Goodbye Farmer

We left the farm today after Rita begged us to stay. She was so nice, but so crazy. Pity is not a feeling of friendship, and that´s usually what I felt. John, in his usual morning hurricane, rushed off to some meeting and threw in a hug and a goodbye. Not sure if he actually said the words ¨thank you¨, but he implied it, I´m sure. After all, we cleared an entire field for him for next to nothing, then helped hang a ridiculously large greenhouse tarp (remember the tarp sewing for 7 hours a day incident?). I most enjoyed the other workers on the farm. Nila was a strong manager lady who bossed all the men around. I liked her... of course. They were sad to see us go.

We left feeling good this morning. We worked really hard, accomplished a great deal, enjoyed some beautiful sunset-moonrises and moonset-sunrises, and had a place of our own for three weeks. I went through a pretty intense period of homesick loneliness, which resulted in a lot of mental negativity, but I have worked through it via physical labor. We are in our 20th week, which means 5 months. This means that my perspective is no longer that of traveling without a timelimit. We have a timelimit now, and I must try to be present in the trip rather than obsessing over past times and what I will do when I return home. I´m not feeling so travel tired now, and I am ready to make some friends. Andy and I have a lot of fun together, but the isolation can drive us a little crazy.

Now we are heading up to the capital of Bolivia, Sucre. We hope to take another week of Spanish classes, check out the surrounding area for a second week, then head south to Argentina.

More to come later.

Appreciate the readership.
Lauren