Rhiannon Community, peace and love

Rhiannon is a small cozy community in a small town San Juan, Malching, just 1.5h northeast of Quito. Everyone lives in the same house making it one big singing, praying, farming, vegan, warm and free-loving family.

When I arrived at night with 3 friends from Quito we were invited directly into a Tamascal ceremony. This would be my third experience and this time I actually liked it. Everyone was in their b-day suits, we didn't get the memo unfortunately, but at a lot of communities I have been to people are not as comfortable with this. Rhiannon is a bit different though, more relaxed. It is a very young community owned by British couple Nikki and Helen. Nikki has heaps of love and energy that is contagious throughout the community. This energy has fueled the project there since it began two years ago. I have to say they have been really successful so far being in desert climate with only 4 permanent residents and about 10-20 volunteers at a time.

One thing that is super rare now is that they are not out to get your money. They just ask for $25 a month for food. They get up about 5 work from 6 to lunch then relax. One thing I learned , though don’t take my work for it, is if you invest 25k in property in Ecuador you get citizenship along with it, not a bad deal.

After the Tamascal and prayers we had a jam session with a violin, guitar, drums and glass bottles. At this point there was no electricity but I have a hard time imagining the hosue without the charm of the candleight.

Inside is warm and cozy

When I first arrived it was at night. Sitting in the pitch black, steamy warm Tamascal with my mind drifting off to the end of the universe, I did not realize that Rhiannon sits at the edge of the earth with the most fantastic view of Quito, snow topped volcano of Cotopaxi and beyond.

Projects

Solar panel project made from reclaimed steel to hold large solar panels, generating enough power for the house.

They are fixing a waste water pond because it has been leaking. This pond will break down the communities waste and let the water at the top evaporate out just like the one at Arcosanti.

greenhouse

orno

They move the chickens and pigs around the farm to graze the land and will use the manure for a biogas generator they plan to build. There are gardens with veggies the feed the community, a greenhouse and awesome dry toilets with hot showers from solar power.

They also have about 7 dogs and a few cats :)

Here's a link to a friend who is staying there he's got good pics and info.

Mama Lulu

Mama Lulu

One of the most amazing places I have visited. Starting with hardy any money or posessions other than a tiny piece of land, for 30 years Mama Lulu and 3 generations of the Hincampie family have become masters at Guadua construction creating an artistic, sustainable and highly inventive finca.

Their granja embodies what I strive for and what this whole blog and journey is about. Not only is their home and finca in sync with nature using local materials, harvesting rainwater, implementing permaculture landscaping, farming animals, and composting but all is infused with the highest quality design, art, craftsmanship and creativity I have seen yet.

BEAUTY
Every inch of their house is art, every piece of dirt has beautiful vegetation, even the water system Hernando Hincampie designed has steps so the water drops making music to go along with the hum of the crickets, the songs of birds, the whistle of the wind and croaking of frogs.
Hernado says that nature is his blackboard.

INGENUITY

As for inginuity they have that too. Ever heard of a bike that pumps water for a shower? Well they have it. Exercise and get clean at the same time. It also can pump it to the reserve at a rate of 20 liters per minute. They have technologies such as a solar oven cooker, biodigester for biogas, drytoilets, rain water catchment, water pumps that us the flow of water itself for energy.

Not to mention the highest quality Guadua construction and design, they even design their own furniture.

SUSTAINABLILTY
All of this art and design is all linked under one goal to perserve and protect the land and health of the animals and people here. They have reforested their backyard and take care of goats, cows and pigs.

Architecture

Their House
they built it themselves, by hand in four years for
30,000,000 pesos which is 15,000 dollars!above is also the bicidouche, that showers you as you exercise!The hotelnotice the parrot plant holder made out of old tires...ingeniousinside their housethe bathroomStruggling to cut Guadua.
They only use hand tools to build all of this, except for a drill and a sander!Jorge who has been cutting Guadua since he was 11 slices through it like butter.
I never thought watching wood being cut would be fun but he chips it so fast with the precision of a master sculptor.Some of the many funiture designs they made.
Agriculutre

One of the most amazing things they have accomplished is the restoration of the vegetation on their property.They have literally created a forest/botanical garden where there used to be a monoculture of coffee plants that ruined the soil. It´s hard to see through the thick vegetation but where thr property ends and the neighbors begins there is only short grass.

