A day on the farm

A long term business contact and friend Michael from British Columbia (who nearly came down to share part of the tour in Patagonia) gave me an introduction to his brother John.

John has lived and worked around most of South America over many years partly in the oil industry but mostly in agriculture We spent a few hours together, with his wife Maria, and he gave me a great insight in to Ecuador, its strengths and weaknesses. He also invited me out to his farm the next day. More importantly Maria knew where to find an Ecuador sticker for my bike!

John has three farms which he runs with his family. He has a Shrimp hatchery and a Banana farm but we spent the day on the Cucumber seed farm - no I didn't know they existed either! Hacienda Victoria is about 90 minutes south of Guayaquil which is rough scrub apart from where farms have been carved out of the wilderness.

John's next door neighbour is a Brazilian company who is in the process of planting 600 hectares of coffee!

Apart from cucumbers they are growing cocoa, plantain (a sort of banana) and teak. The teak is a recent introduction but sounds like a very lucrative line as it can be harvested in as little as 20 years. We can all buy patio furniture safe in the knowledge that the rain forest is not being destroyed with this wood.

It was good timing as they were harvesting the "over ripe" cucumbers. They are put through a machine to separate the flesh from the seeds. The machinery was a little temperamental  but it was made to work. Just as well as they export 18,000 kgs of seed to the USA each year. John has passed over the day to day running of this farm to his daughter Roberta - the prettiest farmer I have ever met! She took over from her older sister who has just had twins and who, a few years ago, was Miss Ecuador! Great genes this family has!
It is work in progress as they still have plenty of land to cultivate. John has a real passion for Ecuador and with people like him to help guide and educate the locals - it has a bright future.

Just to prove I am not the only Turkey in South America.

I also went back up Las Penas and remembered to take my camera this time. I can prove there are 444 steps because they number them:

It is an incredible job they have done on this old slum area. Some of the houses have photographs on the walls of of what it used to be like. I don't know how much it cost but if it could be done in all the slums it would be quite something.

I am afraid there won't be any Blogs for the next few days as I don't think they have Wifi on the Galapagos Islands. Apparently they have a lot of wildlife there and I am not sure my Photography will be up to the task. I will let you know all about it when I get back.