At Finca Rio Perla (FRP), September and October have been months of preparation and transition. We are busy preparing for our new alliance to work with some Costa Rican (Tico) specialists in alternative medicine.  The idea is that the farm and it's natural beauty would be part of a holistic body-mind-soul experience offered by several different professionals having different specialities.  The unifying theme is "living with nature" and how being "in touch with nature" is very healing body-mind-soul.   Thus, patients/visitors will have contact with alternative medicine specialists in an office-setting (which will also be provided on-site at Casa Central and/oror Posada Rustica), and a wide range of activities on the farm, including horseback riding, hiking, swimming, tilapia fishing, bird watching, making and/or eating freshly made dairy (cow and goat) products, collecting eggs, fresh fruits and vegetables, breads, marmelades, sugar cane juice, macadamia nuts, and more.  There will also be opprtunities to work in the gardens and plant trees.  And, of course, patients/visitors can eat a great meal and/or just chill out and enjoy the natural beauty.  We call it Agro-Eco-Salud La Perla.  Following our approach to Agro-Eco Practicalism, we will integrate principles of organic farming, permaculture and biodynamics in a balanced and realistic manner.  ==> More details coming next month ...

We are happy that Dan, from Michigan, returned to Finca Rio Perla for his 3rd visit as an intern.  Dan is a gentle person who loves the great outdoors.  In Michigan he works as a landscaper and also in construction.  Dan arrived in mid-September and left FRP at the end of October. Thanks once again to Dan for his support.

The end of September ushered in the Jewish New Year, and we were blessed to have a visit from Howard, from Canada (at least that is where he is living at the moment).  Howard has worked and lived in several "alternative" communities around the world including kibbutz in Israel and ashram in India, and it was great to have him visit Finca Rio Perla for a almost a week.  We look forward to a return visit from Howard (and his wife) in a couple of months.  Also, Howard has friends at University of Peace, near San Jose, that have recently visited Finca Rio Perla.

In October we had some major transitions with Efrain and Roger leaving FRP.  We have had a long association with Efrain (5 years) and Roger (1 year full-time, and some contract work in past years) and we wish them all the best.  At least we have some good memories and lots of evidence of their experience at FRP.  Vivian, Efrain's wife and Roger's sister left FRP a couple of months ago to be located closer to her parents in a nearby town.  Efrain's brother, Jose, who helped train our horses part-time also left FRP recently for a full-time job.  We thank Efrain and Vivian and their families (including Vivian's father and sister, who also worked for FRP some times) for their support.  Also, an intern, Scott left for greener pastures, after about 4 months at FRP. Scott brought a lot of humor to FRP, and whenever his name is mentioned, everyone laughs.  Jajajaja Scott.  

We are excited to welcome Esteban and Nestor, who are working with Wilfredo and Miguel.  Wilfredo and Miguel have stepped up, along with Sandra to manage the day-to-day farm activities.  We also are excited to welcome Freddy, who's familia has a dairy farm in neighboring San Bosco.  Freddy, who is bi-lingual and a local Tico dairy farmer and cheese-maker will help in administration and day-to-day communications, and in our farm production and marketing.  We think that the FRP team, which also includes Jose our carpenter, Dennis the taxi driver, and Narly our accountant (based in San Jose) is really a great TEAM. FRP and Agro-Eco-Salud La Perla.

The month of October ended with Hannah celebrating her 12th birthday.  Although she celebrated her birthday in Miami, she went shopping for presents for her friends at Finca Rio Perla on her special day.  As a surprise birthday present, Hannah is coming to Finca Rio Perla right after celebrating Halloween.  The goats are waiting for "Hannah the goat-hugger", and the horses and the cows and the chickens, and Pero Pero and Frankie are also all waiting for Hannah, and of course Lauren.  Lauren organized a great birthday weekend for Hannah, which including a pizza and painting party with 4 school friends, and her older sister Lea dropped by.  It was loud and fun and ended with the shofar blasting at 12 o'clock midnight when Hannah turned 12, and started her 13th year. From tween to teen. Trick or treat???  

Anyway, since the new arrangement with the Tico alternative medicine practitioners is supposed to begin soon, we will not talk any more, before the transformation begins.  Suffice to say, September and October were busy months of preparation and transition for Finca Rio Perla.  And, with a lot of expectations for the future.  Pura Vida, Dr. Paulo.

August was a fun month at Finca Rio Perla, with really great vibes.  We were really blessed with exceptional guests and super weather, and great experiences for all.  In addition, we managed to make a lot of progress in improving the gardens and planting more pasture for the horses.   Notably, Sandra has taken over responsibilities in the kitchen, and has been making amazing cheeses, baked goods (breads, pizzza, calazones), chileros, marmalades and traditional Tico cuisine. 

We hosted 2 large groups - of about 20 persons each - in August.  This  

More to come ...

