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This is a continuation of my post about working on a farm in Costa Rica that you can find here.
The last post covered the basics of the farm - the journey to the farm, the people, the space, our daily schedule, and the work. In this post I am going to cover the adventures we had while living on the farm. I hope you enjoy!
The Food Adventures
There is nothing I love more than organic meals straight from the garden (okay maybe there are a few things I love more, like my family, boyfriend, and chocolate, but it's a close contender). The food at Villa Mastatal was served family style. We had breakfast at 6:00 am, lunch at 12:00 pm, and dinner at 6:00 pm. Each meal shift had two volunteers preparing the meal along with Raquel, one of the owners of the farm.
Breakfast usually consisted of coffee, scrambled eggs with tomatoes, left over gallo pinto (rice and beans) from dinner, and a fruit salad of watermelon, pineapple, and papaya. Yum!
Lunch usually consisted of a salad of garden greens (hibiscus leaves, spinach, lettuce, cilantro, kale), fried plantains, rice and beans, and potatoes.
Dinner was a toss up, and it was completely up to the volunteers' imagination what they would cook for the evening. One of my evenings I cooked a pureed curry soup of potatoes, carrots, and onions with cilantro and curry powder. I paired it with a spinach quiche. For desert I fried sweet plantains (platanos maduros) and made a green papaya, apple, and mint juice. Yes, dinner may have taken me over 3 hours to cook for 20 people. And yes, it was delicious ;-)
I mentioned that chocolate is one of my favorite things in the world. Well, we had our own chocolate dealer that would come to the farm! A nearby farm in the area was actually an organic chocolate farm called "La Iguana". They had a similar set up to Villas Mastatal where they provided a work exchange of 20 hours per week and a fee of $15 per day in exchange for complete room and board. They grew their own cocoa trees and their volunteers would process the beans and create chocolate products. They would mix spices that they grew in their herb garden into the chocolates for a variety of flavors. Every Tuesday and Friday the "Chocolate Dealer" would drive up in his motorbike with a cooler of chocolates to sell to us. We would later see the Chocolate Dealer in the local (and only) bar every time we visited and soon were informed that he was not only the Chocolate Dealer, but also the town drunk.
The Horseback Riding Adventures
We worked Monday through Friday from 8am to 12pm, so on the weekends we were free to explore the area. Villas Mastatal is in the middle of Parque Nacional La Cangreja, a national park of tropical forest in the Cordillera de Talamanca mountain range. Javier told us that his friend arranged horseback riding trips to a hidden waterfall. Brooke and I heard the words "horses" and "hidden waterfall" and were in.
On Saturday Brooke and I set out to find our guide and horses, and started riding through the hills, over rolling pastures, cutting through farms, and enjoying the open landscape. This waterfall sure was hidden - there was absolutely no way to find it without a guide as we cut through so many areas without a trail. The waterfall was spectacular, and we spent a good hour just sitting below it, treading our feet in the running stream below.
The Hike Up The Mountain
On Sunday Brooke, I, and several other volunteers had arranged to go on a hike with Javier. We were going to attempt to summit El Cerro La Cangreja. This peak was 1305 meters above sea level and from the top you could see the Pacific Ocean. We woke up at 5am, grabbed breakfast, and hopped in the back of Javier's truck. My favorite way of traveling around the area was sitting in the back of peoples' pickup trucks. It was exhilarating to feel the fresh wind on my face, the bugs smacking against my teeth, and my tailbone cracking each time the truck hit a pothole. We arrived at the trailhead just in time to see the most exquisite sunrise I have ever witnessed in my life. The sky seemed to be calling in life, the sun stretching out its rays, just touching the crescent moon still hanging in the sky.
We enjoyed the sunrise, and then headed to the trail. Actually, I take that back, I wouldn't necessarily call it a trail. What we found instead was an overgrown path that we literally had to pave the way through with machetes. It was so thick with brambles that we could not see further than 20 feet in front of us at points. Good thing we brought our machetes, giving our arms more of a workout than our legs on this hike. Though our legs did get quite a workout. The trail was up up up! We were exhausted but also exhilarated by the thick tropical forest. We reached the top by midday and opened our arms to the beautiful view ahead of us.
