Life on the Mountain

I have been at the Lama Foundation for over two intense and gratifying weeks. Working on the land, preparing beds and planting, bee keeping, working at a community garden near by and last but not least living in community with about 22 wonderful folks...

The Dome at Lama Foundation


every meal time we circle up, the cook present the meal (vegetarian with dairy-free options) and we usually sing a song picked by the cook.


sometimes on days off a group of us goes to the "stage-coach hot springs" in the near by Rio Grande gorge

I have been feeling overwhelmed with the amount of wonderful, intense activities that have been happening here... there are too many to recall so I have decided to post a bush of pictures and hopefully in future posts go into specific things in more details....

planting cale starts in the middle of a hail storm... in the near by Sangre de Cristo Youth Ranch.


the portal, where we all gather to eat our meals


playing with a baby Yak!!!


bee keeping our own hive


the main green house where everything comes to life!!!


Drew, preparing a new bed...

Thanks for your support!! I'll be in touch!

Spontaneous Opportunities

Since leaving Las Vegas, I have been having a great time Hitch-biking my way through the long and vast lands of the south-west. Always having the pleasure of meeting so many wonderful people, friends of friends, that help me along the way... You know who you are, Thank you!

Grand Canyon south rim


a path to nothingness

Because of some really good rides I was able to give myself a couple of extra days to explore the inside of the Grand Canyon. I set off as a solo back packer, but soon found myself surrounded by new friends from all corners of the map. The grand canyon is a magical place, every layer that you go through changes the climate, altitude, vegetation, etc...

at the bridge over the Colorado river


me on the Bright Angel Trail

The Grand Canyon is a very spiritual place that if you care to connect you may feel immediately revitalized by the powerful energy of our ancestors. I personally had moments of pure bliss whenever I took the time to stop and let the energy sink into my veins.

the wall


trail view

After this adventure I got a ride from a super friendly fellow cyclist all the way to Durango, CO. Where I stayed with my friend Katie's brother, Danny for a few days. I had a good time in Durango and had an opportunity to look after a few errands before moving forward. We really enjoyed each others company and decided to take little road trip to Taos, via The Great Sand Dunes National Park. Another astonishing place full of great power.

Surreal landscapes with snow peaked
Sangre de Cristo mountains on the background

This was the icing on the cake; a ride to Taos with an opportunity to see some other amazing places all while being in great company. Plus, my left foot has been hurting since to hike in the Grand Canyon and it would be wise to just let it rest before putting much strain on it.

Today I find myself in Taos, NM at my friend Christina's parent's (Jim and Lynda) home. Again amazing coincidences that goes way beyond the description of a chance meeting. Some would called it Fate. Thank You!

Tomorrow I will go to the Lama Foundation to start the Permaculture Internship and there I will be until early October 2011. Working with the land and living in community. I will try to post updates as the learning continues... thanks for reading!

Watch a slide show of the Grand Canyon by clicking here

Vegas experience:

My time in Vegas has been certainly very different from most tourist that come here. I stayed at my friends home, he is a performer in Love by Cirque de Solei, and of course most his friends are performers too; quite an interesting crowd. I have taken a couple of hike down at the Red Rock National Park and have seen several shows, Love and Mistere by Cirque and another production called Absinthe. All of these were amazing and sometime really funny.

Ekenah and I back stage of Love

On Tuesday evening, a most unexpected pain on my teeth started to attack and after a sleepless night I decide to seek help. After making after several phone calls I got an appointment at a friend's dentist who diagnosed me needing a root canal on a pre-molar. the following two days were a roller coster of thought mixed with emotions accompanied by pain. There was an idea of going to Brazil in order to cut expenses, but after a day o research, making phone calls and other stuff I figured that it would end up costing the same amount to do it here. Plus the amount of pollution of a flight and haslle of travel would not make up the short two weeks in the motherland.

Red Rock National Park

As soon as I made the decision to stay I received great support and help from everyone around me, namely Ekenah, Maricau, Randy, Peter, Gene, Felipe. Thank you... into the evening Randy put me in touch with an old friend of his that is a dentist; Brett he fit me into his busy schedule and gave me a great discounted price. This morning I find myself refreshed and ready for the journey to come... Thanks to everyone who gave me support in anyway during these days here is Vegas...

Resting on a fallen tree

Now with a sligthly shorter time-line it is of greater possibility that I will end up trying to hicth-bike most of the way to the Lama Foundation...

stay tuned...

