The hostel building is nearly done, but we delayed proceeding because we decided to finish up the brewery so we didn’t have construction while we had guests. So this is basically construction phase 2. Slowly but surely we’re getting everything into place. It’s nice to see it however slowly.
Being our own project managers
We are getting better at juggling multiple things in our life, although sometimes at the cost of stress. Every week we have somewhat of a “stand up”… well … we sit, and while we eat in the kitchen Monday mornings, usually at 7:30am after already being awake for an hour or more we try and plan out our week. From the things we need to buy, to the tasks we need to delegate the construction crew, to the tasks we can do ourselves, we write a to-do list and try to keep that in mind.
It’s amazing how fast the week flies by, and the worst part is feeling like we didn’t accomplish anything. We are actually accomplishing a lot, but it just doesn’t feel like it. Small tasks are just overwhelmingly never ending and keep interrupting the bigger things we need to do.
At this time last year, our hostel wasn’t even a hole in the ground yet. It was grass, weeds, and a platform to hold gas tanks. Seeing how it is now is surreal.
I guess this whole experience is teaching us how to re-prioritize the important things in our plans, and in the bigger scheme of things our own lives, which includes our health and mental well being. We have found ourselves taking turns going through meltdowns. In the end, we are learning to be more realistic about our goals. This has come as a realization that we were extremely naive and ambitious about our original plans. We honestly thought we’d have been open ages ago.
So for now, all we can do is celebrate the small things. We got more doors!! And a window! We find ourselves getting excited about simple things. Like for instance when Malena had a moment of bliss when she saw a can of compressed air at a store. We seriously live in a tiny town, so going out of town to bigger stores is a bit of a adventure.
The literal definition of Chuchaqui
We are in our own little bubble and didn’t realize that it was international workers day. We’ve been so busy we are always missing events and holidays but hope to rectify that soon enough. So we were surprised that our workers didn’t show up on a particular Monday morning. Malena calls the Maestro to ask him where his crew is, and he answers the phone sounding like he just crawled out of his grave, bluntly saying “oh they’re probably hung over”. We couldn’t help but laugh and be okay with not having a crew for a day.
We’ve actually sold some beer!!
So we actually have a consistent client already! Only a 6 pack at a time but they only have one small fridge in their tiny establishment so while taking it over with beer might sound awesome it’s not entirely rational. They sell some, we restock them and collect our empties, it’s nice and very thankful someone is willing to take a risk on us as a relative unknown for now. They’ve asked for a few of our new Mora Blonde Ales too which will be ready very very soon.
We also sold 20 bottles to another business, a hotel nearby who also willing to support a n00b operation like us. The proprietors have been a wonderfully kind and helpful souls to us since day 1, and we’ll be forever grateful to them. They bought a mix of the dark lager and IPA for a large group of guests they were hosting that weekend and we finally managed to scrape the time to label our bottles. Home made all the way, small mailing labels with our logo and the beer name on hand-cut stickers, hand-tied to each bottle with orange string.
Orange is our thing.
Selling for home consumption to other expats in town has been fun too. A constant happy comment we keep hearing is “YAY! It’s not Pilsener!!”. Can’t beat $1.25 for a bomber bottle (600ml) of Pils but it’s easy to get tired of mass-produced bland-ish yellow fizzy bubbly. We’ve tidied up a bit and hopefully will be presentable enough for samplings even though we’re still a construction site. Mason jars are being readied.
Also we started making sodas for non-beer-drinkers out there. So far the mora soda is turning out fantastic, and the ginger beer needs some tweaking but coming along.
Random events and random people
Every time we’re in Ibarra we take advantage of the “Supermaxi”. Your typical giant grocery store to find stuff we can’t find in town. It’s like a Metro or Loblaws. The closest to that in our town is a place called “Tia”, think “Hasty Market” in size and scope.
So one day we decide to go buy a toilet at a large hardware store and swing by another store to buy a water tank. Conveniently close to Supermaxi, we decide to stockpile on a few items. Plan was to pay for the toilet in one part of town and come back later to pick it up after the water tank and groceries.
So afterward here we are with that gigantic 250L water tank stuffed with groceries trying to catch a taxi truck to swing by the hardware store we bought the toilet at so we can head home. It’s an extremely hot day, both of us are on different sides of the street trying catch a taxi in either direction with no luck. After 15 minutes of waiting, waving our arms and calling out to trucks, Malena realizes our toilet store will be closing any minute for “almuerzo”. People down here take lunch very seriously. Finding anything open at lunch time is rare. We sometimes joke that it’s hard to find a place to eat lunch when everyone is closed for lunch.
Malena had asked a security guard standing around if he could call us a cab, so seeing this fellow with a truck pull in, the security guard decided to ask him if he could give us a ride. The guy said yes, and at that point, we stuff the giant water tank and Roger in the back and off we went to try and collect our new toilet before they closed for lunch. We literally got there a the nick of time, Malena jumping out of the truck hollering at the security guard closing the door, waving the receipt that we were there to pick up the toilet. They had it stacked up near the front door already waiting for us. Perfect.
The friendly stranger guy was kind enough to drive us all the way back home (45 min drive) so long as we were ok with him stopping at the bank first. We sort of interrupted that part of his day afterall.
The encroaching forest begins
Some friends of ours had told us that there is an amazing place to buy plants and top soil. Problem is, place is located on a side road between two small towns, so we basically had to keep an eye out while on the bus and hop off not knowing exactly where it was, all while Malena ate a slice of cake. Lots of people were eating snacks on the bus right then for some reason. It’s pretty common to see people eating snacks wherever and whenever. We did manage to find the garden centre and it inspired us to get more colour at home.
Once again, trying to flag down a truck, once again Roger at the back. He’s ridden in the back of more pickups here in the last year than he ever did as a kid on the farm.
Dogs are loving the grass. It’s been taking root and the cats are out more often exploring too based on their grass-filled green vomit we find in random spots.