  

Today, to celebrate 4th of July we "mounted" the trapiche, which is a sugar cane mill.  It is actually an "antique' trapiche, over 100 hundred years old.  The frame is made from heavy and roughly hewn "almendra" (a type of almond) wood, and there are 3 pistons that are the rollers that squueze the juice out of sugar cane stalks that are feed into the rollers.  Efrain managed to borrow a pulley and chains from Freddy, from the next village of San Bosco.   So, Efrain, Roger, Jose, Miguel, Wilfredo and Scott were helping to mount the trapiche.  Audrey was busy photographing things.

Paulo bought the trapiche about 5 years ago from someone in the nearby village of Argentina.  Earth University was interested in this antique sugar mill to buy for it's new Guanacaste (Pacific coast) campus.  It was still set up with the brick ovens to boil the cane juice to make molasses, and molds for the brown sugar.  Efrain grew up in Guanacaste working with a trapiche from a young age.  So, he has always been excited about the trapiche.  When the trapiche was bought, Efrain, Roger and Jose were the team that took it apart and loaded it and transported it to the farm.  So, they knew how the trapiche was put together by taking it apart.

Only the mill part of the trapiche is being set up for Stage #1, so only sugar cane juice will be made by manual turning of the milling wheel. It is fun to make your own sugar cae juice. That is what we did today at Finca Rio Perla. 

Anyway, it was really quite a "process" to mount each piece of the trapiche mill.  There was already a beautiful roof with some clear roofing panels along with the zinc roofing panels, and 2 massive wood posts in the ground for the trapiche mounting process.  The 9 columns of the roof are all cement posts from an old corral that long ago been taken down (great recycling).  It was a struggle to get all the pieces mounted, and it included a lot of improvision with different tools, like hand saw and chain saw, to get everything in place.  But, everyone consulted on how to proceed and they worked together as a group.  A great team effort.

In the afternoon, Scott, Dennis. Lauren and Paulo went to clean the trapiche so that we could make sugar cane juice that was drinkable.  There luckily was a long hose and an attachment to allow the water from Salon La Perla to be used to clean the mud and muck and insects from the wood and metal rollers that had been sitting around for 5 years.  After a long while cleaning the trapiche, Dennis took a machete and went to the nearby sugar cane planting and cut about 10 stalks and together we ran them through the rollers and caught the raw juice in large pan.  Then we dipped our large cups in the large pan and poured it through a strainer into a second glass.  The pure sugar cane juice was so refreshing.  Scott immediately noted that it could easily be made into rum. But, so delicious when freshly squeezed.

So, the trapiche that was bought 5 years ago and "sitting around" for 5 years was finally mounted in 5 hours of really hard physical labor, and another hour or so of cleaning things up so that we could drink the raw sugar cane juice through a strainer.  A long, long time and a very sweet ending to a long period of anticipation.  The view from the trapiche is quite spectacular toward the Caribbean.

For the past 5 years the trapiche was always moved to the end of the priority list.  Finishing the trapiche marks the end of a period of an infrastructure building projects at Finca Rio Perla.  We are blessed to have such great people at Finca Rio Perla to do all these projects.  In the past year and a half we have finished the 16 horse barn, 40 goat housing and milking parlor and pasture area, a large greenhouse, and a biodigestor.  In addition we rennovated the cow milking area and improved the worm compost area next to the biodigestor. Also, we set up about 10 barrels of fermented organic "brews" for foliar applications next to the cow milking area.  Thanks/Gracias to all.  Pura Vida.  Dr. Paulo

        

March 2012 was a really great month at Finca Rio Perla, and we began April relishing in our experiemces of March and preparing for the early April holidays of Samana Santa and Passover.were a perfect time to reflect and ready ourselves to spring forward with a new dedication and direction.

It was great to have 10 - 12 people lodging in the Posada Rustica, and often Finca Rio Perla staff and guests joining us for meals that were deliciously prepared by Lauren and Vivian, and our visitors ... especially Melanie.   It was great to have return guests like Melanie and her kids Kai (14 yrs old) and Alani (18 yrs. old), who helped with the horses and acted as guides and cooks and food servers and dishwashers.  They and other kids all helped in activities around the farm, including collecting and cleaning eggs, milking goats and cows, making cheese with gas from the bio-digestor and worm compost from the solid cow manure.  We had 8 families visit at FRP in March, and some young couples.  Everyone fit in well, and kids of all ages roamed around freely along with our amazing dogs, led by Pero Pero and Frankie and joined by Lucy, and the others. Of course, having 11-year old Hannah around always keeps things active with the kids and lively for the adults.  We wish that hannah could be at Finca Rio Perla more and more and more.

We are mostly getting families with mothers.  It is also a good vacation for the parents because the kids can go off safely and have fun in an open and free manner with other kids and adults.  

It has been amazing to see how children act and react in an open and free environment.  They act like they are open and free. Duh!!! You literally see - before your very own eyes-  that the barriers and inhibitions and fears disipate as children step outside their comfort zones at Finca Rio Perla.  To be witness to this unfolding of potential for children, and the possibility to facilitate a space/place for a child to feel open and free enought to identify and unleash their potential is really what we strive for at Finca Rio Perla. 

