Ecosur

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After having spent 3 weeks apart, each spending time with our families come half way across the world to visit us - we meet again at ecosur in Argentina. Ecosur is a 320 nectar piece of land, located in the region of Mendoza, where the owners plan on building an eco-community. The project is at very early stages, but the idea is that anyone that wants can come and get a piece of land to build their own eco-home. When we arrived we where first thrown into the deep end, staying with 7 other people in one big room, which also acted as kitchen and dining room. Needless to say privacy or cleanliness were not the main focuses, but as can be expected small places bring people together and so we spent 2 weeks with an amazing group of people, planting trees, building a clay house, de-weeding and building a stage which will be used for an outdoor cinema! Our free time was spent swimming in the near by river, playing all types of games and cooking…a lot! Whilst we were working on the land, the owner, Esteban, spent his time leading a very important fight against fracking going on in the region, which would destroy many local businesses by contaminating the already scarce water ressources of the region. His activism was very interesting to follow as we where there at a clear turning-point moment in his cause. Esteban got his hands on important documents which proved the local governments fracking plans and locals were starting to gather and organise protests. One of the evenings we got to attend a protest in the region to block the roads. In Argentina this form of protest is legal as long as the roads are opened every 15 minutes in order for vehicles to pass. This was quite fun to see as there was a little less then a 100 people of all ages gathered for the event. Everything was organised in a good mood and got a lot of support from the beeping vehicles held at stand point even though it was really late at night! Quite a contrast of what one might expect in a french protest…

All in all we leave ecosur sad to say goodbye to everyone and all the animals living on the farm but excited for our next stop: Bolivia.