Only 3 more weeks left… seriously?

I cannot believe our time in Costa Rica is creeping up towards the finish line! Wow. We´ve been at Finca la Puebla since the first of the month, and man… we are LOVING it. We had to say goodbye to our dear, amazing friends back at Finca Fruicion, and embarked on the second half of our journey wwoofing on an organic coffee and banana plantation. We had such a fabulous time at Finca Fruicion.. I can´t jump into talking about Finca la Puebla before I give a big ups to Jason and Alana. We were and are SO blessed and lucky to have met them and their family. Finca Fruicion taught us so many things about community, cooking, communication, permaculture, and patience… mainly with all the little kiddies running around! We were given a crash course in how to manage a group of little ones with patience, respect, and flexibility. It was so amazing watching them grow and learn while we were there. We love each every little soul we had the opportunity to get to know and befriend. Jangara, Baraka, Cedar, Eliyanna, Zion… you guys are the best!! Jason, Alana, Desiree, Missy, Imani, Sean, Nate, and all the other wonderful people we are fortunate enough to call our friends… thank you. We learned a lot about ourselves while we at Finca Fruicion, and we will never, ever forget our time there.

Finca la Puebla is a WWOOF farm. WWOOF is an acronym for Willing Workers on Organic Farms. You can travel around the world and volunteer to farm in exchange for room and board. If you´ve never heard of it.. look into it! Such a fabulous way to travel and learn. Frank Thompson is the owner of the farm. He is the MAN! Very intelligent, super friendly, extremely accomodating to his volunteers. We are living in an adobe cabin, with the main cabin and bathhouse connected by a bridge, with a brook running through the two buildings. Our living room and kitchen are open air, surrounded by the jungle. We don´t have glass in our windows, we have sticks and twigs, covered by a mosquito net. Our bed is draped with mosquito netting as well, making for a lovely, romantic canopy. The bathhouse has a composting toilet and a solar heated shower. The garden is a stones throw away from our cabin, which we pick through every night to gather a mounding bowl of salad. There are 2 other volunteers there named Esther and Ryan. We chat, play scrabble, talk their ears off about our new puppy and what´s he´s gotten into that day. They live in the other cabin a short walk from ours. Monday through Wednesday, as well as Friday and Saturday, we ¨work¨ in the garden, preparing our plot of garden. Frank has a stellar system set up. Volunteers plant a bed while they stay, tend to the gardens planted 1-2 months ago, and eat from the gardens planted 3-4 months ago. We just finished planting two of our beds. We are having such a great time digging away at the untouched, grass, weed, and tree laden area that we are making into a beautiful garden that will feed the volunteers to come. We´ve also dehydrated bananas, drained and cleaned the gorgeous rock lined swimming pool we always take a dip in after gardening, as well as made power bars with raw caocoa, bananas, ginger, oats. We will also be roasting coffee before our time comes to an end here. Our puppy, Oso, just hangs out in the shade by us while we work, or runs around and plays with Frank´s dogs. When we got here, Frank had 5 dogs; Adora, Brewster, Vita, Missy, and Ellesita. He has since rehomed Vita, and is down to 4 pups. Oso is having a ball making so many new friends. We are having a ball having Oso as our friend. He is such a sweet, loyal, smart dog. He is quickly learning new commands with the help of bananas as treats. He sleeps in our room at night, waiting patiently for us to wake up in the morning. As soon as we say anything to each other, we hear a thud, thud, thud… his tail starts wagging and then we know we have to get up. It´s so heartwarming seeing how utterly ecstatic he is to have us give him so much love when we wake up, he can barely contain himself! We are thinking of Alana and Jason everyday, and thanking them for letting Oso into our lives.

I haven´t updated this blog in so long I´ve forgotten all that has transpired since the last post! I´ll flip through our journal and write a more detailed account of what´s been going on down here in sunny Costa Rica. I´ll post again sometime this week!

We are sad to be leaving Costa Rica in a few weeks, but we are also equally excited to return to our home, our family, friends, and kitties. Costa Rica is truly a breath taking and beautiful country, full of radiant, beautiful, and friendly people. We will DEFINITELY be returning!!

Pura Vida!

