Caracas Organoponics

Some shots of the downtown urban food production system modeled after Cuba's famous organoponics

ground level


bird's eye

CHEVERE

I arrived last night in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela.

First impressions include...

-An overwhelming presence of Bolivarian-revolutionary propaganda
-Chávez's face everwhere, the presidential election is in December
-Good food - arepas
-Caracas is huge. There is a subway.

There isn't much else to say right now. I am going to get oriented today and hopefully get my hands on a travel guide. This Thursday I will take the GRE.

Finca Brian y Emilia

I just arrived in San Jose (again!) after almost a month at Brian's farm near Dominical. Brian has lived on the land, off the grid, for the last 27 years and grows primarily rambutan, mangosteen, and lanson as cash crops, but at a low agricultural intensity. He also has all kinds of exotic tropical plants, such as the canistel, biriba, kumquat, kola nut, paradise nut, tiquizque, and heirloom varieties of pineapple.

We woke around 5am to begin chopping weeds with machetes until 8 when we stopped for breakfast. Then we would do a variety of tasks around the farm, mainly harvesting rombutan, until the rain fell in the mid afternoon. I worked 8 hours a day when possible and according to Brian, am the first person ever to accomplish this task. This saved me from paying any money for my time spent at the farm.

Now and then we sold fruit at community soccer games and in the pueblo. I enjoyed this chance to interact with the community. Other than that, I spent two nights in Uvita and was able to go to a beautiful beach of the Bahia national park.

Brian cooks a great pasta with various nuts, greens, and tvp, as well as banana, nut, whole wheat pancakes that got us through the day. The only real complaint I have about the place is that instant coffee was all we had to drink in the morning. Though, this was made up for by the best hot sauce I have ever tasted, coming from a local cooperative operation.

While I learned a lot about plants and agricultural-related topics, my chess playing skills and life experience have also grown from my time with Brian.

Pictures to come eventually.