The house where we are staying is in the tiny,rural town of Esperanza, where we luxuriously have electricity and running water straight from a mountain spring (all of which FAR exceeds our expectations of roughing it!). Each day we walk up to the farm, where Ginnee and Phil Hancock live off the grid, with the River Oro at the bottom of their garden and a view of Turrialba Volcano shrouded in cloud (on a clear day!) off in the distance to the north-west. The pride and joy of the farm is their herd of 30 cows who bask in nearby fields, with their four horses and delightful (but surprisingly strong!) new foal.
Since Ethan arrived last week, it's been a hive of building activity. We've spent the week constructing a greenhouse at the back of the farm house for a kitchen garden. It has a bamboo frame (all of which was grown on farm) and a plastic roof, which is quite necessary given the high rainfall in the area. As always, we've had a lot of help along the way and it's been fun trying to communicate in Spanish! Now we're working on turning the soil and adding compost so that my germinating seeds will have deliciously nutritious beds to grow in. Hopefully in the next blog post we'll have photos of beautifully planted beds and glorious colour bursting from the soil!
When we're not working, there is plenty of land on the farm to explore. Last Sunday, in between bursts of rain, we hiked up to one of the waterfalls on the property accompanied by Orejas, who when she's not sleeping in the quad likes to keep us under close surveillance!
Since Ethan arrived last week, it's been a hive of building activity. We've spent the week constructing a greenhouse at the back of the farm house for a kitchen garden. It has a bamboo frame (all of which was grown on farm) and a plastic roof, which is quite necessary given the high rainfall in the area. As always, we've had a lot of help along the way and it's been fun trying to communicate in Spanish! Now we're working on turning the soil and adding compost so that my germinating seeds will have deliciously nutritious beds to grow in. Hopefully in the next blog post we'll have photos of beautifully planted beds and glorious colour bursting from the soil!
When we're not working, there is plenty of land on the farm to explore. Last Sunday, in between bursts of rain, we hiked up to one of the waterfalls on the property accompanied by Orejas, who when she's not sleeping in the quad likes to keep us under close surveillance!
We're enjoying farm life... It's exciting to see projects that we'd love to replicate in action, such as composting toilets, hydro-electric power, growing bamboo and permaculture gardens that incorporate lots of local edibles. There's a lot of us that can't wait until we have our own farm and start the journey towards living more sustainably and then there's my muscles that are telling me that I need a bit more practice still!!!
Hey! My girflriend and I are wwoofing in Costa Rica in December and I was wondering if you could think of any items or anything that you guys felt like were extremely important to have with you on your stay?
ReplyDeleteIt's our first time wwoofing and we don't want to feel like... "oh crap we should have brought a survival knife" or "oh crap we shouldn't have brought so much clothing"
We are planning on a 3 month stay and we've got a list of basic things suggested by our host farm, we just wanted to ask you guys since you already have experience.
Thanks in advance!
Sorry to take so long to reply. Hopefully you get this before you leave!
DeleteWe've found that you can find pretty much anything you want/ need here in Costa Rica. Rubber boots can be found everywhere, Ropa Americanas (second hand clothes stores) are great for cheap work clothes and you'll have no trouble finding a great big machete to attach to your belt!
It's rainy season here now though, so I would recommend you bring breathable rain jackets if you have them (the longer the better!. The item that I found invaluable was a pair of well fitting gardening gloves that came from the States. They helped immensely with hard core digging and biting ants!
Happy wwoofing! I hope you have a great time.
Hey There! Your blog it great- it looks like you had an awesome experience. I'm going to Costa Rica to wwoof at a farm on the pacific side. I've been looking for another farm to travel to afterwards but haven't really found anything. Do you have any recommendations of farms that you have been to?
DeleteThanks!!
Emma