We found some jaguar scat, which was pretty exciting. The people of Mastatal town knew that there were a couple of jaguars in the area, but there has never been a siting of one. Javier wrapped the scat up to later be examined. We hung around the top, ate lunch, told stories, and stretched out our legs.
Farm Time
During the days we would work on the sugar cane press cover that I mentioned in my last post. We also...
- Built compost systems
- Worked on the "mushroom soup" for fertilizing
- Cleared trail paths to avoid people accidentally stepping on hidden poisonous
snakes - Built steps leading down to the community soccer field
- Filled in potholes on the main road
- Harvested veggies
- Planted veggies
- Worked on the aquaponics system, and more!
During the afternoons I spent three to four hours per day working on my Spanish through conversations with Javier, Raquel, and Andreas. I also used the apps, "Memrise" and "Duolingo". I had also had some Chilean poetry books that I translated into English. We were living the hammock life, relaxing in the slow sway of the weaved cotton.
A Thank You
Time seemed to slow down at Villas Mastatal, and it felt good. No more running from hostel to hostel, no more city pollution and traffic jams, just the simple swing of hammocks and the swish of machetes. We all worked together, ate together, and smiled together. We were all working on the same project - to become a positive impact on the land we lived on. Through working on a permaculture farm, I found the definition of permaculture - permanent culture. I dug roots into a local community and dug roots into the land. And I want to say a big thank you to the Villas Mastatal family for creating this oasis of opportunity and learning. Pura Vida!
Really enjoyed your post @anwenbaumeister . If you will reach Slovak Republic during your traveling and will want to work&relax, let us suggest you a tiny village called Brdarka. In case of need, let us know and we will send a note to locals. Couple of people, thousands of blossoming cherry trees, bees, cheese.. and the nature!
Photo was taken from mountain just above the village - and there is a huge surprise and reward - but this is already too big spoiler :)
Eventually you can try European Voluntary Service and opt-in for their volunteering program "Resilient Housekeeper" to spend here few months or even one year.
Thanks so much! I really enjoyed your post earlier today as well.
I plan on traveling every corner of the world possible so when I reach Slovak Republic I will let you know, thank you so much for your kindness. Also I'm so intrigued by the surprise in the village...
If you ever reach Costa Rica let me know as well and I can send you some recommendations and connections :-)
I love Costa Rica! Spend 3 weeks in a little shack without door on the beach, just body surfing, Jungle, Beach and the Ocean. What a life:) Great article!
That's awesome, you're living the life! What part of Costa Rica was that at?
Pura Vida!!!
Oh Yes living the life!
I have been to Costa Rica Many times and in fact my first child was BORN there and has a Costa Rica Passport.
We love it there and I have many connections there. I will make some posts about it in the future I am sure as I have lots of epic photos and stories from the grand time there!
Thanks for sharing this post. I will follow and support your adventures~
Blessings~*~
Pura Vida!
That is awesome! I can't wait to read your posts about Costa Rica.
I'm a big fan of your blog, thanks for sharing such amazing words, photos, and videos on Steemit.
Blessings to you :-)
Awesome!
Grateful You find value in my post so far and that you are interested in more posts!
I will hopefully get on the CR blog soon, I just have so many things I want to share, plus all the responsibilities of having multiple businesses and running an entire community!
I appreciate the support and hope I am able to continue to post content worthy of your follow!
Pura Vida~*~
Costa Rica is beautiful!!!
Can't wait to visit (:
Love that this post is being donated to reward and recognize upcoming authors.
Thank you for sharing! (:
Y como se dice en Costa Rica
Pura Vida!!
Muchas gracias! Pura Vida :-)
Wow real good that place. It's wonderful in all part , you real enjoy it
Wow at that waterfall and the hammock picture! What an experience! Have wanted to do Costa Rica for years but still havent crossed it off the list. Soon hopefully! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks so much! The hammocks may or may not have been the best part of the farm ;-)
I hope you get to go soon, it's a magical country!
