Written By Gabriel, Abby & Lindsey
First full week in Costa Rica! We spent the week in the town of Mastatal with a local family on their farm with many interesting characters: their hilarious son Andres, several bats flying overhead every night, and a stinky dog we named Kevin, even though she was a girl.
The days consisted of farm work, painting murals, and visiting local businesses. Every morning the breakfast bell elicited a barefoot run, as the group hurried to be first in the breakfast line. Every meal at our stay in Villas Mastatal was delicious thanks to Raquel and Co, the mom of the family and her wonderful kitchen staff.
We were greeted in Costa Rica by tropical storms, putting a rain check on the introductory tour. Sunday and Monday, our first days here were spent by taking part in wet tours of the farm, lessons in composting, digging trenches, riding in the back of muddy pickup trucks and taking cold showers (to which we are still not accustomed). Covered head to toe with mud at the end of long work days, we were thrilled to wash off in astonishing waterfalls.
On Sunday everyone showed off their skills in a talent show, ranging from acrobatics to trilingual poems and bottle flipping to a group “Cha cha slide.” The next day we visited a natural medicine farm where we tried different types of teas and made our own immunity tinctures. Monday night, Matt led the group in an interactive activity where we learned and reflected about tourism and how we have impacted the places we have visited.
On Tuesday we visited a permaculture farm run by an American entrepreneur named Tim. He told us his story, and further taught us about permaculture farming practices and natural building. That night the three group leaders led a group activity beginning with Lindsey who shared knowledge about the full moon and how to write a letter to it, followed by Gabriel who led a group discussion where everyone shared the moments where they laughed the most throughout our time together. Last was Abby, who closed out the meeting with an opportunity to write and freeingly follow all silly and surprising tangents.
Wednesday we went back to work, digging more trenches, planting yucca and riding family horse Max. In the afternoon we took part in a cooking class, beginning with a limbo under a barbed wire fence to harvest coconuts and ending with a delicious meal of empanadas, green papaya tacos and chocolate cake with a coconut topping. That night, we were led in a night walk through the jungled woods where we saw bioilluminescent mushrooms, massive spiders and absolutely nothing when we turned our lights off.
The following morning, we practiced some “lawn-scaping” at Cangreja National Park, with a train of machetes wielders, rakers, and the people whom there weren’t enough tools. Thursday afternoon, we visited a chocolate factory and were given a tour/lesson/tasting of the chocolate making process. Some of us (Abby) saw how many cacao beans we could fit in our mouths. That night Mara led us in a reflective activity about what we value most in life and compared our lists.
Friday was a chill day, which we spent painting a mural of “pato blanco” (the deceased duck from the start of our trip) to commemorate our group. We also made thank you gifts for our hosts and designed/painted their ping-pong table. The afternoon was spent packing, cleaning, and resting. We had a post-supper peanut-filled piñata and the night ended with marshmallow roasting over a bonfire.
The final morning we gave our gifts after the final breakfast bell and packed into the big bus on our way to Drake bay where we will spend our next and final full week together.
