Altos Eco-Village, Uruguay - Our Second Workaway

After our adventures in the far south, we decided that it might be time for another break. After a quick look on Workaway.com we found a perfect place to dig in some roots and get some work done. We found “Altos Eco Village”. An Australian family of travellers who had been travelling and working at Workaways (sounds familiar), found a beautiful country hotel in the countryside of Uruguay, and bought it! Now they are fixing it up so other travelling families can take a break from their vacations and relax in their eco-village!

The Aussie’s are a family of seven. The parents Kym and Matt have agricultural backgrounds and definitely have a love for adventure and learning new cultures. Their children ranging from 3-12 years old, are full of life and were the perfect antidote for Charlie and Adeline’s homesickness.

Charlie and Adeline had so much fun playing with their new buddies! 

The hotel had an amazing kitchen so I spent most of my time helping cook meals (all of our favourites from home)! David spent his time doing odd jobs from repairing the netting around their veggie patch, to cutting logs into chairs, to patching the tiled hallway.

When the Aussie’s bought the property, they acquired a pair of ponies. While we were there, they bought twenty chickens and two horses. 

Charlie with some of the rescue chooks!

They bought the chickens from a farmer nearby, and it was from a farm that mass produced eggs in conditions that weren’t so nice for any living being, so many of the “chooks” were missing feathers and really weren’t sure what to do once they were put in their roomy hen house and pen. But it didn’t take long for them to start dusting themselves and scratching the ground for bugs; natural behaviours of chickens that they never would have learned at their previous farm.

The arrival of the horses was pretty exciting too! I am not sure who was more excited, the people or the ponies. As the horses were being led out of their trailer, the ponies were watching intently and then running excitedly around their paddock! They must have been excited for new friends. After the horses had a day to adjust, Matt wanted the horses to start getting used to his kids. One of the horses was for Joey and another was for Mickey, so they have to take them for walks, give them water and eventually ride on them. Charlie got a chance to walk one of the horses and both got a chance to ride them. How exciting!

Horses, ponies and chickens weren’t the only animals we found on the property! There were also loads of frogs, tarantulas and fire ants! The first day we arrived, the kids found frogs in one of the swimming pools, and that provided endless entertainment for a few days.

They even had the frog olympics and the clear winner was Charlie’s “Big George”. 

The kids made a water slide for the frogs! 

Amanda found the fire ants the first day. There were several anthills in the yard, and we learned to check where we decided to stand very quickly. Luckily the nice cool water in the pool helped soothe the bites. We also learned how soothing aloe vera gel can be once the bites have turned into a ferociously itchy rash.

The tarantulas were a surprise, but luckily we only saw them outside. The kids became quite brave and collected them in an old plastic bottle.

Our two weeks at Altos Eco Village passed very quickly. We were lucky to meet some pretty amazing people. All home sickness was completely gone for the whole two  weeks and then once we left the home sickness was replaced by a longing to be back in Uruguay with the Aussies!