Today, we got away from the city to visit a WWOOF Farm (Worldwide Opportunites on Organic Farms) in El Nagual, a couple of hours away from Rio. After 2 hours of miscommunication with our non English speaking driver, we were finally picked up in a mini car that looked like it would collapse after every 2 km.
The concept of WWOOFing as they call it was new to me. When we got there after a tiresome yet beautiful ride, Mariana and Eraldo, the couple who run the farm for the last 30 years welcomed us.
Since this was going to be an offbeat experience for Chris and I, we decided to switch partners to make it more interesting. Since I have never worked on a farm before, Brian and I decided to film my first experience learning the basics of organic farming, and, Chris and Eeshit interacted with healing and alternative medicine practitioners.
There was a beautiful waterfall right next to the farm, which we all immediately jumped into. It was very refreshing and much needed after days of sweating it out during the carnival.
One day is not enough to have a WWOOFing experience and depending on what you and your host decide, you need to spend a few weeks to really not only experience an alternate way of living but also positively contribute to the environment. For us, it was like a teaser of what it means to be a WWOOFer. All our meals were made of things grown on the farm and cooked by Eraldo and Mariana themselves with assistance from the volunteers . Since we were treated like guests we were given the food even though we hadn’t contributed to growing/cooking it. But we did clean our own plates. I’m not sure if I can survive on an organic farm for more than a week. You really need to have a different mindset when going to a WWOOF farm, but once you cultivate that state of mind, it definitely turns out to be a quite an enriching experience.
In the evening, Brian and I were taken for a beautiful short trek in the adjoining national park where we got to sit under a waterfall with the cold, gushing water on our backs . It was wonderful. Throughout our stay I got to interact with a lot of volunteers and it was interesting to know what brought them all the way to this remote part of Brazil, away from the carnival. Each one at the farm seemed to be on their own spiritual quest.
Spending the night in the cottage was difficult for me after hearing that a huge cockroach crawled on Eeshit’s neck while he was shooting. But Chris lightened the entire mood by narrating his hilarious first hand experience trying to comprehend the concept of healing. And with a big blanket over my head, I was asleep in no time.
After breakfast in the morning, we started our journey back to the bustling Rio, away from all the peace and tranquility we experienced at the farm. One day of much needed detox, and we were ready to party again.
