Rio negro and Finca Vrindavan with beauty inside and out

I left Baños to go couchsurf with someone I was really looking forward to meeting: Patrik, a Nomadic Amb from Sweden, who lives in a Hare Krishna monastery (read: beautiful cabins in the jungle) in Rio Negro only 40 minutes by bus (0,5$) from Baños. As you know, I don't really consider myself a very spiritual person, the non-ghost-non-spirit-non-god-non-horoscope-non-nada believing atheist that I am, but after living in a religious home for 17 years I figured I could take it and experience something new and unique. After a day there I could just politely say I was in a hurry and get back to Baños to soak in the natural hot tubs. But that's not quite how it went.

I was welcomed to the Finca Vrindavan by a girl with the warmest hugs ever, Liz or madre Lalita, who had come to visit the village with her two fellow-munks, Dhruva and Parsad. We got a ride to the finca from a 70-year-old grandpa who tried to convince me to move in with him by for example calling me "Es-linda", 'is-beautiful', which he thought suit be better than Elina and I managed to resist the temptation and stay with the Hare Krishnas instead.
The finca could not be located in a more beautiful place, in the jungle by a river, and after I had picked a room in the cabins Liz invited me to join her for a shower in their waterfalls just a two-minute walk away. We walked past the sweat cabin, a natural sauna, and chatted for a few hours of krishnas as well as everything between the heaven and the earth before joining others for a delicious vegetarian dinner. Only at this point I found out that Patrik wasn't even there; he had fallen ill and had to get to Quito just one day before my arrival. And everyone still seemed to feel like it was completely natural for me to stay there, even though my host was away!

Liz told me lots of things about Krishna and their religion, but I won't bother you with that - you can find out more on wikipedia or on this Krishna website, if you're interested. But I do want to share the interesting rules of the finca: vegeterianism, abstinence from sex, drugs and alcohol, not harming animals or using animal-tested cosmetics, not entering the kitchen before you're cleaned your mouth after eating something and not tasting the food when cooking (because the first bits are for Krishna). I helped in cooking and cleaning and got to learn to make some yummy veggie foods that I'll definitely have to try making at home.

But above all, I just felt at home. The warmth of these people was all around and the peacefulness and beauty of the finca indescribable.

I attended one temple service and felt curious of the different rituals and music that I got the experience for the first time, but at the same time felt like it was all so similar to the different Cristian services I had to attend when I was younger - different manners, same ideas - and was happy not the participate more. I feel the same about Hare Krishnas as I do about Cristians: true faith that makes people happy is a wonderful thing, just something I don't need for my happiness.





I left the finca for a half a day to visit some of the tourist attractions in the area. First I took a tarabita (1$), a cable ferry, across a river in Manto de novia and walked a 2km path in the jungle to the next tarabita (1$).












Then I continued to Rio Verde to see the cool Pailon del diablo waterfalls and walked the ecological path (1$) to behind the waterfall - getting soaked and getting really sore legs from all the stairs climbing were totally worth it.







I wonder how Rio verde, 'green river', got its name?

Meeting my host Patrik (Madhu) for the first time the same evening was nice, especially because after talking about him with Liz I felt like I knew him already. The next day I went to Baños with Liz to try the famous natural hot tubs, but was a bit disappointed to find out that they were only three big pools with different water temperatures. Some seemed to react very strongly going into the hot or cold water, but for anyone who's walked from a Finnish sauna to the snow and back into the sauna, it really wasn't much of an experience. Taking my morning shower in the fincas own waterfalls was way cooler - colder but cooler.

On Friday I said my sad goodbyes and gave about a hundred hugs to the finca inhabitants and head off to Quito through Ambato (total 5h, 4$). The same morning I had been given a "Meat eaters Anonymous - would you like to give up killing?" badge as a present so decided to see how long I could keep off from meat. So far so good and haven't even been tempted yet. But we'll see how that is when I get to my next post.