Selva Chi Pictures

From top to bottom (Click to enlarge) : 1. The choza with the roof finished.

2. Me chiseling away with Selva Chi in the background.

3. The bee hive we cut out of a fallen tree

4. The Bully Bird (our name for him) Our morning entertainment was to put 2 or 3 bananas in a bird feeder and watch the local birds interact. There were probably a dozen regular species that would come by and eat every morning. It was all peaceful until this little guy showed up and stole the show. He was tiny, but incredibly quick. If he was around, no other birds were allowed to feed and we saw him keep about 8 birds at bay, some being around 3 times his size. The male Bully Bird would guard all the bananas until his mate showed up, ate a peaceful meal all to herself, and then the rest of the crowd was allowed to feed. It was a pretty entertaining show to watch at breakfast every day.

Selva Chi

It seems like high time to write a bit about Selva Chi, my second good WWOOF experience. Happy Thanksgiving!

Selva Chi is a permaculture and forest conservation project run by an Australian named Martin Couell. He owns over 50 hectares of land in the Esmeraldas province of northern Ecuador where he plans to start an outdoor education project for Ecuadorian children while conserving a beautiful and unique ecosystem. Due to the fact that this area of Ecuador is right where the rain forest meets the ocean, its home to many species of trees that can´t be found anywhere else in the world. Right now, it consists of a food forest, nursery, and the beginnings of an arboretum that will house about 500 different species of rainforest trees. Martin is in the process of finding all kinds of palms, tropical hardwoods, ferns, and every kind of banana you could imagine. I had a an eye-opening month there and learned quite a bit plant biology which was a nice addition to the permaculture experience.

A major part of the experience of Selva Chi for me was just the way we lived which was extremely simply. The only electricity in the pure wood house came from a couple little solar panels on the roof that powered two light bulbs that we used for 2 or 3 minutes a day. There was no running water, so we bathed in a river where Martin carved out some of the hard clay to make a kind of ¨spa bath¨. Although the path down to the river could get a bit slippery, the river was a refreshing way to end a day of work. There was a composting toilet, so everything you consume got reused. We did cook on a gas stove, so there was some energy use going on, but I don´t think I have used so little power for that long in my life.

The main crop that grew in Selva Chi was bananas, so I probably ate about 15-20 bananas per day. I´m not exaggerating with that estimate. We also ate pumpkin, onions, rice, soy beans, and oats. We mixed in some of the fruits that grew on the farm, like mamey, an amazingly delicious fruit that Martin introduced to me, but we ate basically the same thing every day. It sounds a bit boring, but its actually kind of nice to eat a diet that simple. Your blood sugar is always at an optimal level and its perfect for a day of work.

I did a variety of jobs at the farm such as planting trees, clearing space with a machete, and my personal favorite: carrying wood up slippery slopes. The days of work could be around 10 hours long and fairly strenuous. There were even a couple days where I threatened to go to my union rep about the hours I was working (haha). Overall though, it was a relaxed environment and there was always a good conversation to be had with Martin. The two jobs that stick out to me are helping build the choza, a second house that will house students and the epic adventure of harvesting a hive of native bees.

Building a structure a great experience for me. I was able to help build the frame for the second floor of the choza and put the roof on. Martin, our carpenter, an Ecuadorian named Isidro, and I worked on the choza. It took a bit longer than we had anticipated because we had to go collect wood with Isidro´s chainsaw, but he was in the process of building his own house so he was not available every day. Without power tools, aside from the chainsaw, it meant there were a lot of holes to be made with the ol´ hammer and chisel which I became pretty handy with by the end of my time there. The support for the roof was made of mainly made of bamboo and it was amazing to watch the skill of Isidro while he worked with it. Although its strong if used correctly, it can be very brittle in terms of holding nails. He knew all the strategies to working without power tools, making everything level using the ojímetro (eye meter), and distributing weight and force to its appropriate support. Its hard to explain how great it was to see this structure going up knowing it was coming purely from our man-power.

The bee hive story actually deserves its own post, so I´ll do it in the next day or two. Overall, my month at Selva was incredible. I got to spend a month in one of the most beautiful regions I have ever seen while learning a ton. Martin was really an inspiring example of how a person can live without having a negative impact on their environment.