Live the life you love, Love the life you live

Wowza, this past week has been jam packed with lots of changes! Both physically and mentally, transformations are occuring, and we are greeting them with open hearts and minds. This past week, for me, has been an emotional one. Granted, I attribute some of that emotion to hormones and that whole ¨woman¨ thing, but it goes much deeper than that. This week I have been experiencing a great humbling within myself, a deep appreciation for the life I have been blessed with, and a tinge of homesickness, for my family and friends, and also for the routine I had grown so accustomed to back at home. To be taken out of my comfort zone, to not be surrounded by those conveniences I had taken for granted, to not be with my family… it´s all becoming clear to me just how easy it was when I was home to not be fully aware of my surroundings, to not fully and completely appreciate what I have been blessed with. I have always tried to live a life of gratitude, but like the old adage suggests, ¨you never really know what you have until it´s gone¨. In feeling this pang of homesickness for the first time since being here, I have explored the feelings that come along with it instead of hushing it up, or putting it out of my mind. I noticed my mind thinking about all of the little things about life back at home that I am grateful for, that I generally wouldn´t think about in the midst of it happening. For instance… whenever my mom calls and asks me to pick up my sister from school and bring her to the barn, I never say no. A, because if I´m not doing anything, then why not help my mom out? And B, because I love my sister and want to see her whenever I can. But in thinking about that ten minutes of time I have with her, just her and I chatting in the car, I have come to realize how much I value that ten minutes, and how much I miss that, being here, away from her. These little happenings in my day to day life at home have been popping up in my mind pretty often this week, and it´s incredible to feel absolutely overwhelmed with love and appreciation for it all. To be taken outside of myself, to look at myself and see myself with new eyes, in a new environment, surrounded by new people, food, scenery, ideals.. well, I can´t explain to you how much this is changing my life. I am looking at myself like I never have before, and I am proud of who I am. I say this not as a reflection of my ego, but as a truth in my heart I am confident to share. There is a lot of healing going on inside of me, and I feel more clean, both physically and mentally. I am putting into my body whole, organic, nourishing foods. I am excersizing everyday and feeling grateful that I am able to walk, move, get stronger, connect more with my body. I am only allowing positive thoughts to linger in my mind, and if I experience a negative thought.. I embrace it, deal with it, and let it flow out of me. No longer do I feel like I have to be burdened by toxic feelings, or energies. I am learning to voice what I am feeling, and that I can in fact let others support me in whatever is going on with me, good or otherwise. Being here, in Costa Rica, I am becoming more aware of who I am, what I am capable of, and my overall power over my own life and it´s outcome. I am realizing that I can be, do, say, whatever I want to, and that´s okay. The only person I have to answer to, is myself. At the end of each day, I lay in bed and reflect on the day I just had. What did I do right? What could I have done better? I give myself credit and acknowledgement for the good that I contributed, and, in touching upon what I could have done better, I don´t dwell or beat myself up about it.. I learn from it. Because there is always tomorrow. I knew this trip would benefit Mike and I immensely, but in what ways I was still unsure of until we got here and began going through all of these beautiful changes. I will be totally honest in saying that uprooting from a cushy, comfortable life back at home wasn´t easy for either of us, and it´s still not a cake walk. We don´t have a paying job, we don´t have our own space, we don´t have the freedom to get in the car and just go. We have had to adapt, and though challanging in many ways, unbelievably rewarding. As a couple, I wondered how our relationship would change coming down here. In short, it´s changed drastically. We are both working things out that have been buried deep inside of ourselves for a long time, that we didn´t even necessarily know were there. I can say that I have never been so proud of Mike as I have been here. He is leaving his mark all over the farm with the contruction projects he has worked on. Benches, gates, shelves, a table for an oven.. he is diving in head first with little experience, and he is proving to himself just how capable he truly is. I don´t want to speak for him, but I can sense that he is very happy with his accomplishments thus far on the farm, and he´s proud of the personal growth and achievements he is manifesting. Along with feeling proud of himself for growing and changing, he is dealing with the parts of himself that he´s not completely happy with as well, and working on being more patient, more calm, less reactive. He is looking at himself in a new light, just as I am, and appreciating what he has to offer as well as what he can improve on. To be able to do that, to really take a look at yourself and your contributions to this world, is a big huge blessing. It´s something that´s not that easy to do, either. It´s hard to face the facts of your downfalls, of the negative parts of yourself that you bury and hide. To bring that up and out, to ponder and challenge it, well.. it´s enlightening, and it´s essential to feeling truly happy and alive. I give thanks for this opportunity to figure out just who I am. I give thanks that I have eyes for seeing, arms for hugging, a heart to feel and love. I am more aware now of my impact on this earth and it´s inhabitants, and I really can´t say it enough… I give thanks for this awareness. When we go home, we will be better equipped to ¨deal with life¨, because we have experienced what it really has to offer. Life is SO FULL of opportunity. If you put yourself out there, take yourself out of your element, allow yourself to actually face yourself.. Your life will be different after that, and I can testify. Before we left for this trip, we had several people say in one way or another ¨Wow, I could never just get up and leave for 3 months.¨ My answer to that- of course you can. And, in my opinion, you should. It´s one thing to go on a vacation for a week, but a whole other thing when you leave your life of comfort for a few months and immerse yourself in a country and culture you aren´t familiar with at all. Such an intensely gratifying experience to be able to learn so much about how others live in this world. I´ve often felt like I grew up in a little bubble- small, safe, primarily caucasion- that environment was what I was used to my entire life growing up in Granby. I never had the opportunity to experience diversity. I never really saw people suffering. I had a stable homelife, a full fridge, happy parents, a big backyard to play in and a safe neighborhood to explore. While I fully appreciate the life my parents gave to me, I am so ready to see life for all it is; the good, the bad, and the ugly. I´m ready to see what people all over the world experience in their day to day life, and I´m ready to help in whatever way that I can. Costa Rica is just the first chapter. I have to stop myself from this crazy outpouring of feelings as Mike and I have a lot to do in town today, but I´m grateful that this blog allows me to open up about this journey both in Costa Rica and within ourselves. I´m grateful for those of you that read this, and I thank you for taking interest in our lives and what we´re up to. You are so special to us, and we love you.

