NeverLost: Donkey Den

For 9 days, Colin and I were the (for the lack of a better word) managers at a guest house in the tiny beach town of Santa Marianita. Wow.

There is a wonderful website that we highly commend for anyone who wants to travel.

www.helpx.net

Sign up and pay a small fee and suddenly you are connected with hundreds and hundreds of hostels, hotels, farms, homes, etc. that are looking for travelers that can work a few hours a day in exchange for a room and at least one meal a day.

Colin and I found a guest home on the coast that looked amazing, contacted the woman that runs the place, and hopped on a bus the next day headed to Santa Marianita.

Linda is an American woman that retired and moved to Ecuador 8 years ago. She wanted a home on the beach. She started by building a little house, then added on and on and on and next thing she new she was running a guest home.

Linda. So welcoming and loving to us. An incredible woman to have built this place on her own.

Linda is also a huge animal lover and it becomes apparent as soon as one enters the property. No less than 5 happy dogs will greet you and there are at least 7 to 40 sleepy cats that might give you a moment out of their napping to meow and demand a bit of attention.

The sweet dogs of Donkey Den.

While we were there we basically ran the place. We were given all the keys, the cell phone, the money box. In a way, we were given total freedom to run the guest house. We helped clean and prep rooms for guests, make sure the guest had everything they needed. We also did some pretty big projects like sealing concrete and treating bamboo of newly constructed buildings.

Amazing breakfasts everyday at the Donkey Den.

Sophie and Erika. The two other helpers that left early to let us move in. I am so glad that we got to meet them both. We are planning to see Erika in Peru, and hopefully we will be Sophie in England one day! Also, our friend Erika has a wonderful travel blog, you should check it out! www.herhappytrails.com

There were times that it became a little overwhelming. Dealing with complaints about things that are out of our control. Yuck. Also, we saw a lot of misunderstandings and frustrations between the locals and the expat community. The language barrier between home owners and local workers was devastatingly evident. It was more than frustrating for Colin and I to see wonderful local people who work hard for their living, being judged as over-charging or cheating a client due to the language barrier.

What stood out to us is the importance of understanding, kindness, grace, and patience...and while we had frustrations, we are grateful that we also saw these things. Linda was so kind and welcoming to her volunteers. We saw grace and understanding as two other volunteers left earlier than planned, giving us space to move in. (Thanks Sophie and Erika!) and we saw much grace from the locals as they listened to us stumbled over words while trying to communicate in Spanish!

Colin enjoying a Cuban. Thanks, Danny.

Stephanie and Rieka....other wonderful volunteer we worked with.

An uninpiring photo of a very inspiring guy. Dennis was a friend we made ast the Donley Den. Fluent in Spanish, English, and German. He helped Linda create the Donkey Den as it is today.

Waiting to flag down the bus.

Four other volunteer came in while we were there, so we decided to continue down the coast. We stayed at Mantanita for 2 night. It's a fun beach fiesta town where we were able to catch the tale end of an international surf competition. Australia won. Despite being shocked by our hostals bad electrical lining and being caught in a small riptide, all was great!