Enjoy the photos and videos on my flickr page (click here)

What is a Hitch-Biker?

My time here at The Flying Disc Ranch is coming to an end and even though the mud house is still not complete (see most recent slide show of the site), it is time to set sail from here. Where to? I need to get to northern New Mexico in 3 weeks (May 16th). I will be going via Las Vegas, as I have a long overdue visit to a friend (Ekenah), and will get to go to see him perform in Cirque de Solei. From there to the Lama Foundation the route is still not clear, except that I would like to see some contacts in Durango and Crestone CO.

Travel me, on the road of life

The journey ahead (around 750m/1200km) is adopting a new kind of thinking in terms of trasportation. I have done some experimenting and now have been coming to terms with this new concept of travel that depending on some factors can easily double the distance traveled in one day... I call it Hitch-Biking... "Imagine yourself biking down the road at any given point you glace back and see a pick-up truck coming down the road. With in a split second you might decide to stick your left arm out with the thumb pointing up. Chances are, they will pass you with out the blink of an eye, however, it might strike them as intriguing and interesting to pick up a hitch-biker. They would at lease be up for some interesting conversations... Once stopped you will spend a few instances getting the bike on the back, but soon after you'll be back on the road resting, catching up on your miles and making new friends. this way if you don't get any rides you can still enjoy the road and don't waste time waiting for a ride... It come to you!"

Here is my first hitch-biking ride in Ranchita, California

This is it for me... Will keep in touch as the road reveals its contour to me...

- one love

Lama Land Intern at Lama Foundation

The weeks are flying by and my time here at the ranch is coming to an end. The natural building project is progressing rapidly. Click here to watch a slide show of the work site





The good news that will be shaping my entire summer is that I have been accepted to do a Permaculture Internship at the Lama Foundation from mid-May till October. The Lama Foundation is a 40 y/o spiritual intentional community located in northern New Mexico. To read more about this opportunity Click Here

I will be blogging my experience through out my time there, so stay tuned!!!

Details on the Mud House

I have been wanting to find the time and energy to sit and write about the current Natural Building project that I'm involved in for the last month and a half here in Thermal, California.

the roof structure

Here at the Flying Disc Ranch, Eric Lower and myself have been working long hours building this small but really stylish duplex house with lofts. We began by measuring, squaring the foundations, that here in the desert only needed to be 2 feet deep. After pouring the cement for each of them we were ready to start building the self-sustaining roof/loft structure. It consisted of 6x6 poles and 6x12 beams with 2x8 rafters.

me and mud

When the roof was set in place we started with the walls, this is were the fun part comes in. Working with mud is really enjoyable and make you feel good because it is full of Negative Ions :-)

Natural Building is based on building houses out of local and natural material and as much as possible staying away form manufactured and chemical material. Of course, especially when it comes to building according to municipal codes, some times you have to use a little cement or other manufactured materials... So here is a list of some of the main material being used and where they came from.
> Lumber - a local family owned supplier
> Sand and Clay - right of the foot of the mountain here in the Coachella Valley
> StrawBales - from El Centro south of the Salten Sea
> Palm Laths and Frowns - from our Date Palms

Straw bale wall with electrical

The centre wall that divides the two separate living areas, we made it out of strawbales for its great sound proofing properties. For the East wall we made it out of laths, otherwise known as the French Technique, all of the laths were cut from the centre of palm leafs and the fiber for the mud mix of that wall was palm frowns also from the farm.

French Technique or "Quincha"

The North and East walls of the North Unit, we decided to use the technique of "Paja Encofrada" or Compressed Straw. It is a fast and easy way to put up a wall by wetting lose straw with pure clay slip, like a salad dressing. Mix it up till every straw is moistened by clay slip, then compress it into the frame of the wall (supported temporarily by plywood on either side). Beside it being fast and easy to build, it also has great thermal and sound proofing properties.

we have started to put on the first coat of
mud on the bottom half

To all these walls there will be at least 3 coats of mud before it is finished. The site is rapidly changing every day especially now that we have another worker, Adolfo helping everyday. If any of you take interest in getting your hands muddy feel free to contact me and come down to have some fun with Negative Ions.

Do check out the link below as it contain photos from all phases of the project.

Click here to view a slide show of the Building Site

Enjoy the photos and videos on my flickr page (click here)

Work & Play in the Desert

It has been almost one month that I have been living and working here at The Flying Disc Ranch. I decided to stick around because we are building a house of natural construction material (mud, sand and straw) we will use different techniques and explore them in different parts of the house. For now we are building the self-sustaining roof structure.

