Field Trip!

Man oh man, we had quite the field trip this past weekend.  Early Friday morning (around 7 or 7:30am) we were picked up from our host homes and made our way to an organic farm for a tour.

Pineapple plant!! For real, they're not grown on trees...

 

There was a little bridge to cross before we actually made it to the farm, and our tour guide (one of the men who operates the farm) explained that before the bridge was built they had a pulley system to transport all the building materials for the house and equipment for the farm.  Furthermore, he said the bridge is pretty much in need of constant repair.  Personally, I felt very safe crossing it (I was more scared of the spider webs on it), but several members of our group freaked out a little.

Anyway, after our mini tour of the organic farm and a tasty lunch, we continued our field trip to the province of Limón.  In class the week before we learned about Afro-Costa Ricans and that a majority of them live in Limón because many migrated from other Caribbean countries to work on the banana plantations once upon a time.  We took a tour of the city (which reminded me quite a bit of New Orleans) and afterwards found our hostel.

The next morning we visited a reserve for indigenous people in Talamanca.  They grow cocoa, so we learned about the chocolate forming process and got to participate in it.

We also took a walk through the woods learning which plants form dyes and which are edible.  We even had the chance to practice our hunting skills with original weapons of the tribe.  Only two of our group of 9 actually hit the target though.

 Then, in the afternoon, we took a trip to Puerto Viejo, which is a small tourist town.  We wandered around looking at the shops and spent a little time walking along the beach, although it was a rather small and dirty beach.

Sunday morning we were up bright and early to visit Cahuita National Park.  We really just spent the morning on the beach there, playing in the large waves.  I can now proudly state that I have been to 2 oceans, the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic, in that order.  Woohoo!!

This is the beautiful sand castle we built after a few hours in the ocean.  After lunch at a rather overpriced restaurant near Cahuita we returned to San José.  The return trip was about 4.5 hours and we were all quite exhausted.

There is much more to say and many more pictures, but I'm rather short on time at the moment.  Perhaps I'll find time to blog again soon.

Much love,
~Nola