Where it all began – Eco Yoga Park, Argentina

The idea to start a sustainable yoga farm first came to us while traveling South America in 2013.

The Eco Yoga Village in General Rodrigues, just an hour out of Buenos Aires, Argentina, was just a few basic huts in a field with a small farm for the residents and volunteers. The road to the farm was very muddy and our driver made us get out and walk the rest of the way with our backpacks. The eco park cost 30USD per day and which included 3 daily vegan meals, 1 yoga lesson, a meditation class (all in Spanish), musical therapy and we had to work 4.5 hours per day around the farm. Our first task was to help make a new mud hut they were building with a mix of mud, sand, soil and small bits of grass. The mud huts take around 2 months to make and will have many layers of this mud plus a mix of milk powder, flour and water, cow dung, and a lick of paint to finish it off. There were 2 Danish and 3 American volunteers here for a couple of weeks and a bunch of Hari Krishna permanent residents who did a lot of singing and chanting in the temple.

After our day of work, we took a walk to the next door dairy farm where they had yoghurt, chocolate milk, dulce de leche and lots and lots of cheese which made Kimberly very happy! Nothing is pasteurized and was extremely delicious. We were then taken on a tour of the farm and saw the cows that the milk came from. Non-processed dairy products: Bliss. We were loving being in nature even if it was quite cold and there wasn’t much heating. There was an old stove in the corner of the common room and that’s about it.

The musical therapy was more of a religious ceremony but an interesting experience. Our yoga lessons were all in Spanish and very relaxing. Relaxing in the common area with the other volunteers was fun; we read books and found out about each other’s travels and talked about the various systems around the farm. This farm had eco toilets that were pretty gross, but all the waste was made into compost for the farm. Basically all the waste goes in a pile and you add wood chipping which turns into soil. 

Our time came to an end at the eco yoga farm but this was where the seed was planted for Keela. Thank you Eco Yoga Park, Mailis, Coleman, Christina and Helle for being part of this!