Our volunteering experience didn't exactly get off to the best of starts…

…unable to contact the farm on the phone number provided we made our way regardless to Tilquiza, a village in the middle of nowhere, without a clue how to reach the farm. 2 1/2 hours passed, we wandered up, down and through fields looking for some form of civilisation but were greeted only by herds of cows and angry dogs. Luck was on our side and we eventually stumbled upon a local farmer who looked quite bemused to see two sweaty 'gringos' with 30kg backpacks wandering aimlessly around.Thankfully he knew where the farm was tucked away and courteously led us there.

The farm itself is in an idyllic location, surrounded by rolling green hills with two rivers that meet some 250ft below. There's no mains electricity, mobile phone coverage, internet access, nearby supermarket or any form of civilisation, true isolation.

At first we were wondering what we'd got ourselves into after being told we were to share a bunk-bed cabin with a bloke in his early 40's who, lets just say, had questionable hygiene standards…we were giving it a few days max!

The aim of the farm is to create an isolated retreat for tourists looking to get away from the modern world. Quite refreshing for a few days but thoroughly boring after that! The family are in the midst of building cabins and a restaurant that can house around 10-12 tourists and provide an income for them to become self-sufficient.Our jobs to help achieve this consisted of helping with the construction of the onsite restaurant, landscaping the surrounding grounds (and shovelling horse poo from the main areas), maintaining the vegetable garden, looking after the animals (dogs, chickens & horses) and generally providing any other assistance we could. All hard graft but incredibly satisfying to build or create something from scratch.

The principle of the volunteering was that we gave our hard labour and in return received free accommodation and food…after a full day of graft we were craving a huge, bloody steak but were kept alive with a diet of pure vegetables and fruit…great for the body but our roomy didn't appreciate some of the aromas escaping from our sleeping bags at night!

After settling into the routine, 6-8 hours a day, a full veggie diet and afternoon siestas it didn't take us long to get used to the stress-free way of life in the middle of nowhere. Not least did we get fit, learn new skills and have new experiences, we also helped our bank account massively, meaning we now have enough dosh to splash in the shops in Buenos Aires before we embark on our next adventure, New Zealand!