On Friday, we were given the opportunity to harvest, process, cook and eat farm fresh fruits — the most memorable of which was the jackfruit. After our field team harvested the fruit (which really consisted of catching a 20-pound spike ball that one of the farm workers, Levis, climbed a tree to drop on us), Siobhan spearheaded the processing, which consisted of tearing open the jackfruit and collecting the seeds and the flesh around them. Our kitchen crew amazingly created a lovely jackfruit coconut curry with a side dish of boiled seeds, which shared a confusing resemblance to a tiny, salty mashed potato.
On our few days of leisure during our weekend at Bona Fide, we took it upon ourselves to go horseback riding on the beach at sunset. The experience proved to be fun for some, scary for others, and all too familiar for Juliette, Grace, Annie and Paige who had a special touch from years of experience. Talia shined in her first time on horseback, proud of herself for having come a little farther on her way to conquering her fear of animals.
Marina, Bona Fide’s head chef, led a chocolate making workshop in which we toasted, peeled, ground and seasoned cacao beans to our liking with sugar, peanuts, coconut, and ginger. Chloe showed us all how it’s done with a delicious, if not soupy, cacao coconut blend. Through this experience and others during this trip many in the group have developed a special love for cacao, including Kaitlin, who is currently on the hunt for a bulk bag of beans to bring home.
With Maddie sad to leave the coconuts of Bona Fide behind, rather than our typical mini bus, Annie crushed the transporte job by navigating us into a van, onto a ferry, to taxis, through 3 public buses (where you see Hanna holding our mountain of backs above) and into a final taxi shuttle to Playa Nombre de Jesus.
Upon arrival at Casa de Tortugas we’ve settled in for 5 nights of volunteering with a turtle conservation organization called Kuemar and 5 days of appreciating the Costa Rican coast.
After having come across 6 turtles on our first night, our hopes are high for the remaining evenings of turtle patrol!Siobhan will fill you in next week on all things turtles. 🐢