Day 5: Klaryssa, Olivia, and Natasha

Swimsuit, sunscreen, and a towel. That was all we needed before walking across the street from our hotel to the restaurant for breakfast. After getting in our day’s energy, we began walking to the beach in Cahuita. Only about two and a half blocks away, we quickly sized our flippers and onboarded the boat. With gentle but strong waves, we landed at our first snorkeling point. The water felt absolutely amazing paired with the soft sun. My first dive was full of coral and small fishes. Although I did, along with others, swallow a couple gulps of water, the school of fishes, sting ray, and puffer fish made each gulp absolutely worth it. Eventually, we onboarded the boat again to reach our end point where we enjoyed delicious slices of pineapple and baby bananas. The snorkeling, fruit, and new memories were the perfect start to the morning.

After we got off our bus ride through banana and pineapple farms, we were met by Manu and Lee, people from Finca Las Hormigas who walked with us to the farm. We walked up a steep hill, fighting the heat as we learned about the core values of permaculture: Cuidado de la Tierra, Cuidado de las Personas, y Compartir los Recursos. We had a lunch sourced from the farm (some of the best food I’ve ever had) as we resettled after our semi-short commute. Once we washed our dishes, we headed out on a tour of the grounds. Their farm was split up into zones with Zone 1 begin closest to the main house and Zone 5 being the grounds that needed the least tending. We learned about their bathroom system which leads to the soil system, their solar system that leads to their battery system, their water system, seed lab, and planting philosophy. It was amazing to see such a prosperous model and guide for self sustainability! We then rested briefly with a snack of coconut (throwing the left over shell into the forest), and we started on our walk, guided by Lee, on agroforestry. We walked through the jungle with Lee pointing out vine systems, fungi, and insects, highlighting the complexity and inter connectedness of a living, breathing forest. We ended our walk (which was entirely up hill) at an incomprehensibly old tree. We practiced our mindfulness and grounded ourselves in the forest. Then, we headed back to Zone 0 (the main house) and walked to our 30 min yoga workshop. 

For today’s dinner, our group enjoyed a delicious, multi layered and flavorful meal from scratch consisting of coconut curry chicken, sautéed vegetables, farm salad, plantain and taro chips(taro chips made from the roots we harvested on our forest hike), rice and beans, homemade salsa, and Costa Rican style pico de gallo. Contrasting the premade and portioned meals we’d enjoyed for the past few days, each member of our group contributed to the cooking and preparation of our dinner. We carefully collaborated from the chopping of onions to the icing of chocolate cake, an irreplaceable experience that brought us a new perspective of consciousness and gratitude for those who have made our meals up to this point. In true farm-to-table form, we used farm grown produce and organic herbs harvested from Finca la Hormiga’s permaculture system which increases sustainability and mindfulness through their organized cycle of reusing and repurposing resources we look over on the daily such as sunlight or restroom waste. This was truly an eye opening experience that we can all carry lessons from moving forward.