May 29

We left the beautiful Hotel La Condesa at 8 am and on our way we stopped by a beautiful church where we were able to get out, stretch our legs and take pictures (something we ALL love to do)! This is also where we picked up the wonderful Margarita our guide/biologist/founder of the Armonia Natural biodiversity center that will be our home for the next 3 days! As we drove she told us about the city we would be staying in (Coronado) and the history of the town that we would be observing (Montserrat). One of my favorite parts of the day was when we stopped to “Meet the Forest”! This was something that a lot of us had never heard of before.  But we learned extremely fast, she took us down to the river and let us say hello to the forest through the water.  The river was gorgeous and we were able to hike up to the waterfall! This was the first introduction that we had to the beautiful Costa Rican Cloud Forest! We of course took lots of pictures and it was the high of many of our day! Montserrat has 12 families living in it and she arranged for us to meet 3 of them! She explained to us that each one of these families has a dream and each one of them are in the process of seeing them come true!

Family 1: Anna y Jorge were so welcoming and kind. They showed us around their beautiful weekend home and Jorge’s workshop. In his workshop he creates beautiful glass sculptures and worship crystals. For him his workshop is a place where he can create and teach others to create beautiful items for worship. This was his dream and we were able to see it and enjoy it with him.

Family 2: Rosario is one amazing kick-butt lady. She lives alone, well not alone, she lives with her animals. She has cows that she uses for milk and a few goats.  These animals are her babies.  She was so welcoming and extremely hilarious. (At one point she jokingly said that she wanted to keep our guide Adrian for herself). She explained to us how she built her barn with her own two hands with rocks from the river and wood from the forest.  She was an inspiring woman and it was an honor being able to meet her!

Family 3: Cecelia, Oliva y Laura welcomed us into their home and made us a delicious traditional Costa Rican meal of beans (pinto),chicken and  rice (pollo y arroz) and some sort of frozen gelatin dessert which was cherry and coconut flavored! While we ate Laura played the violin for us, she played traditional songs of Costa Rica.  After lunch we were able to see their dream coming to life.  Their dream was to create a beautiful butterfly garden. They have the structure built, the flowers growing and they are now getting the butterflies (mariposas)! It is a beautiful creation and I think it can only get more amazing!

After visiting the families it was time to make the bumpy wild ride to Armonia Natural! And boy was this ride bumpy! The jeep, called the dinosaur, they were transporting us in could only hold so many people, so we went in two shifts. Once everyone got to the learning center, we all got settled in and then had free time. We wrote in our journals. We were planning on doing a night walk, but this is the rainforest, so, living up to its name, it rained profusely for the longest time. We were each able to learn more about each other. Dr. Mo even found more species of birds! We then had dinner (vegetable soup, rice and beans). Then Margherita showed us a presentation about her learning center. It’s amazing her vision for this place! There is so much potential for this natural conservation and people want to ruin it!

We were all so excited and hyper from the events of the day. We needed to be up at 5 am on Wednesday so it was an early night for everyone.