Here almost every plant has a use. Below is the Cocoa plant for chocolate. They have hundereds of other vegetables, fruits, and herbs like papyrus, Mango, Papaya, banana, plantain, oregano, lemongrass and of course Guadua. They even have a plant you can smush in your hand and use as soap in a bath, plants for curing rashes, tummy aches, endangered woods way to much to list.

piggy´s, with a heater powered by biogas from their own poopies

Technologies

These are some of the sustainable technologies they had.
Below is a biodigester that the cow, goat and pig poo is washed directly to. As the manure ferments it creates gas that fills up the plastic tube and then siphened to a stove for use.Here is a stove powered by biogas

Below is an Ariete. It uses the flow of the water from two pool above it wher ethe water bubbels up from the earth to power a pump that sends this water all the way up the hill.

Here is where the water from the Ariete comes to.
A pool that also houses fishies they grow to eat.

Behind the pool you can see a solar oven cooker!

The used shower and toilet water comes here to be cleaned.

After the septic it goes through a plant bank. This system gets rid of 95.9% of the soild waste.

Here Hernando wants to make 4 dry toilets.

Some extras

Jorge is here with his invention, a guitar made out of Guadua.

He let me name it a guaduatarra.

He has won 30 awards for his singing and songwriting
My favorite song was
Tengo la guadua torcida ..Even their cat is pretty creative and resourceful, he has been milking this dog for 4 years!

El Arca verde

El Arca Verde...

and the mysterious origins of the biodynamic calandarIn the valleys near Villa De Leyva is El Arca Verde, owned by a sprightly frenchman, Pierre Lacour.

He lived in the mountains of France for many years and came to Colombia about 20 years ago creating a few biodynamic farms. This one is only four years old with a two year old garden. Already the trees are bearing fruits.

Here you can volunteer for room and board. Pierre is open and has the spirit of a child. I had heard about him from friends in Villa de Leyva. I wasn´t able to get a hold of him so my Colombian companion and I just showed up not knowing what to expect. There were a few Germans and a Chilean staying there when we arrived. He got us all to go on a hike to one of his four waterfalls in the valley. On the way we stopped by his tree playground and he climbed through it like a monkey. We followed. Then we literally skied down a vertical path of loose rocks to his waterfall and river. Pierre did a few spins. He got us all to pick up the boulders and throw them down to help slow the flow of the river. It wasn't for a while until I realized he had gotten us to do work for him. Somehow it was too fun.

He built his houses mainly from the ground where he lives.

The main reason I wanted to visit was because I had heard he writes the biodynamic farming calender for all of Colombia, the same one we used at Gabeno too. He and a team use astronomical programs by NASA to figure out the positions of the stars and their energies and interpret how that affects the plant world.

His house

waiting for lunch mmmm...another guest house he build from the earthPierre´s playground

His biodynamic calandar

El Arca Verde Links

www.elarcaverde.com
Flicker Pics Here
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Villa De Leyva

Villa de Leyva is a quaint national monument with warm weather, museums, fossils and natural surprises if you know where to look. I went with a friend I met at Aldea Feliz and Villa de Leyva was a place that he connected with very much so he knew all the secret spots.

This is the home we stayed at outside of the town. An American Bonnie and her Colombian partner William were very knowlegeable about the town.

They build thier home out of straw bale and my favorite was the bathroom made of rocks and an outside shower facing the mountians.

Around Villa de Leyva
We went swimming in the Blue waters.
A really strangely beautiful garden outside of the church. We sat here.
Below is a hike with two rivers on either side.
I think I saw the Garden of Eden but I forgot to take a pic...oops
We sat here too until it was dark.
and I sang a song...
-For so many years I have been a pup but now I´m fully grown..
and If going away is a part of growing up well it´s now my time to roam..-The next morning water falls, then rain storm, then I was cranky.We sat in another field and talked about what love means.
How when you know what you are looking for and nothing else on the way really suffices.
How we will know them when we see them.
How they will come the moment we are enlightened.
Maybe we are naive but I would rather everyone believed it is this way
sometimes I doubt that I even do.

He told me Love is only happiness and wanting happiness for the other no matter what that is.
I struggle with this and don´t know if it is possible to attain trapped in a physical body that is needy in so many ways. But I hope some day I can be more enlightened and love this way. I get sad when I think of the times I have tried not been able to.

Hidden hot springs on the way back to Bogota.

There is another place here I forgot to look for, Auromira. The architect Jose Vallejo, works with earthbag walls and has done a yoga temple in Villa de Leyva....oh well, for next time...