Anyway, the point is that, in March, we at Finca Rio Perla felt more and more that it has a special niche to fill as a destination for a family agr-eco tourism experience.  There are a lot of parents and young grandparents that grew up in the 60s, 70s, 80s that want their children and grandchildren to have an authentic hands-on experience with nature, to better appreciate the links between people and their food and nature in general.   We at Finca Rio Perla are excited by the opportunity and challenge to be a destination for family agro-eco tourism experience in a community setting.  The community setting, with local Costa Rican families demonstrates that this time of lifestyle is real and achievable and sustainable.
 
So, to change gears a bit and be more practical and less philosophic, what did we do in April to better prepare ourselves to be a destination for family agro-eco tourism experiences -- and also to be a destination for workshops and trainings, and other group visits for a minimum of 2 days/nights and a capacity of 25+ people in beds and extra capacity in tents with mattresses.

Anyway, on April 21, a group of us rode by horseback up to the top part of the farm, at about 750 meters (about 2,250 feet).  It was Paulo, Lauren, Efrain, Roger, Roger's son Fabian, Esteban, Jose, Miguel and Sandra and their kids Juliana and Camilla riding with them on 2 horses, Wilfredo, and his daughter Estefania on separate horses. So, 11 horses and 13 riders we dismounted at the newly finished fence to protect the coffee trees that have been planted there.  About 700 coffee trees have been planted, about 500 from seedlings from the lone coffee tree remaining on the mountain (which is located lower down on the farm).  Anyway, the view is stunning of the valley and out toward the Caribbean.  We all discussed planting the additional 200+ coffee seedlings that Sandra prepared, and to continue to plant coffee (also with trees we can buy from our neighbor Rodolfo).  Anyway, the plan is to continue planting coffee at the upper parts of the macadamia farm, where some of the macadamia trees are dead.  And, we will start to seriously cut out dead macadamia trees and rennovate living macadamia trees -- that are now de facto "organic macadamia" -- and start replanting and reforestation with citrus, fruits, and others. 

It was great to go horseback riding with most of the workers (and hiking to the lookout over the biggest waterfalls) and we had a great picnic lunch in the Salon La Perla, including delicious pizza made by Sandra and Vivian in the cobb oven.  Narly our accountant joined us at the Salon La Perla for lunch and Dennis, our taxi driver, was in and out.  There we discussed our plans, after passing through much of the farm by horseback.  The horse stables, goat and cow milking areas look great.  There is the new picnic table and bench in Salon La Perla so that we have 5 tables/10 benches for 30 persons (plus extra chairs to place at the table ends, if needed).  Jose sanded and varnished the wood floor of the classroom, and will be making some additional desks and chairs.

Casa Central has been fixed up, the floors inside the house and on the huge patio have all been sanded and varnished and holes/cracks filled in.  Casa Central is great for 4 - 6 persons, and can handle more. Now we will start painting the outside, but the house itself is in great shape.  Johnny, our main non-resident "artist" was with us horseback riding and he brought some new paintings that we bought.  We are looking forward to having some art classes and workshops.

After lunch we walked down to Casa Comuna to check it out.  Wow!!!!   Since the end of February, the Casa Comuna has undergone an amazing transformation to truely being "Casa Comuna".  Starting with Nadya and Nikola, and continuing with the special dedication and love of Dan, and final workmanship of Jose --- Casa Comuna is colorful, clean, open, comfortable, cozy, etc. with a capacity of 8 - 9 persons.  It is the ideal "group house", with a full kitchen and comfortable sleeping, eating and sitting spaces.

Then we walked to Casa Verde, the newly purchased house.  We made plans of how to fix it up for Wilfredo's family and the backyard to house his 3 horses.  Wilfredo and his family are a great addition to the community at Finca Rio Perla.  Estefania is 12 years old and a great horseback rider and loves to be a guide and is an artist along with her mother.  Wilfredo is an amazing "cowboy" and a great complement to Efrain when riding our horses.  Wilfredo was living and working on another farm nearby, and the place was leased/sold --- so he joined us at Finca Rio Perla.  The Casa Verde is a great little house with 2-3 bedrooms and a great location.

So, back at the Posada Rustica, which is still our main house, with a capacity for about 13 - 17 (depending if 2 persons per double bed), there were additional "touches" made to make it an even nicer place to sleep or eat or hang out.  The kitchen and eating facilities were busy during much of March, and they were up to the task of providing a comfortable experience. Of course, in a group house with a lot of people we would like to have thicker walls, but we can't rebuild the Posada Rustica ... we can only love it for what it is and for what we lovngly call it, Posada Rustica.

So, we have a great place and great people working with us.  Now, more attention to the plants.  We can host 25 - 30 persons in beds, and have both decentralized and centralized cooking/eating areas that can also be used for classrooms, workshops, etc.  We are ideally situtated for families because we are in fact a family farm that is actully a group of famillies living and working at Finca Rio Perla, and the "community" of Finca Rio Perla that makes it an ideal destination for family agro-eco tourism experiences. 

Of course, similar to us being vegetarian/pescatarian and claiming that we try to be inclusive and not exclusive, we also welcome all persons of all ages and all types of relationships.  We welcome everyone to have an agro-eco tourism experience at Finca Rio Perla.  Pura Vida, Dr. Paulo.