We have been working about 50 hours a week and take Sundays off, go somewhere nice... We visited the Dos Palmas Oasis and The Joshua Tree, both were really incredible places.

Joshua Tree


Eric and I, up high on a rock


Dos Palmas Oasis


Dos Palmas Oasis


Oasis Video

I'm waiting till April to find out if I get accepted to do a 14 week, Permaculture Internship at the Lama Fondation in New Mexico. It would be an spectacular experience!

Enjoy the photos and videos on my flickr page (click here)

Over the mountains into the desert...

I left Escondido late on Tuesday morning and as I cycled eastbound I saw the time ticking and the sun almost on the horizon. I still had another 20 miles to go, so started to stick my thumb out on the road every time a truck drove by. Soon after I got picked up by Joane who took me into Borrego Springs, a little cozy town that sits right in the middle of Anza Borrego Desert State Park. Joane took me to her friend Dana's place who offered me the guest room, that night I was cozy and comfortable indoors. Thank you.

desert flowers

The next morning, I was up and about and hit the road by 9hr. Had a wonderful 30 mile ride with the wind on my back thus making for great average speed of 17m/27km per hour...

Riding through the State Park video

When I reached HWY 86 at the bottom of the valley, was when I started to fear for my life. It was a busy HWY with decent shoulder lane but now the wind that was once on my back, was now swiftly pushing me off the road and to maintain myself on it I had to work very hard tilting myself toward the traffic... imagine that for a minute... now just add the big 18 wheeler trucks zooming past me at great speeds. With in a split second I had to counter balance the vacuum suction pulling me into the road...
There were no service roads to be found and I cycled about half an hour with a few close calls.

Perfect spot for your RV...

I'm glad I have a responsible side that decided to hitch a ride. Shortly there after I got picked up by these Canadian, Al & Beulah. Had a friendly conversation and they decided to drop me off at the Flying Disc Ranch.

Anza Borrego Desert

thanks for reading... stay tuned...

Enjoy the photos and videos on my flickr page (click here)

hiding in Escondido...

Riding into Escondido

This weekend I spent in Escondido. I cycled there from San Diego. and had a great ride. I'm really glad that this weekend I got to go to the San Diego Wild Animal Park and on Sunday I got to do laundry and organize all my thing gear...

Look closely at this savanah... there are rinos and girafes on the fields

Enjoy the photos and videos on my flickr page (click here)

Bienvenido a Tijuana...

Playas de Tijuana

WOW... what a contrast it was when crossing the border from the US into Tijuana, Mexico. The air, the heat, the noise, the smells, the colours, the faces and bodily expressions, I felt that this is more of along the lines of context that I grew up with as a child in Brazil...

Playing "cross to the other side" and seeing

if the border patrol comes to catch me!

Even though the Canadian in me might feel out of my confort zone, It is overpowered by a sence of familiarity and survival. A Lust for Life if you will... I can think of oher instances that I felt this similar emotion, and right of the bad most of them happened in the devoloping world (sorry for the lack of politicaly correct terms :-)

Watch Cameras with hyper sensitive mics that can hear normal spoken

voice from a great distance :-)

In short, my two days in Mexico sparked a flavour that I had forgotten, and I feel more inclined to head to the other side in the near future... stay tuned for further thoughts of this matter...

Sunset in playas de Tijuana

Enjoy the photos and videos on my flickr page (click here)

Never say no to a friendship!

In Balboa Park

This week in San Diego has been filled with empowering moments of friendships. I had decided to come down here simply to see what I could find out on the southernmost city of California. I had very few contacts besides my couchsurfing host, Melissa.

Jenny, me, Antonio e Paekan


Corrin and Marie


Joanie and I

I also was looking forward to meeting a childhood friend that I had not seen in 18 years, Paekan. Through him I got involved in a intro workshop about the Gerson Therapy. It is a powerful, natural treatment that boosts your body's own immune system to heal cancer, arthritis, heart disease, allergies, and many other degenerative diseases. Please look at their site for further information. I volunteered to ba able to experience part of the weekends material, with in this short time met many important contacts, made new and straightened old friendships.

Sunset in San Diego

On Wednesday I will be headed to Tijuana, Mexico to visit with a friend I met on the Gerson workshop and will be back in the US by Friday. A quick flash by visit to the neighbors of the south. It should be a good stay by the beach in Playas de Tijuana.

Stay Tuned...

Enjoy more photos and videos on my flickr page (click here)