I can’t believe I’m in Costa Rica! It’s been two years since my last trip to this amazing country and I’m stoked to be back. I just started working as an intern at Finca Luna Nueva and having been here only a week and a half I must say that Luna Nueva is incredible. The pictures on the website do not do justice to the beauty and sheer awesomeness of the place. While looking out from the dining area, I really feel like I’m in paradise. For the entirety of my stay at Luna Nueva I will be writing a blog so that family, friends, and those interested in the adventures I am sure to encounter can follow.
I arrived on the same day that a group came down to celebrate a friend’s birthday. It was a very fun welcome to say the least. On one of the days we hiked out to the Children’s Eternal Rainforest and as a group we planted 80 trees in a corridor that will soon link two larger areas of forest. It was an incredible feeling to be a part of something that will maintain diversity. It also just felt great to be out walking through mud and forest.
At the moment we have a group hosted by New Chapter staying here and they are all such interesting people. I am learning so much about the power of herbal remedies from them. Today, after trying to help one of the girls who works here, Rocio, with something that looks like a nasty boil erupting on her stomach, I recruited some help from the New Chapter group. In almost no time most of the group got wind of her affliction and came to the rescue with a variety of herbal remedies in the form of antibacterial creams, anti-inflammatory pills, colloidal silver, and even garlic pills. It’s been a pleasure to see them in action.
Yesterday I went on several tours of the gardens and I was amazed to learn about the great diversity of edible plant species in Juan’s Garden. Being so accustomed to romaine lettuce, which tastes much like water, I had forgotten how much character different plants actually have. We sampled lots of plants, some of which tasted like wasabi, cinnamon-basil, and lemon grass. A majority of the tastiest and most aromatic plants, like the basils, oreganos, and mints, came from my favorite plant family, Lamiaceae. Some of the plants weren’t quite as pleasant, namely the jackass bitters, of which I took too big of a bite and had to suffer through the remainder of the tour with a lingering bitter taste in my mouth. I now do my best to avoid the bitter plants despite Steven teasing me because he is a fan of the bitters.
It’s a little surreal that I am going to call Luna Nueva home for the next four months, and maybe longer. Each day, on my walk back from the farm to my homestay, I walk through the medicinal plant garden until I get to a field where I pass chickens, cows, a baby calf, a few meandering ducks, and even a rabbit, whose purpose on the farm is still a mystery to me. It’s always a different set of animals because part of the nature of a biodynamic farm is that both plants and animals are rotated to different spots every so often. Just yesterday a small herd of sheep were added.
Again, I can’t believe I’m in Costa Rica! I love everything about this place: the sounds, sights, smells, heat, rain, insects, food, plants, animals, people. Todos! Everything from the language I can’t quite fully understand to the pesky mosquitoes. Well, maybe not the mosquitoes, but they are much more tranquilo than the ones in California!
Much love to everyone back home and pura vida!
Hotel Luna Nueva Lodge
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