I bet the horseback riding was amazing. Love the work you do here and Project Curie is a great thing!
Thank you! It was amazing :-) I rode for 8 years when I was younger but had to stop, and that ride was my first time back on a horse for years.
Pretty sure that's not the right way to ride a horse. ;) That waterfall is absolutely spectacular, and a wonderful picture too. You have made me add Costa Rica to me bucket list, and a note about Villa Matalal. It seems like this country has everything!
LOL caught me! Though to be fair I dabbled in horse vaulting (gymnastics on horseback) when I was younger and sometimes that position was the right way to ride the horse ;-)
I hope you get a chance to one day visit Costa Rica! Let me know if you do and I'll set you up with some connections :-)
I use Memrise, never learned so fast and so often vocabulary in my life. Great to see another permaculture project.
@steempowerwhale 🐳
🌞 upvoting your lifetime dreams!
I use Memrise for learning vocab regularly, great app... I didn't know it could be used for new languages though
Cool to hear other success stories on Memrise! I started using it once I got basic grammar of Spanish down. It helped me so much expand my vocab as well.
Beautiful! I want to see more.
Thanks!
wow .. beautiful place @anwenbaumeister
It is beautiful and so peaceful :-)
Pura Vida! Did you find this place through WWOOF? Looking forward to seeing more
Pura Vida! I found it through workaway.info
@anwenbaumeister Beautiful story and great pictures!
The smile of that boy on the first pic is gold!
Cheers to eating organic food and growing your own!
Have a safe journey.
Thank you! Yes - Andreas always had the biggest smile on (or most mischievous smile on) ;-)
I'll cheers to that :-)
That's an awesome project! Your pictures are beautiful.. It makes me want to visit costa rica as well
Thanks so much! I'm glad you liked the pictures :-)
Great post, pictures, and also lovely to find a mention for Duolingo.
Thank you! Duolingo was an awesome starter for Spanish :-)
Beautiful post as always:)
Thanks so much :-)
Beautiful photos! Traveling is such a fantastic opportunity to evolve and learn and grow. What a blessing to visit such a breathtaking land!
красивая природа.
Great post, some of the pictures remind me of some places in Mexico. Looks like a great place to get some peace of mind!
Hola @anwenbaumeister! @gavvvet told me to get in contact with you. Find below the comment i left him, to which he responded to contact you for #spanish. Thank you!
"@gavvet is your solution to have us post in our own language and translate into english as well? Where do we tag it as? #spanish? Do we do our title both in our language and english?
This will require more on our part, especially if we write long posts. How can our work be recognized? Could we start a new tag #duallanguage maybe or something to that extent? I am really interested, please let me know :)"
Awesome post, how do I get involved in finding one of these farms to work on?
Phenomenal post!
Everyone should move to costa. Time does slow down there.
Sadly unless you start a business there you will have to live on savings.
Ticos (costa ricans) labor for $2 an hour.
I tried starting a business in costa and will again.
Ps cr has goten rid of fossil fuels for over 100 days now.
Heres a pic of the exotic mushroom farm i created there:
And a spear fishing trip @ playa hermosa once we realized the land owner was nutz...
Pps cr homeade permaculture farm food porn follows:
what was the yellow fruit that was half open?
Omg, Costa Rica is on my "to visit" list. You made it look so magical. Love your photos, especially the horse photos and the food. Did you get to hang out with sloths? My husband @chadyo would love to do all this farming stuff that you did. He currently grows all of our vegetables. Thanks for contributing to this fabulous project.
Excellent Post!
To read some of mine go here:
1.Market Based Curation Pools – to Increasing Curation, Demand for Steem Power
2.The only index you should know to successfully buy and sell Steem – Introducing the JS Index!
3.Beyond the STEEM Whitepaper – 1. Blogging and Curation Rewards Fund; Steem Backed Dollars Creation
4.Why I Want to Short Steem [Beyond Trading –part2. 08/23/2016]