Collecting seeds with Marcelo

January 9-15, 2006

The holidays in Bahia are now over, till carnival. We finally took down our Nativity scene and the X-mas decorations (all products of Art Night). I also assisted the ceremony for removing the Baby Jesus from our neighbourhood’s nativity scene. 

We had a good-bye bonfire for Steffi on the beach. Claudia from Germany arrives on Friday.

We collected seeds with Marcelo Luque in Cabo Pasado – fernan sanchez, jaboncillo and tillo. We also saw a lot of monkeys!  Some of the seeds were sown this week in the greenhouse. We also transplanted some of the trees that have been coming up from old seeds, and some saplings that were growing out of their baggies into the ground.

The weather’s been warm but still no real rain, except for a bit this weekend. Things in the field were still dry though. We began planting on Maria Piedad’s land – there is water available from a hose which is quite convenient for filling the watering bottles. Please see the attached photo of the hillside which was planted.

More maintenance work was done in El Bosque with some steps and the lower entrance fence being fixed. A database for contacts was finished, and a gift made for Angel who gives us water in Jorge Lomas (hand-made photo frame with a picture we took with him).

I’ve been running around in circles trying to get the other contract signed for the land above Marianita Jesus. Now the Municipio says it is not theirs so I have to find out who the owners are. Also, I am having difficulty finding out the owner for the left side of El Toro creek (going up) which is where we wanted to do the test patch and one planting site. I hear that cattle roam through that area as well. I got the contract signed for the site in Fanca and will be going there tomorrow to plan what we are going to do. He has inquired (like Maria Piedad) about putting up a sign to make the project more visible. Do you think we should go with the hand-made style or something more professional for these signs?

The new trees at Inter-Americano are still looking good, and not as many trees at Dairy Farm were affected by the fire as I thought. I am still trying to find out what happened to the water at Cherry Tree as I now understand that Janeth Acosta has nothing to do with the property anymore (after briefly taking it back from the new owner).

Well, that’s all until next time,
Heather