I apologize for not speaking much about what we´ve been doing this past week, but as soon as my fingers touched the keyboard I felt a release was about to happen. Thank you for hearing me! I will post sometime this weekend, as I´m sure there will be lots to talk about after the big fiesta tomorrow night! I just wanted to say ¨Happy Birthday, Mike¨! I know you read this to see what I´m writing about our trip, and I just wanted to say thank you for being you and being my partner, and for adding such happiness and love to my life. You are so wonderful.

Until next time,
Pura Vida
Jaime

Paradise, Paradise, Paradise

Hola! It feels like it´s been awhile since we´ve posted last. Lots has happened since our last post, and we´re excited to share our adventures with you. Last Thursday, we embarked on a beach trip. We intended to stay in Dominical for the duration of our 5 day journey. Dominical is a very small surfing community on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. When we arrived, we were surprised by many things. One being how darn SMALL the town was! The entire town was 3 roads forming a small triangle. The second being how strong and dangerous the waves and rip tide were. We grabbed some lunch in town and asked the owner of the restaurant if it was safe to swim in the ocean in Dominical, and his eyes widened and he shook his head. ¨No, no. They have already had to rescue several people today.¨ Apparently, surfing is about ALL you can do in Dominical. Even so, you have to be a very advanced surfer to battle the ginormous waves and super strong rip tides. Therefore, we only stayed one night in Dominical. We decided to treat ourselves while we were there, and sit down at a very beautiful, romantic, gourmet restaurant for dinner. What would have easily cost us at least $100 back at home for such wonderful service and food, cost us less than $40. It was definitely a treat 🙂 We shopped around Dominical and admired all the handmade jewelry and carvings, sat on the beach and watched our first ever Pacific sunset, marveled at how many big iguanas and lizards were roaming the place, then crashed at a hostel for the night. In the morning, we headed further south to the small town of Uvita. We were SO happy we did. Fairly remote, with zero houses on the beach and very, very few people, Uvita exceeded what we had imagined. We stayed at a really cool place called the Flutterby House (http://www.flutterbyhouse.com/). The first night we popped our tent, but decided for the next two nights we would spring for a real bed in the dorms, as our tent wasn´t very waterproof in the evening rain! The Flutterby House was a magical little place to stay. We bought our own food to cook ourselves in the communal kitchen, and met some wonderful people while hanging out there. We immediately clicked with Jackson, a guy who lives on a farm 15 minutes from our farm in Costa Rica, and an hour away from us back at home. He and Mike rented surfboards for a full day, and had a great time out in the warm Pacific ocean, catching waves and aquiring quite the rash on their bellies from the boards (they learned later that rash guards were available to them, free of charge). I loved seeing Mike´s smile when he walked out of the ocean after a successful first try at surfing. He´s totally hooked now, and looking forward to buying a board when we get home. We also made friends with two girls from Portland, Oregon. Their names are Ellen and Kate, and we had the priviledge of getting to know them, and had a blast hanging out. We also became friends with a girl named Tracy, a soil biologist from Fairbanks, Alaska. Mike, Jackson, Ellen, Kate, Tracy, and I went to the beach together, ate ceviche together, and visited a beautiful waterfall in Uvita together. The waterfall was so amazing. We all hiked up it alittle bit and found a sun drenched, peaceful little swimming hole that we were able to enjoy for the afternoon. We spent the entire day at the waterfall, sharing the snacks we all brought, being silly, and having some good laughs. We went to the beach every chance we got, which was only a 2 minute walk from the Flutterby House. The beach was….. gorgeous, picturesque, relaxing.. absolutely stunning. Uvita beach, famous for it´s scenic beauty, had so much to offer. In fact, it is one of the top 6 most beautiful beaches in Costa Rica (Frommer´s). Located within Marino Ballena National Park, during our 2 minute walk to the beach we passed by estuaries and mangrove swamps, and arrived at a 2 mile white sand beach with crystal clear blue water with literally only a handful of people there to enjoy it. The jungle came right up to the shore, and it was mesmorizing in a way to not see any houses, just the incredible beauty of the landscape in front of us. We weren´t able to fully absorb the magic of Playa de Uvita until we got into the water and away from shore a bit. Wow, wow wow wow. The massive range of mountains that laid before us soared high above the jungle, with patchy areas of sun and clouds. There didn´t seem to be any civilazion within those mountains, and we kept pinching ourselves, thinking what we were witnessing was a dream. Paradise, is the best way to describe it. Heaven on earth. We walked a while down the beach to seek out the ¨whale´s tail¨. At low tide, the offshore island called “Isla Ballena” connects with a sandbar that, from above, forms the exact shape of a whale´s tail. The Isla Ballena means, “the island of whales” and is named for the whales that are often spotted off the island edge during their migratory pathway in the winter months. It was crazy to see the waves coming from two different directions, and crashing into each other when they reached the whale´s tail. When we were there, we were able to see much further down the other side of the beach, and it was such a beautiful surprise. I could go on and on about Uvita beach, but I think I could do it more justice by just posting pictures of it, so you can witness for yourself it´s mystical exquisiteness. Speaking of pictures… I know we´ve been slow to upload them, but we are waiting for a good internet connection to be able to do so. They are coming! All in all, our little beach vacation surpassed our dreams. When Monday came around, we were both sad to leave it, but also happy to return to our friends at Finca Fruicion. We missed them during those 5 days away. We were back there on Monday night, and grateful for the cool weather of the mountains, the delicious organic food from the lands, and the company of the people we are so incredibly fond of. We only have until the end of the month at Finca Fruicion, and while we will be very sad to leave our friends, we are looking forward to the next chapter of our Costa Rican adventure. That´s all for now, we´ll be posting again soon.

