Debbie-Downers.

bocas del toro-

-not too bad -

main street in bocas town

houseboat party for lorraine and maggie's neighbor's birthday, we went to starfish beach




(that's a starfish we're standing next to)

docks on isla carenero

beginning of a hike to wizard beach on isla bastimentos

middle of the hike, after the mud bogs and jungle trailblazing

out of the jungle onto wizard beach

march...

i spent the month of march at new dawn center taking a course in organic gardening, medicinal plants and permaculture and traveling on the weekends with the other students that were at new dawn.

i was doing a volunteer/work exchange type thing at new dawn, so in the morning we worked, i mean did "activities" as ed, the owner liked to call them. mainly we watered the garden, planted or transplanted from the greenhouse, and helped in preparing an herbal tea that they sell, made of a mix of ginger, tumeric and pao d'arco tree bark.

you can't go to costa rica and not use a machete! peeling pao d'arco bark for tea at new dawn.

thursday farmers market in san isidro, the city near new dawn

transplanting the new crop of lettuce at new dawn.

we spent one weekend in dominical. not my favorite beach in costa rica. but it felt good to get in the ocean again after a few weeks. but no surfing, just big, heavy closeouts and lots of rip currents.

march 13th dinner in dominical

we spent one weekend in the town of san gerardo, at the base of mt chirripo, the highest peak in costa rica. san gerardo is a tiny town strung along a dirt road, beside the rio chirripo, surrounded by green mountains, draped in clouds. originally we wanted to climb the mountain, but once when we got there we realized we didn't really have sleeping bags, or hiking boots or a cook stove, or warm clothes. the mountain is at about 13k feet, so it gets cold up there, and the rainy season was starting so the trails are muddy. so we decided to just day hike to the chirripo national park boundary. which is about 4km up the mountain. it was a beautiful hike, it started out hot and sunny, but by the time we made it to the boundary we were in the cloudforest, surrounded by fog and mist blowing through the trees, and pair of spider monkeys. we hiked down through the cloudbridge preserve, a private rainforest preserve next to the national park, full of waterfalls.

on the way to the chirripo trailhead, san gerardo, costa rica.

at the beginning of the trail up chirripo

waterfall in the cloudbridge preserve

into the cloudforest on the trail up chirripo

we made it to the chirripo national park border after about 6 km of hiking from our hostel, straight up the mountain.

the river behind new dawn center, my spot for afternoon swims with tucans and tadpoles.

some photos

Alas, I have left the Yoga Farm and am now in the land of pavement, cars and exhaust on my way to the New Dawn Center. But the upside is cheap, fast internet, so here are some photos from the last month.

Lunch in Pavones, burritos!

View from the yoga deck

The beach at the bottom of the hill

Sunset from the top of the hill over the Osa Peninsula and Golfo Dulce

On a 6 hour jungle-beach loop hike

Paradise is-

-not so nice right now. Thanks to some less than agile waterfall climbing and tidepool hopping, i now have some bruised ribs and a bruised foot. They are slowly improving, but no surfing and no yoga for pretty much the last week. For a few days all I could do was lay on the yoga deck and read. This might not sound so bad, but it was actually a little painful because my book was funny and everytime I laughed, it hurt. At night, I tried to read with my headlamp under my mosquito net. This is a bad idea because all the bugs are swarm to my light and frantically try to get through the net. So I spent most of the time flicking bugs off the net so they wouldn't crawl in through the two holes that are right above my head. Then I just gave up and went to sleep. Now my foot is feeling better, so I can walk down to the beach and read under the palms. This might not sound so bad either, except that the waves have been the best I´ve seen since I´ve been here. And I just have to sit and watch. But, there have been a few sharks hanging out around the waves the last few days, so the beach might not be that bad of a place to be.

something to ponder

what´s better than waking up at dawn, walking down the hill, paddling out and trading fun, perfect lefts with a few friends and a sea turtle? Doing all that and then coming in, sitting in the shade of the palms, picking a coconut right off the tree, cracking it open on a rock, drinking fresh coconut milk right out of the coconut, then cracking it open and eating out the delicious, crunchy coconutty meat. Then taking a nap on the beach. Add in some clear blue skies, sunshine, turquiose warm water and a few scarlet macaws flying by and it is a pretty good morning.