Travelling Thursday - where I'm at

Hi Craig and anyone else who may be reading! 

So I am going to try to be more active in my writing and I will start by doing 1 post a week. I'm sure once I've got that down and my daily YouTube videos then I may post more. 

Right now I'm in La Palma, one of the Canary Islands. It's said to be the most green, which it is because of the banana plantations! I think this is possibly the best place for fruitarians too, but I've not spent any time on the other islands... 

During my stay I've eaten some of the best fruit in my life; papaya, mango, banana, cherimoya, persimmon, avocado, fig. So so tasty. I enjoy waking up to mangoes and I've embraced the fruitarian way of eating them, which is ripping the skin off and having the juices flow all over me! 

The cherimoyas have been hit and miss, but I think that has more to do with how I stored them. Some of the best cherimoya have been so juicy and creamy. I definitely got my fix! 

My favourite lunch has been persimmons on the beach. I never used to like the beach, but since becoming a raw vegan I have fallen in love with nature, particularly the sand and sea. The contrast of the dark sand and bright orange fruit will always be in my memory as one of the highlights of my stay on La Palma. 

Avocados on this island are seriously hit and miss, in fact I'd say 1 in every 8 avocado is a sensational one. When you find a seller with good avocados you have to bulk buy! For instance, I was buying them on Sunday from the flea market and they were the best ones here so every Sunday I'd buy more. They were creamy, heavy, tasted like no other and we're seriously moreish. I had one yesterday and I wanted more so I went to my local shops and got one from each... Both avocados were rubbish! Wet, light and slightly bland, the complete opposite. Next time I'll learn to savour the best. 

I have noticed a loss of fat here too, even though I'm consuming avocados daily (and yesterday I had 3!). I think it definitely helps being warm because it makes me want to walk, cycle or go for a jog/run. The hills are very steep so the legs are building up muscle daily. I've mainly noticed this fat loss from around my waist, inner thighs and buttocks. I'm waiting for the day I wake up with smaller breasts... It will make buying a bikini more easy.

Oh and that's how I've noticed the weight loss, my clothes have become looser. My bikini top in particular just wants to fall down to my hips so I have to keep the removable strap on all the time! 

I'm actually returning to the UK on Saturday, I have a ferry booked Friday evening to arrive in Santa Cruz de Tenerife and I will stay one night in a hotel. 

My plan is to return home, see family, distribute Christmas gifts and then fly to Bali in the coming week (I'm hoping I get a fairly cheap ticket). 

Today has ended in the most perfect way possible, on the beach with persimmons and then a salad followed by the sun setting into the sea! I asked the higher spirits on my way down in the bus if they could clear the clouds for me so I can see the sun set into the sea and it happened like magic. If you want something hard enough it will happen! 

I will leave this post here. I started it at 6am and finished at 6:45pm!

I am in love with life right now and I hope I can distribute some towards you :) 

Love 

Jennifer xx

Fantabuloso Friday - Into the jungle

I visited an organic fruit farm in La Laguna on the island of La Palma in the Canaries. It is the creation of Martina Rasi-Rüger who gave us the grand tour on Monday 24th November 2014. The tour was given in German, but very kindly translated by the other guests. 

Martina loves her finca very much and I can see by the presentation and practices that she uses. This is one of the few permaculture farms on the island, the other farms being monoculture banana plantations using more water and heavy uses of chemicals to fertilise and control pests. Martina uses very little water in comparison because her soil contains the perfect amounts of nutrients needed to feed the plants, which is all thanks to her organic practices. In terms of pests, she combats the very few that occur using a very potent chilli and water mixture. 

From what I can remember Martina's working hours are Monday to Thursday 9am - 12.30pm (please correct me if I'm wrong), however she is now bound to this island because of the size and demand of her finca. I think the maximum time she can leave is 1 week, but when you visit you'll understand why she has given it her full commitment. 

The atmosphere inside is amazing, the video doesn't do it any justice and I recommend coming to look for yourself. I felt like I was in a jungle in another part of the world. The smells, sounds, birds, butterflies, trees, herbs, flowers, everything tickled my senses. I wanted to photograph everything and to a certain extent I did! I wanted to put it in my pocket and take it all with me, if I had a shrink-o-meter I would have done! 

Martina mainly grows organic bananas and apparently they're the best on this island. I haven't tried one, but hopefully I can soon! I saw papaya, guava, herbs, lettuce, chard, lots of different flowers, nettles and other plants I'm not certain about. 

As you can tell with this description I really had an amazing time visiting this finca, I would love to move the tree house I'm living in to it and live there instead. It gives me an idea about having my own plot of land to grow fruit on, at first I thought it was too much hard work but after reflecting I can see that it is not. Plus I would grow other fruits too. I am excited to start my own finca and I hope that it won't be long before that happens. 

Check out more photos on my Instagram page instagram.com/happyhealthyrawvegan 

OK so I copied and pasted my YouTube video description but they are my words! I am sorry I've abandoned my blog yet again but I'm pretty sure that it hardly gets seen! If you read this give me a hello below and if you miss my posts then say so! I think I prefer to post photos instead of writing as it's quicker and much more fun for me! 

Well I hope you're all well, I just devoured 6 mangoes for breakfast, I only got a slight melon belly afterwards but it wasn't the worst I've had. 

Check my YouTube channel too, I've posted a few videos recently :) 

Love

Jennifer xx

Soulful Sunday - November update

Well hello there. I have been in the Canary Islands since 31st October and I've been making more YouTube videos as opposed to blog posts! This adventure was last minute, like a lot of my previous trips. There's nothing more exciting than booking a flight less than a week before you fly! 

So what's been happening? Well I arrived in Tenerife in the morning and had to catch a ferry at 6.30pm I had lots of time so I found a fruit shop and ate cherimoya and papaya. After arriving in La Palma I stayed the night in a very quaint guest house. Unfortunately my trip has been full of noisy nights and a lack of sleep. My first night was Halloween and that meant lots of partying on behalf of the locals. 

Since arriving in the campsite 9 days ago (which was an adventure in itself!) I have had approximately 2 decent nights sleep. I'm living in a tree house that sways with the wind and makes loud noises when moving and is directly above the communal area so I've been kept awake from people eating late, playing music and drinking. 

I really like the tree house, it's perfect with the exception of noise and swaying, but I am considering asking to be moved because I'm fed up of having broken sleep. Especially as I'm cycling and today I went jogging. I'm physically tired and mentally drained so I need this time to recover and I will NOT sacrifice sunshine just to catch up on sleep. Night time is for sleeping! 

The landscape is beautiful, the weather is good, fruit is amazing and cycling around is brilliant although hard work coming up the hills. 

I am really enjoying this place apart from what I've mentioned. There's papaya, mangoes, bananas, persimmons, bananas and avocados. There's also more fruit and vegetables but the ones listed are my staples. It's the perfect place, with the exception of no durian! 

If you want a great winter getaway I highly recommend La Palma. 

Jennifer x