All of our love,
Jaime and Mike

Oh, and I forgot to mention our plans for February 18th! Jason went into town yesterday and handed out flyers for the big full moon birthday bash we´ll be having at the finca. Alana is turning 30, Janga 7, and Mike will be turning 25!! The plan is to have a fire and drum circle, adventures to the waterfalls that are on the farm´s property, a full on sushi bar, lots and lots of dancing, and so on. We are super pumped for this!! Mike is so excited to be down here in Costa Rica to celebrate his 25th. I am happy for him that we get to celebrate his life, and the beautiful and special person that he is.

Ok, now I´m finished 🙂 Had to get that excitement off my chest!

Love you guys, hope all is well back at home. Let us know what´s going on in your lives, we miss you! xoxox

Sending warmth your way

Hola! A new day, a new week.. feeling great. This past weekend was muy tranquillo. We spent some quality time in hammocks, taking in our incredible surroundings. On Friday night, we set up the projection screen on the yoga deck, all grabbed a blanket, and watched a movie while fireworks went off in the valley across from us. On Saturday and Sunday we played cards, scrabble, bananagrams. We sat, chatted, laughed, exchanged stories. We sat cross legged on the ground and broke up dried horse manure and shucked coconut husks to be used for cobbing (a building material consisting of sand, stray, water, earth, and whatever else you care to use, similar to adobe). We also got the solar heated shower up and running. At night, we´ve been laying under the stars, which seem to be within an arms length reach. For the past few nights, we´ve been sleeping on the second story of the new volunteer dorm building. It has no walls just yet, just a floor and a tin roof, with clear panels to let the sun and stars shine through. It´s amazing; falling asleep with the breeze on our face, watching the far away city lights flickering a soft amber glow on the mountains. And waking up? The clouds roll through the valley at dawn, and you can see the peak of Mt. Chirrippo (the largest mountain in Costa Rica) poking through. The birds start chirping at the first sight of the sun, and you can feel the land and the animals slowly waking up and welcoming a new day. We´ve spent a lot of time just sitting up there, reflecting on the beauty and all that it is providing us. As I´ve said before.. we continue to feel blessed. It´s easy to start a new day when you are filled with so much gratitute for life, for nature, and for the opportunity of a new day that is bound to bring ample happiness and adventure, if you are open and receptive to it.

