Vegan Eco-Village Yoga Farm

No sex, no meat, no eggs, and no caffeine. I have somehow landed in quite possibly the most random project of them all: an Eco-village Yoga Farm.

Last Friday I loaded Amanda into a taxi for the airport, gave her a hug, and managed to hold back my tears until I reached the elevator of the 5-Star Hotel we splurged on for our last two nights together as two traveling blondes. Over 6 months later, our trip together has come to a close. Amanda flew to meet her family in Cairo, and I have one month more to fill in Argentina. Only once the taxi door had closed and pulled away from the curb into Buenos Aires traffic did the idea of traveling solo begin to seem quite...daunting.

As I sat in the suddenly vacuous hotel room alone, nervously eating the chocolate Easter bunny Amanda gifted me, I googled directions for my next destination: The Eco Yoga Park. Having heard about a volunteer project where you help farm and learn yoga for only $12 a day – including room and 3 meals, I decided what could be a better way to begin my solo travels than by spending time outdoors and meditating on what I want out of life?

The farm is located just 60km west of Buenos Aires, but evolved into a 3 ½ hour journey. Getting to the small pueblo of La Serenisima took an incredibly confusing bus ride that was refreshingly reminiscent of traveling through less-developed Central America and resulted in being dropped off on the side of the road among the cows and green pastures that comprise most of Argentina. After requesting the aid of almost every single passenger to pass my bag overhead and quite literally falling out of the jammed-packed public bus, I attempted not to appear lost as the bus pulled away in a puff of black exhaust. Now what? But to my confused relief, the Traveling Gods heard my silent nervous prayer and across the street sat an idling taxi. “Conoces la Eco Yoga Park?” I asked. “Quizas,” maybe, he said. And thus, I arrived still not sure what to expect.

A little over a week later, I can finally say that I am glad I made this my first stop of solo travel. My days consist of working in the organic garden for 4 hours in the morning, running, learning to cook vegan food in mass quantity (18 volunteers here at present), eating my body weight in vegetable casseroles and whole wheat chipati flat bread, doing yoga for an hour and half, and reading and writing. What can I say folks, life is hard.

To be honest, this project is largely what I thought it would be. Everything except for the minor detail they left off the website that the Eco Yoga Park is not just a relaxation retreat for wary travelers. But in fact is also home to practicing Hare Krsna monks and nuns. Hare Krsna is a religious movement from India that follows the ancient Vedic scriptures where Krsna is God and yoga and meditation are the processes by which to attain an understanding with the divine. Siddhartha, or Buddha, was apparently just one of 10 manifestations of Krsna.

But while there is certainly a Hare Krsna presence, it is by no means imposing or converting. The kitchen is holy and one is not supposed to eat or drink while cooking; a lesson in patience if nothing else, for I can't even begin to explain how hard it is to peel a bucket of mandarins without popping a slice in my mouth, or how much self-restraint it takes to not sample raw cookie dough. The monks are dressed in flowing white suits and we can often hear singing and chanting coming from the temple at odd hours; yet they too carry cell phones and are eager to laugh and chitchat. And while the nuns busy themselves in the afternoon in the temple feeding and clothing the Gods, we sunbathe on the grass swatting at flies and gossiping about relationships and late nights in Buenos Aires.

The religion perhaps is the reason this eco-village sprouted, but it is now certainly not the main reason for the village's success or life. The community is sustained off volunteers work and pocket change, and most of the volunteers are eager for a retreat from traveling and a detox from Buenos Aires. A nice symbiotic relationship's going on here in central Argentina.

And perhaps this is the universe's way of compensating for my continuous frustration that Cornell University doesn't offer a comparative religions course. Now I find myself in a hands-on Eastern Religions class.

Not sure exactly how long I'll be here or where I'm heading next, but at least rest assured that I am in quite possibly the safest place in all of South America and comfortable being a hippie yoga buff for at least few weeks.