We made it to Costa Rica! (Ok so we’re in Panama right now, but for the purpose of this blog let’s just pretend we are in Costa Rica). So we’ve been in CR for about 2 weeks. The first week we were in Heredia, San Jose in a hotel called Monte Campana. There everyone took Spanish classes (except Daniela and I took Portuguese since Spanish is our first language), we went to the market, learned how to balance board with a local Costa Rican lady, we went to a coffee plantation farm, we learned how to salsa (the dance not the food), we went to a waterfall and jumped off rocks, and had rice and beans, or “gallo pinto”, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It was a chill week but at the end two of our Winterline ram members got sent home (sighs). It was a sad moment that brought the group closer and we are still hopeful for their return. They will always hold a special part in the group.
After that week we spent 10 days off-the-grid in an organic permaculture farm called Rancho Mastatal. It was such a different experience for me. We shadowed the apprentices of the farm in the morning for life skills such as chopping wood in order to make a fire for the stove, turning cow poop into fertilized soil in the methane bio digester, weeding plants in the garden, and making breakfast. Then in the afternoons we learned about permaculture and natural building. We learned how to make the materials in order to build a house. We used bamboo sticks to make the walls and clay, soil, and straw to fill them in. It was so satisfying knowing that we build walls that are going to be used in a house. Our stay at the ranch was so peaceful and healing, everyone could feel the positive energy in the place and from the people. We ended our stay there with a talent no-talent show and left the next morning at 4 am to the airport. We got on a 45-minute plane ride on a 19-passenger plane to Bocas de Toro, Panama. That’s where we are today. We are on an island called Isla Colón and later today we’ll go to an island called Solarte. There we will again live off-the-grid for 5 days while we learn how to scuba dive and then go on a three-day kayaking trip to a different island. I’m so excited!