We had a feeling we were being drawn to Costa Rica for a reason. Out of all the countries in the world, our hearts told us that we should come here. At the end of each day, that notion that brought us down here, proves to be true. When we return home, we will be equipped with so much more than what we came down with. We came down with open hearts and open minds, and we will return with a fullness that already seems to be bursting at the seams. We are learning a lot about essential oils, as Jason and Alana are Young Living Essential Oils distributers, who are trying to share the power and benefits of the oils with people who want to change their life and improve their health. The oils, and the business, have more than peaked our interest. We intend on incorporating essential oils in our everyday life from now on; their powerful healing properties, to us, are irrefutable. In addition to learning a lot about essential oils, we are learning how to more effectively communicate, how to better care for children and understand what their needs are in order to grow and thrive, how to build furniture out of raw materials… the list goes on. We have learned valuable information on Permaculture practices, and even the act of really being present with the plants while watering and harvesting. Everyday on the farm presents us with new things to wrap our heads around and absorb.

We came to town today to get online and research some things, pick up some food, and start figuring out our game plan for our beach trip which we intend on for this upcoming weekend. We want to head to Dominical- a ¨hip¨, surfing community on the Pacific coast. We will either be camping on the beach, or we may look into some cheap hostels in that area. We are trying to be as frugal as possible, as we didn´t take a whole lot of money down with us! It´s forcing us to be more resourceful and responsible, and we are doing well so far.

We haven´t felt that pang of homesickness yet, but we are missing our friends and family nonetheless. I think a part of it is not missing all of the snow that´s fallen/continues to fall! It´s strange to experience winter in 80 degree weather… I am definitely not complaining, though. Maybe in reading this blog, you can feel the warmth we are trying to radiate to everyone back at home.. maybe? 😉 I invite you to ask us questions, leave comments, send some love through an email. We want to know how everyone back at home is doing! My email address is flowers_jaime@yahoo.com, and Mike´s is mikepaterson2186@yahoo.com. You may also leave a comment right here on WordPress. We bought a cellphone when we came down here, so calling us is also an option, providing you have an international calling card. Our number is 011-506-8641-8127. We look forward to hearing from you!

Off to our next journey!
Until next time,
Pura Vida,
Jaime & Mike

One love,

We are really so blessed to be apart of the intentional community at Finca Fruicion. It has been so incredible to be surrounded by the Bliss family, as well as Desiree. An intentional community, by definition, is “a planned residential community designed to have a much higher degree of teamwork than other communities. The members of an intentional community typically hold a common social, political, religious, or spiritual vision and are often part of the alternative society. They typically also share responsibilities and resources. Intentional communities include cohousing communities, ecovillages, communes, survivalist retreats, kibbutzim, ashrams and some housing cooperatives. Typically, new members of an intentional community are selected by the community’s existing membership, rather than by real-estate agents or land owners (if the land is not owned collectively by the community).” At Finca Fruicion, all members of the community are working towards the same dream. The dream is to live in harmony with each other, to support each individuals needs and dreams without judgement, to try to live as sustainably as possible, to take in organic foods for nourishment, as well as find a spiritual peace within us, to briefly summarize. This way of living is proving to be life changing for us. As I´ve mentioned before, we both feel a transformation happening within us. We are so lucky to share in this experience, as it´s truly opening our eyes to how this way of living IS in fact possible, and peace and harmony are within reach. We have been working together this past week, as a team, to get some projects done around the farm. We are currently doing some painting, Mike and Jason got up on the yoga deck´s roof to clean the clear panels to let some more light shine through on us, and I´ve been busy helping out with childcare and homeschooling. The homeschooling is very rewarding. The other day I brought Jangara, Baracka, and Cedar on a nature walk around the farm, where we pretended to be monkeys and climbed some orange trees, snacked on an orange, then ¨swung¨from branch to branch to get their blood pumping before sitting down to do an art project. This weekend, Mike is responsible for watering the green house, harvesting greens for dinner, and feeding Desiree´s horse, Athena. We will both also be working on setting up the solar shower, as well as constructing some more composting toilets. There is always so much to do on the farm, neither of us have had a chance to feel any boredom! The new volunteer dorm is well on it´s way to being finished, and the wood for constructing the starpods arrived yesterday, so I´m sure we´ll be jumping into that very soon. Even though there is a lot going on, fortunately, time is not flying by. We are on ¨tico time¨. Everything is slower paced, more relaxed, less urgent. By 8 or 9pm, we are ready to retire to our own little space to read a book, and reflect on the day. Reflection time is big on the farm. When we first got here, Jason stated how important it is to, even for an hour, have YOU time, and just be present with yourself and nature. Boy, had we forgotten to just slow down and breathe! Back at home, there were a thousand things to do in that one hour. Here, it´s a beautiful feeling to lay back in a hammock, enjoying the views, and meditating on whatever comes to mind. A huge weight is lifting off of our shoulders, a weight I´m not sure we even realized existed back at home. We are giving thanks for it all.

