It’s the last day of my week in Ceibo-Bokis, a sustainable community in the mountains of Buenas Aires, Costa Rica. I couldn’t sleep last night, when I woke up in the middle of the night (as usual) I looked at the moon that was big and present, the rooster cu-cooed as if it was morning because of the light from the moon that cascaded over the endless valleys…I couldn’t sleep.
Although the day started out normal, a mountain of fruit salad for breakfast and the hot sun. Right after breakfast an indigenous family that lives near by came to visit for coffee and crackers. They stayed for a very long time, all the time that I was searching for berries and getting scratched by their thorns, all the time that I was getting oranges from the trees and falling on my butt, they talked. Then it started to rain. And it rained! It didn’t stop raining and lunch preparations began.
I made more coffee for the family while helping with lunch. A whole pot of rice and lentils, carrots and potatoes and the rain let up, the family said good-bye.
I ate this delicious lunch slowly after 3 ½ days of only eating fruits (in smoothies and raw) and some vegetables. Today, after that meal, I notice how different I feel. The weight of my body has changed, I am no longer light and airy but thick and heavy. I have a headache and feel a little like throwing up but at least I don’t want to put things in my mouth anymore.
Why I was only eating fruits?
Because I had learned about cleansing your body of built up toxins this way and thought I should try. I don’t know why I feel worse then I did before this week but I have been eating cloves of garlic and drinking tea to combat this cough that started. I love this place though…something about the air, the mountains and the people who think like I do yet speak a different language…
It was an adventure getting to this community and i would like to tell you a little bit about it.
- First I couldn’t get a hold of the lady Diana who was supposed to pick me up at the bus stop. The night before I was to leave to just show up and see what happened, I got a call from this guy, Sergio. Sergio spoke a little bit of English and told me he could give me a ride if I met him in San Jose.
- The next day I wait for this guy at the bus stop and he comes with a goatee after a few hours and he takes me to this house in this neighborhood he likes to call “Los Angeles”. We end up at this really nice house of a hippie community headquarters called Pachamama (http://pachamama.com/) and what I was told the guy i met who lived there was a musician that was part of a pretty famous group in Costa Rica (I forget the band name). We picked up a bed there then headed to buy a lock box.
- On the lock box adventure I found something that I had been looking for a long time, my key. I have passed up so many keys that presented themselves, in London, at my bus stop on my birthday and others, so I decided this was the one and i took it (hehe). Keys are mainstream jewelry now but for me, what my sister has taught me, is that your key is something that helps you make decisions. Here is a picture the key; I still need a good chain for it.
- Next we start for the mountains with stops on the way to pick up fruit and vegetables from stands on the road. Sergio says that we are going to his moms house and I wasn’t sure why. What happened was we went through these small communities of houses on a dirt rock road (naturally) and ended up at the end of the road at a small but really new and nicely furnished house. I was not prepared to meet the mother of my goateed coiffure and luckily she was not at the house when we dropped off the bed. Sergio said that he wasn’t that comfortable driving the rest of the way to the community that evening because his lights sometimes didn’t work so he suggested we spend the night at his moms. I thought this was a ploy to get me to bed and maybe it was but it didn’t work, he fell asleep in the hammock while i was on the coach. We fell asleep watching this anime movie called Paprika.
- Woke up to a guy looking in the window at me. He is apparently the watering guy of the yard. That morning we went to the community. Sergio and his goatee were tired and so i said that i would offer to drive (even though i don't know how to drive) but that i didn't know how to drive stick shift. He asked me if i wanted to learn...why did i lie. But i went with the spontaniatity of the trip and said yes. Next thing i know i am driving up to the mountains on another gnarly dirt road in this truck and he tells me to stop. I stop in the middle of the hill. He says ok now change gears. I say, aren't i going to go backgrounds, he takes a quick look back and says yes. Then the engine is roaring and the car rocks back but bursts forward and i start up the rest of the hill. Sergio tells me i did good for my first time, i'm not sure if i believe him or if he was just trying to get me to bed.
- Diana and Cycril (the people I originally stayed with when I went to the community last semester) weren’t even there when we arrived but their daughter was who greeted me with a big hug. The next few days I spent working in the garden and the house getting weird looks about my juices and listening to conversations in Spanish that I could not make contributions too. I have never felt so aware of where I came the US then with these people, they weren’t mean about me being a gringa but they definitely talked some shit about the US in front of (rightfully so). Because I couldn’t really say anything to defend or even just give my view on it, I was uncomfortable. In the end I became friends with the people and this one woman in particular I got close to. I really just enjoyed what these people are trying to do, not contributing to the system. I feel lucky to have found people like this in Costa Rica where everyone is content and non-controversial. This is a huge generalization of course and there are many good things about this but I felt like I understood these people. Once again I’m not really sure if the people understood me…
My favorite thing about this place was the environment of course, I couldn’t stop looking around at the mass of tropical tress and birds and for some reason it always looked different. I took a series of pictures the day of the storm that shows the clouds encroaching.
Here's the morning (you can tell the storms rolling in)
[pause for copious amounts of rain and down pour]
and it passes revealing the bamboo house currently in progress
and then this happens.
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