The unlucky ducky and other tales from Peru

                                

Hello I am writing to you from the north of Peru. Since my last post I have taken a small break from cycling to help at a small market farm here in a city named Moyabamba inthe north east. From Vilcabamba in my last post I cycled to the border of Peru except for a small section of about 50km which hadn´t quite reached roadhood and was impassable on my bike due to the thick mud from the recent rain and the extremely aggresive topography. It was quite enjoyable on the open sided truck that took me. The scenery was spectacular, steep drop offs and very dramatic lush green vibrant landscape. The border town of  La Balza was one of the most relaxed border experiences I can remember, the population I could have counted on my left hand and it was nestled in the same lush green valley.  From the border I hopped on a bus to arrive at Moyabamba in order to give myself a bit more time in which to stay.

The farm I have been staying at is on the outskirts of town within 20 minutes walking distance of the centre. It has been a beautiful experience. A young couple with a 3 year old living very simply without electricity or any other modern comforts. i have really enjoyed the tranquility here, napping and reading in the afternoon sun and sharing stories in the evening candlelight and the food has been incrible. They are making a living selling lettuces and radishes from the garden. They do every thing by hand and organically making thier own compost from organic materials in the land and preventing bug problems by interplanting thier beds and creating a strong biodiverse soil. a friend of their´s, a resident englishman in town, is also very interested in Permaculture and sustainability has also been experimenting with composting and gifting us a beautiful rich compost from the waste fruits and vegetable taken from the market in town. He has been using a system called Bokashee which captures lots of yeasts in a fermentation process which is then added to a compost pile to speed up the process. It can turn pile of old organic rubbish into a rich compost in as little as 1 month (in this climate). We have been mainly in the process of creating new beds which was good hard work but have now doubled the capacity to grow veggies. The land is split by a natural stream which is used to water the beds. They have been using this bicycle water pump to extract water which can make watering the beds alot easier and also serves as an excercise bike. There are no such thing as problems only solutions. The farm is also home to an array of animals 'cuyes' (ginuie pigs) roamed freely in the kitchen (here they are a delicacy) there are chickens a puppy called Santa Rosa who is a new arrival since I have been here, the previous dog, prophetically named 'Snake',was bitten by huge snake and never seen again the night before I arrived, and two ducks one of which a white peeking Is incredibly loud and obnoxious. He took on the position of the farm alarm clock

obviously realising there is no resident cockrel. He starts his job usually around 5 in the morning and continues until everybody is awake and someone gives him some food. One morning we all slept beautifully and over breakfast realised that it was due to there being no wake up call. We could not find him and assumed without lamenting that the duck had been stolen and was probably sat in a cage at the market as we spoke. He was not mourned for very long. I felt nature calling as it often does after a meal and went to use the outhouse. The second I dropped my load the toilet quacked at me, it took a few seconds for me to realise why a toilet would quack before I burst out laughing in the realisation that I had just shat on a duck. We improvised some sticks to pull him out which was not easy but we got there in the end after prodding the poor thing almost to death. we finally freed the duck from the shitty prison he had just spend the night and with gloved hands and at arms length he was thrown in the river to wash himself. He is now a yellow peeking.

                                                                                                                                                                    

  During my stay at the farm I made an aquintance with a local student named Junior very interested in permaculture who would also come to the farm to help out now and again. He was writing a thesis about a species of palm in the region very beneficial to the local ecology. He invited me to join him on a trip to a nature reserve on the outskirts of Moyabamba named Tingana in order to research this tree. To arrive it was a half an hour motorbike ride followed by half an hour down the river. as we entered the park through a smaller branch of the river the flora encroached on us and it seemed as if we were travelling through a wild overgrown tunnel. when we reached the reserve run by the family of Dino a friend of juniors i was invited to thier farm for lunch and to see their land. the land was a perfect example of how to grow things sustainably, they grew organic coffee and cocoa to sell and all the fruit and vegtables they would ever need to live on and more. They also breed fish, chickens and gunie pigs. The fruits in the orchard were bigger than i have seen in the area and everything looked 10 times healthier due to the rich soil. they had an orchard that could have been wild for the biodiversity with several bee hives both natural and domesticated. after lunch we took a dug out wooden canoe and explored a little of the reserve by the river. as we padelled deeper into the jungle the tranquility seemed to consume us. the trees encroaching their way into the river making out path ever increasingly narrow. the trees you see in the picture are nick named 'los arboles que caminar' which means 'the trees that walk' because their branches drop vine like roots into the river which once they reach the river bed  establish theyselves and form into trunks. the reserve is home to many species of monkey which are being protected there, we were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of a few in the branches above us.

arriving at Tingana

a coffee plant

Junior and I

The walking trees

a different species of walking trees