This week my boyfriend~fellow Enchanting Challenge blogger Nicholas Cunningham~and I are in the Chilean paradise of Ulaa. Ulaa is an organic farm founded by the Enchanting Group and run by the amazing Ulaa care-taker, MARTIN.
Ulaa sits nestled into a mountainside overlooking a crystalline lake and river: Lago Puelo Inferior and Rio Puelo. The Rio Puelo runs into the Pacific Ocean, carrying schools of 20-pound salmon in its streams. The log cabin of Ulaa is heated by a wood-burning fire and electricity comes on for 4-5 hours a day. The water for bathing is heated over the fire,and when it is not heated it is ice cold and pure. The cabin’s main room has a wall of windows where you can sit by the fire, mesmerized by the blues and greens of the waves down below, gently moving the sea grasses in their wake. With the smells of the fire and the gentle chill of the lake winds, you will feel so close to nature here. No cell phones ringing, no pullution, no television blaring. You are brought back into balance. It is Heaven.
The Enchanting Group wishes to open up Ulaa into a service opportunity where traveleres can come and stay in the cabins for no charge as long as they participate in the daily farm work. The travelers can come back into nature and rest in the beautiful rustic Ulaa cabins as long as they help tend the potato fields, the pumpkin patches, the tomato greenhouses, the raspberry bushes, and the fruit tree orchards. All the crops are organically grown and just need to be tended with loving care by those who are interested in learning more about our food and our Earth. To serve at Ulaa is a beautiful opportunity, and if you are interested in agritourism and agricultural service and education, this may be the perfect place for you.
This week, Nick, Martin, and I are working together to form a plan to bring service learners and workers to Ulaa. During this week, I will write an Ulaa Series that will be updated daily, keeping all our readers notified of the progress and updates of the Ulaa plan. As I mentioned before, we are working on constructing a service program for agricultural service, but we are also thinking and brainstorming for medical service programs, dental service programs, and even a service program for authors, all here at Ulaa!! Please write me or comment on the blog if you have any comments, quetsions, and/or suggestions. We would love nothing more than if our readers were a part of the planning process for this up-and-coming Enchanting Challenge-sponsored service trip!!
* All photos taken by Nicholas Cunningham *
Tags: agricultural service, agritourism, Enchanting Challenge, Enchanting Group, Service, Ulaa, Ulaa Patagonia, Volunteer