On another note, we have big news about what we will be bringing home with us! The Bliss family has 3 dogs, and three kids, along with an endless list of responsibilities. When we arrived on the farm, we immediately bonded with one of their dogs, Oso (meaning ¨bear¨ in spanish). When they mentioned they were looking to rehome 2 of their dogs so they could direct their focus on their family and the farm, we immediately let them know we would be more than happy to bring Oso into our lives, and back home with us. They love him very much, but are wanting less dog responsibilities, and more family time. Oso is a very handsome 9 month old black lab/whippet/honduran street dog mix. He is so sweet, playful, and gentle with the kids. We have to get him neutured, and get all of his shots, but so long as we have his shots paperwork and $100 dollars to ship him on the plane back with us, all will be well and easy to get him home. Wahoo! We also spoke with Frank Thompson, the owner of the farm we will be staying on for the month of March, and he welcomes us to bring Oso there. We can´t express how excited we are to add such a loving animal to our lives.

So, all in all, Costa Rica is proving each day to be such a learning experience, in so many ways. We are fortunate to be splitting our time here between two very different farms. The first, Finca Fruicion, is more about community, while Finca la Puebla is more about farming. Frank Thompson´s farm, Finca la Puebla, is a WWOOF farm. WWOOFing is an acronym for ¨Willing Workers on Organic Farms¨. We farm in exchange for room and board. Check out his website for more of an idea of what we´ll be doing, I gave the website link in our last post.

Oh, and for those wondering about the snakes.. they are still ever present. Desiree ran into a terciopello last night on her walk up the path to the Bliss house, and Mike picked up a log the other day to find a Coral snake. It doesn´t scare me too much, but I am definitely looking at my feet all the time while walking! The wildlife scene is out of this world, last night we fell asleep to the sound of frogs ribbiting, and a sloth´s mating call. No bears or turkeys here!

We´ll be posting again within this coming week, so check back if you´d like 🙂

One Love,
Pura Vida,
Jaime & Mike

Rice and Beans

Hola! After a verrryy interesting ride into town on the bus today, we have thankfully arrived safely. It´s been raining since 2am last night, and when we caught the bus at 6am, the steep dirt roads that hug the mountain side were pretty slick. We lost traction going up a very steep hill, and began sliding backwards. To help give the bus some traction, everyone got out of their seats and moved to the back of the bus. When the bus driver started to move again, we slid to the left into a ditch, and everyone had to move to the right side of the bus to help weigh down that side of the bus. The bus driver just decided to back his way down the hill until he could get the bus back out of the ditch. All the while I´m peering over the side of the mountain and praying the bus driver could get us out of it! All was well and we continued on.. but phew! I can´t imagine what the rainy season is like trying to catch the bus into town!

After getting into town, Mike and I stopped for some Gallo Pinto (rice and beans) at our favorite breakfast place. We came into town today to get some Tupperware to keep our food dry and free of bugs, some sheets, and to get in some more computer and email time. We are also trying to plan our little beach trip next weekend to Dominical, a small surfing community on the Pacific side of Costa Rica. We are itching to see what the beaches are like here! It´s amazing, we are in the mountains yet we are only a 40 minute drive to the beach.

Today we will be celebrating Zion´s 11th birthday. Zion is Imani´s son, and they are both staying at Finca Fruicion for 3 months. Jason is making some homemade pizza loaded with organic veggies for dinner, followed by a homemade cake of some sort.. yummy!

