Here in the middle of the mountains, surrounded only by nature and wilderness, we arrived at our first host with Paco. The idea is to work for board and lodging.
We signed up to the “Workaway” portal, which gives us access to hosts around the world who offer you work and pay you for accommodation and food. If you activate your location, you are sometimes contacted directly by a host provider.
Unfortunately, our first experience at Paco’s finca was not so great. The nature is super beautiful.
The garden and the property are in order. It’s a bit of a mess here but outside the finca it’s easy to get around.
However, we have no words for what awaited us in the finca.
Everywhere in the house is so dirty. It really cannot be put into words. Out of respect for Paco, we don’t want to put these terrible impressions online. We hope for your understanding.
When we had the initial shock behind us, put our motorcycles in the shade and wanted to take our luggage to our room, Alex realized that his motorcycle no longer had any power. So we had to push it into the shade. We had a sleepless night because our thoughts were sometimes on Alex’s bike, whether it could hopefully be repaired and whether something bigger was broken, and sometimes on the whole mess in the house.
The first thing Alex did the next morning was to check his AT.
Once he could rule out the possibility that the battery was flat, the search for the culprit continued.
To do this, the 43-liter tank, which had just been filled up, had to be removed so that Alex could take a look at the fuses and plugs.
The problem was found! For whatever reason, the plug contacts were scorched.
Alex replaced the plugs and reassembled them. Not as professionally as he would have done at home, of course, but with the means available here on the road.
In the end, everything worked and the bike got its power back.
The plan was actually that we would help out here with Paco for 2 weeks.
Due to the chaos at the finca, we talked and thought for a long time about whether we wanted to stay here.
On the one hand, we don’t want to let Paco, who is really very nice, down. On the other hand, we also want to have fun and feel at least somewhat comfortable.
We are already aware that we will not have the standard we are used to on our trip. And that we might not like everything. We also think that we can adapt well and as far as work is concerned, we’re not too bad at anything.
But coping with this household just doesn’t work. I briefly thought about starting to tidy the house a bit, but it’s just not possible. The food is just lying around in the kitchen. You get the feeling they’re going to run away. There’s absolutely no clean spot in the bathroom to put something down or hang a towel. So it was clear to us on Sunday evening that we would say goodbye the next day.
In the short time we had, we still managed to get some work done.
Firstly, we took care of the vegetable garden.
We fetched the eggs from the henhouse in the evening and fed the chickens.
We also looked after the dogs, Tina, Chico and Kaffee.
Alex was also able to repair a few pieces of equipment. Because almost every appliance or tool, even part of the stove, is broken here. There isn’t even a fridge.
One of the bigger tasks would have been to get the water out of this pool. The red tiles had to be removed and the pool drained so that it could then be given a new coat of paint and new tiles.
As the water should not be wasted, it is collected in a canister and used for watering. Until there is enough space in this one canister again, the project with the pool takes time.
In this “technical room” of the pool there is a pump that is supposed to pump the water into the canister. We discovered that the connections of the pipes through which the water is to be pumped were connected incorrectly. However, Alex was able to solve this problem.
We were finally able to fill this canister with some of the pool water.
The pool would have been an interesting challenge, but our decision was made.
Despite everything, we are grateful for this experience here. There is a reason for everything and you can learn something from everything.
Tomorrow we will continue our journey, where exactly remains to be seen 🙂