la finca

finca luna is about an hour´s walk from bocas town. it seems like it would take just as long to bike because the road is not maintained and driving is a bumpy adventure. our house is about 100 meters from the beach, about a ten mintue hike back. the walk is not so back, but expect to get muddy doing it, as it rains almost every day. halfway is the neighbors´house where you usually see the three kids poking their heads out the window. the next building you come to is the original homestead, on stilts just one level. with a chicken dome and some fruit trees out front. the dome is portable so you have the chickens peck and poop, which turns and ferilizes the ground. and then you move it in one or two days to a different spot. directly behind the first house is the composting toilet and a rainwater shower. halfway between that and the new house is a covered shed that is a bit unkempt but jorge wants to use it as a greenhouse eventually. now the new house is two levels with tents on the top level and the kitchen and shower on the first. there is a big deck for sitting and where the seedlings are growing. there are walls only on the corners of the house and one strip in the center of each for support. since it never gets under 70 degrees, there is no need for enclosure. this means you sleep in a tent or under a mosquito net. we have a rainwater catch from the roof, which supplies water to the shower down the hill and the outside faucet. this water is unbelievably good. another catch supplies to the inside toilet, sink (both of which go to a septic tank), shower, and kitchen sink (greywater, but we just dump it..). there is no electricity so when the sun goes down it´s kerosine lamps and candels. we use spray and incense to keep the mosquitoes away at night. there is a three range propane stove for cooking. there used to be an oven for baking but someone stole it last time jorge was away for a weekend. the climate is not so compost friendly, so we feed food scraps to the chickens. directly outside the house--zone one--we have a garden with sweet potatoe, sugar cane, lemongrass, some type of legume called mata raton, chillis, basil, pineapple, yucca, perennial peanut, and some other things. i guess zone two is just a tropical food forest. coco, papaya, mango, pina, lime, banana, and so many others i don´t even know the name of. although the farm is five years old, most of the trees planted aren´t producing, so we eat from what´s already there. first thing yesterday morning, jorge got his machete and we hacked into a coco.
so the story with the farm is, andrew and kristina--the owners--moved back to california over a year ago. it was too stressful on their family, as they had two small children. they are trying to sell the farm. jorge is there as a paid worker to keep things running. they can´t pay him anymore, so there´s not much he can do. no money to get supplies, and no real incentive. squatters rights in panma say that even if you own a piece of land, if it is vacant, anyone can take it over. so friends and neighbors help keep their eye on it, but as soon as jorge leaves, i don´t know what´s going to happen. there is another full-on permaculture farm on a nearby island. bastimentos, i think. this guy bruce grew up somewhere in latin america with rural farmers and practices permaculture to a t, apprently. he has offered that jorge and brock come work for him in a few months so i am going to try and do that with them. there is even a chance i might get paid a bit. but even just a worktrade is fine for me as long as i find a job before my money runs out. so there is not much work going on right now. just keeping the place in order. jorge jsut built some trellaces and i think there is more planting to be done. we might be waiting for the full moon. so that´s the story. i had no idea the owners weren´t here but it doesn´t really bother me. nothing is a big deal down here. it´s like things happen when and if they need to, at their own pace. we were saying the other day that the hardest part is to go against the culture we were raised in and let go of outcomes. vamos aver, they say. we will see.