I visited an old farm house in Bolivia this weekend - it is on hill above Lake Titicca - very peaceful. A bit primative - no shower or toilet. Does have running water from tap outside and electricity. My internet card didn't work there and I am going to buy another brand that should work there. The kitchen is adobe wood stove. Just like camping at Rainbow Gathering! :-) Unfortunately there is no water for growing veggies except when it rains in Sept - Dec, so I don't think it will make a permant home. I currently think I will live there for a week as a sort of "meditation cave" experiment. :-) And the hiking in the hills looks pretty too. Views of mountains with snow on them plus the deep blue of the lake. I discovered the lake is salty - a great inland sea - so not good for watering plants either.

permaculture is the way to go. It’s basically the design of ecosystems, using different plants in different layers that, when working together in a system, eliminate the need for pesticides and fertilizer… and even reduces the labor you have to put in for maintenance.
Valle de Elqui is the vast valley encircled by the Andes in this region, and it’s one of the most fertile areas of the country. It is low rainfall. The valley floor, however, is generously fed by a series of rivers which originate from snowmelt high in the Andes, so what the valley lacks in rainfall, it makes up for in river flow.