El Toucanet Lodge is where we found ourselves yesterday afternoon. It is in a very different mountain valley from where we started the night before. It is a wide, farming valley - absolutely beautiful. As we headed down from the main highway, we were captivated by the hillsides, farms and overall landscape. The photos don't do it justice. I just knew and felt that we had found the right place for us.
This is also true coffee country - some say the best coffee in Costa Rica, Tarrazu, comes from this region. Due to the plethora of coffee farms in the area, like in most countries, there is a huge influx of migrant workers, mostly from Panama, who come during harvest time. They are all primarily from one Indigenous Panamanian tribe, the Guaymi, originating across the northern part of Panama from the Caribean coast to the Pacific. The women wear traditional dress and we saw this farmer coming up the road with his cart....so very different from the tourist beat we've been on.
I fantasize about traveling the world and working and learning on farms. I felt the same when I was in Congo...and pretty much anywhere I go. To learn about different practices especially from people whose livelihoods depend on their farms versus hobby gardeners and food growers like me. It fascinates me and fills me with a deeply rooted feeling. Someday...
We love El Toucanet, run by an American ex-pat, Gary, and his Tica wife, Edna. It is small and low-key and sits on the hillside from which you look across to the other side of the valley. We feel so happy and lucky to have found ourselves here for the next few days. Here is our little cabina and Matt enjoying the view.
When we arrived yesterday, it was sunny and raining at the same time. Well, you know what that means...
We were treated to another breathtaking rainbow that persisted, without ever fading, for a full 3 hours! It was captivating...hard to not keep looking at it. Never, never, never have I seen rainbows like what I have experienced here in Costa Rica.
Today was a chill day today. We were up early but spent the morning and early afternoon hanging around the cabina, Lucas naked, playing, snuggling, spinning tunes, watching a little Charlotte's Web. It was greatly needed, especially for Lucas, as the past 6 days have been busy and scheduled and travel intense. He is such a travel champ that it is easy to forget to carve out time to be slow and do nothing. It was clear that it is what he needed today.
We did venture out after lunch, just Lucas and me. We walked down the one-lane dirt road passing farms and houses on our way to the little tienda at the bottom of the hill in search of a Valentine's Day treat. We found delicious lollipops for each of us - his was fresa (strawberry) and mine melacoton (melon). We sucked them happily as walked holding hands back up the road. It was one of the best Valentine's Days I can remember.
Don't know what tomorrow holds...kind of fun to really and truly in the moment and day-to-day. Matt and I interested in exploring the locals towns nearby in search of a truer Tico experience as we really are not in tourist land here. We have re-fallen in love with Spanish. As always, it is amazing how a little goes a long way towards people warming to you when you make an effort and only speak a little bit of the language. Matt and I speak more than a little and it just helps to make instant friends. We both are motivated to keep studying and practicing when we get home.
More to come. Abrazos y besos to all!
No comments:
Post a Comment