My husband arrives home tomorrow from a two week trip to Perú to shore up some details and make some decisions about our house down outside of Camaná. Several years ago my father decided that he wanted to be sure we would have a haven where we can sustainably homestead year round, so he, with help from my husband and father- and mother-in-law, found a piece of farm land by the Pacific Ocean back in 2017. In 2021 the build process began with a large cement block wall around the house-site area, and we finished design work with the engineer/architect sometime in early 2022.

The next step was sinking a well for hopefully potable water, and the start of a very hefty retaining wall to support the sand around the foundation of the house. I’ll be sharing some posts on the build here in the next couple of blog posts. We have loads of photographs, and it’s been tricky to navigate the construction process from the U.S., but I’m thoroughly excited for the possibility of planting a Huerta with avocados, papaya, and mangos, and also starting some perennial herbs, asparagus, and strawberries. We also hope to raise chickens and turkeys…and possibly pigs - that last one is my husband’s hope.

Our new homestead is just up the Panamericana highway from a place called Pucchun which is up the Panamercana from my husband’s hometown “El Cardo” (José Maria Quimper, Camaná). On the Google map the nearest town is Jaguey…but elsewhere on the map the location name is spelled “Hawai,” and I’ve also seen it as Hawei/Jawei. Spelling is a bit fluid in that area, apparently! The empty beach with its bright orange crabs, pelicans, and driftwood, is already showing up in some of my sketches. I’m excited to see where this next part of our family’s journey takes us!