It´s hard to put into words everything we are experiencing here. We are hoping to upload some pictures tonight to illustrate more accurately the bliss we are encountering. Finca Fruicion, to us, is like heaven on earth. The land itself has a heartbeat it seems, and we can feel the life surrounding us, welcoming us into it´s beauty. Everywhere we go, there is more to take in. Aside from the land itself, the family we are staying with is amazing. So genuine, kind, generous, and sincere, we are having such a wonderful time creating our friendships with each of them, and learning about their lives and dreams. I can´t say enough positive things about them, they are truly making our time here in Costa Rica more than we could have ever imagined. We are planning a trip with them in a few weeks to go zip lining through the canopy in a treehouse community they are apart of. We will be camping there, and constructing a tent platform or two while we´re there. That will be such a blast! At the farm, Jason is teaching me how to cook, and little by little I think I am catching on. He thinks that if you can satisfy all 5 taste buds (sweet, spicy, sour, bitter, & savory), you will crave less and be more satiated. I´m finding this to be true! For breakfast, we eat either oatmeal with honey or agave nectar, or fresh fruit (mangos, pineapple, passion fruit, bananas, oranges… you name it!). For lunch and dinner, Jason makes a hearty, fully organic, scrumtious meal. Rice and beans are definitely a staple of Costa Rican cuisine. We have a freshly harvested salad with each meal as well, that comes straight out of the farm´s gardens. The transformation we are feeling within ourselves is so fantastic. The food, along with the steep hills everywhere we go, are definitely getting us very healthy and fit. I also think that, mentally, we are becoming healthier as well. We are in an environment where we can just BE, without the stresses and responsibilites back at home. Not to say that home is stressful, but it´s definitely a much slower paced, more peaceful environment down here. Not to worry though, as much as we are having a fabulous time down here, home is home, and our roots lay with our family and friends. It would be nice though to build a modest house down here and come to stay for a few months out of the year. It is very inexpensive to live here! Food is cheap, and organic food isn´t so outrageously priced as it is in the U.S. To get a nice apartment in San Isidro de el General, it would put you back about 100-200 dollars a month. Now that we have made friends down here, we will definitely be coming back to visit!

We have already met Frank Thompson, the owner of the finca we will be staying on in March. We met him at the market last week. He seems to be very friendly and excited for our arrival! We are as well, even though it will be hard to say goodbye to the Bliss family at Finca Fruicion. Here are the website addresses for both of the farms that we are staying on. Finca Fruicion´s is- http://www.fincafruicion.com and Frank Thompson´s is- http://www.janhart.com/Adventure/Finca%20La%20Puebla/Frank%20Thompson%27s%20Finca%20La%20Puebla.htm.

We will post again soon, probably this coming Thursday when we come back into town to load up on fruits from the market. We are having a great time blogging, as it forces us to put into words how we are feeling and what we are experiencing, and we can carry this with us always. We are also keeping a journal as living proof of our wonderful adventures here in Costa Rica. We hope you are faring well in all the snow, and living well!

All of our love,
Hasta Luego
Jaime & Mike

Pura Vida en Costa Rica

Hola! It´s been quite a while since we´ve posted last, so we´ve got lots to share with you all! Our time here thus far has been incredible. On Jan. 7th, after a beautiful 3 hour bus ride south of San Jose, we arrived in San Isidro de el General. From there we took a taxi to our first farm, Finca Fruicion, about a 45 minute drive through the most breathtaking mountains and valleys. Finca Fruicion is perched on a mountain ridge, overlooking a vast valley of pastureland, a river, soaring birds, and Mount Chirrippo, the largest mountain in Costa Rica. There are two stunning waterfalls on the property, as well as several abundant gardens, fruit trees, and trails. When we arrived here, we were warmly greeted by Jason and his two tico workers, Benjamin and Albis, followed by their 3 dogs, Oso, Kira, and Keeta. We got to meet the rest of the fam a few days later when they came back from a family visit. We are very blessed to have met such a beautiful family. Alana and Jason are incredibly inspirational, coming together as partners, parents, and owners of the farm to create such a magical community. Desiree is their dear friend and a permaculture teacher on the farm. She is hilarious, as well as very wise in her ways and a great teacher of what she is passionate about. We took a permaculture workshop with her last weekend, and learned very much from her. The kids are so fun to hang with, we have a great time playing games with them, bouncing on the trampoline with them, or just holding their 8 month old baby. They´ve had many friends come through here since we´ve been here, each one wonderful and a pleasure to meet and get to know. Our first week here we slept in a school bus RV, which was really cool! Alana´s friends Imani and her 10 year old son were coming to the farm, so we moved out and gave them the space, and set up our tent under a thatched roof palapa, next to 2 tilapia ponds and overlooking the incredible view of the valley below. It´s beautiful at night, in the distance you can see the city lights, looking very much like tealights, dimly lighting up the view. Desiree has a horse named Athena, and she is free to roam the farm as she pleases, and is such a sweet girl. It´s so cool to rise out of our tent in the morning to have her standing right outside of our tent, happy to get our love rubs.

