apartment. Our first meeting with our hosts was a sweaty one, portraying America in its rightful light. After catching our breath, we cleaned ourselves up and headed out to explore the city.

After visiting Macau last spring when I was in Hong Kong, I was familiar with the look of the place. Everything is very narrow - the streets, the doorways, the sidewalks. My dad's Ford Expedition would definitely have some problems. I didn't even think my suitcase was going to fit through the apartment door.

We saw a few castles, walked through the sickeningly cute streets of Lisbon, managed to get lost on the bus system, but had an amazing first day.

Getting all my ducks in a row. Trip commences in 5 days and counting. Long Valley is giving me some beautiful weather as a sending off present.