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Published: February 27th 2013
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Dearest Friends and Family,
It has been almost two years since my last post -- that is pretty damn crazy! I have absolutely had some noteworthy adventures but until now, didn't "feel" like writing them down. This blogging, if you can even call it that, is so that I don't forget the amazing sights, adventures, and fun/interesting facts of our trip. I hope that you enjoy the blog and will go and visit Costa Rica.
Background of the trip: Almost three years ago, I was exhibiting at the LOHAS conference in Boulder, where we were showing off our fine glassware in an expo sort of setting. Something different about this conference was, one their was an expo to show off products and two raffle prizes for those who actually attended the expo portion. (ie. people from the conference venturing out of the lectures to view products) Anyways, bottom line was that you had to be present to claim your prize. There were about 5 items being given away, one being a set of BottleHood glasses and the grand prize being a 4 night stay at an amazing Eco Resort in Costa Rica. Long-ish, boring story short, wegot to
the grand prize of the conference and they pulled at least 5 names out of the bowl and all 5 unlucky people were not present to claim their winnings. After the first person wasn't present, I started almost chanting my name -- Sure enough, the 6th card they pulled out, was MY card. Jumping for joy like I won a million bucks --- I had won this neato trip.
Two+ Years later we finally claimed our prize. Thanks to my fabulous parents giving Ev and I miles to get to Costa Rica --we were finally on our way. We arrived in San Jose late at night, took a taxi to the home of a very nice woman Lize’s house (found on airbnb), where slept for about 4 hours, woke up, got in another taxi to the small airplane airport and one 12 passenger, 1 hour flight later, we had arrived in Golfito, a small town on the Pacific side of the country. Jose, from Playa Nicuesa, escorted us to their small boat, where we took a 30 minute sun shiny early am cruise to paradise. We pull up onto this long dock that jets out into the ocean 100
feet, our bags were wicked away to our banana bungalow andwe had made it!! A family in New York owns the lodge, they come every other month for two weeks, and while they are not there, Joe is in charge. He has been with them for over 8 years, and gave us a wonderful tour of the property making us feel right at home. Playa Nicuesa is right on the Gulfo Dulce in a National Park. The whole property was built by hand, no big machinery and is almost as sustainable as you can get in all aspects. They grow as much of their own food as possible, the meat comes from the farm next door, they buy all organic when they don't have enough, they plant trees, recycle, compost, and have little to no waste. The water is heated by propane and solar panels, they don't use a drier they hang everything in their solar dryer. Everything is energy efficient -- they rate sustainable hotels with "leaves" instead of "stars" -- 5 being the best -- Playa Nicuesa has 5 leaves.
Over our three days here we: Walked to the caves, swam, watched sunsets, star gazed, kayaked to
the botanical gardens, did an edible and sustainability tour, cooked dinner, hiked on almost every trail in the nature reserve, planted trees, did yoga and madealmost zero decisions. Food was prepared breakfast, lunch and dinner; all you had to do was show up. The hardest question I had to answer was, "what do you want to drink?" We had a seriously fabulous time. One interesting thing about the lodging portion was that all bungalows had no screens in the windows -- everything was open. At night, before dinner, you put your mosquito net around your bed so that you don't get eaten alive by mosquitos at night. I was getting into bed one night and there was a bat on the mosquito net. I honestly could say it freaked me out, but I was thankful that little guy ate all the bloodsuckers.
To all of you that are interested in Costa Rica, this place is top notch in all areas.
Crazy fun facts:
• Pineapples are grown on a bush and take 1 year and 7 months to make a mature, ripe fruit organically -- Pineapples (grown by Monsanto in CR) that aren't organic take
only 7 months to become mature and ripe -- because of all the hormones that are pumped into them.
• A Banana plant (not a tree) takes 7 months to mature and make fruit. Each plant only has one flower, therefore only producing one buddle of bananas per plant. After the bundle is picked it grows a child plant. I don't know this for a fact but I heard that bananas in the US have causes hostility between many countries because of our ridiculously low prices
• Paprika grows in a pod on a tree
• Peppercorns grows on a bush (looks like tiny little grapes)
• There are three different types of garlic plants - one of the plants the garlic taste is in the leaves. In Costa Rica, they wrap meat (mostly pig) in the garlic leaves as a marinade
• The Costa Rican Country tree is a Guanacaste -- This is the tree that Evan planted
• 25%!o(MISSING)f the worlds biodiversity comes from Costa Rica
• Costa Rica has one of the most balanced eco systems in the world
Animals sighted: • Frogs, Butterflies, Lizards, Geckos, Spiders, Bugs, Bats, Toucans & Coatis.
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