So, what have we been up to? We´ve been busy bees since we´ve arrived here, jumping into painting the interior rooms of the house. There are going to be a lot of changes going around here in these next two months, and we are excited to embrace and be apart of them. There´s a new dorm type building being constructed now, for volunteers who come to the farm, as well as plans for starpods and tent platforms. We will be moving into one of those starpods once they are constructed. I will be helping with childcare and homeschooling in the morning, while Mike will be helping with whatever construction and farm projects need to get done. Neither of us have really gotten a chance yet to plant our hands in the dirt and farm other than the permaculture workshop, but that will come soon enough. These past 2 weeks we have done a lot of planning and working out of schedules, and are looking to make a master list of projects needed to be done on the farm, that we can refer to and do at our leisure. Having volunteers on their farm is relatively new to Jason and Alana, and we are all working together to create a nice flow and make some big changes around here. Mike has already made a few benches from raw materials around the farm, as well as a new gate to keep Athena out of the gardens. You wouldn´t know he was new at it, they look great and are all very sturdy! At the end of our days we all sit down to an extremely delicious dinner of all organic, gourmet foods, that we are SO lucky to be able to eat. We can feel our minds becoming more clear, our bodies feeling healthier, and our hearts feeling so open to all that we are taking in here.

We haven´t been missing out on wildlife around here, the array of differents animals we have seen is amazing. Our second day here we spotted a baby sloth in one of the mango trees on the farm. A few days after that we were walking down the hill to the bus and we saw an armadillo! A few days ago we saw an owl, and I came very close to a huge pit viper that was hanging out under the stair to the composter toilet, all coiled up. Let me tell you.. it is snake country around here. We have to stomp our feet and made noise and vibrations when it´s dark out, to hopefully scare the snakes away. It´s interesting how much more aware we are of our environment when snakes are involved! Mike saw a huge scorpion and a realllllly big cockroch a few days ago as well. He has also seen several lizards while hiking around the property. Cockroches are everywhere here, but they aren´t the gross city type of cockroches. We co exist with them, and all is well. We´ve also seen so many different kinds of birds, it´s been so amazing. There´s a macaw that flies over the area, and sings his song. We´ve been really lucky to bear witness to all of these animals, it makes our experience here that much more enriched.

I have to wrap up this post, as we have to catch a 2 o´clock bus and still have some stuff to pick up while in town. Our weekly Thursday trip into town consists of going to the big market, to pick up some fruit and snacks, and going to an internet cafe to connect with our family and friends. We will post again soon, as I´m sure I´ve left quite a bit out! We love you, and hope you are all staying warm in that New England winter. Pura Vida!

Leaving on a jet plane

Ok, so we have some good new, and we have some bad news. Good news is that we made it here absolutely problem free. The five and a half hour flight was actually quite decent. The food they served was awesome, and the staff was realyl helpful. We also sat next to a woman from Costa Rica, who gave us a ton of useful info. Now let me get to the bad news. Whenever I get ready to go for an extended stay somewhere, I always have thi naggimg feeling telling me I forgot something, I’m sure you have all experienced the same thing. Well, that feeling came to fruition when we realized we left the cord for our camera at home! So, until we go out and buy either another cord, or a memory card reader, you’re all going to have to sit tight for some photos. But, I will tell you, that even in the heart of the nations capitol, it is absolutely gorgeous. We spent our first night getting to know all of the cool people at the hostel, and enjoyed some drinks, the best nachos I have ever had, and music in the attached bar. Our room is small, and in the basement, but all we can ask for is that it locks, and we have a key. That takes a big weight off of our shoulders. After a good night of sleep, we woke up to begin our first full day. We walked a few block from the hostel to grab some breakfast at an awesome little place. The food here is so good! It’s like a dream land for me haha. After breakfast we decided to explore the city a little bit, which turned into exploring the city ALOT. We found the coolest marketplace, which is pretty much a long strip of different vendors, each with different hand made goods from the area. Bags, carvings, jewelry, the works, which was Jaime’s dreamland, haha. From there we took a seat in the central park to rest, and had a nice conversation with a man from NY. He suggested going to visit the zoo, and the butterfly garden, both of which we did, with great satisfaction. We will upload pictures of both as soon as we have the means. Well, I could talk all day, about our first day, but I can’t hog the computer, there are lots of other travelers waiting to do the ame as me. I hope everyone is doing great, and again, sorry for the lack of pictures.
Adios!
Mike