Settled in

I am rounding on day 5 here at Luna Nueva, and I can already see that it's going to be hard to write down all that I am up to. In classic Mara-ness, I forgot the chord that connects my camera to the computer, so it may take a few more days for me to upload some photos. It looks like I'll have to just be highly descriptive for the time being...

This morning I discovered my new morning ritual: a few laps in the pool at 7:30 AM. Sure, that sounds a bit hardcore, but I swear it's heavenly. By the time I walk the 5 minutes through the Sacred Seed Garden, I've already built up a little sweat because this area is always at a steady 85 degrees F. I'm out of the pool at 8 and ready for a breakfast of eggs, fried bananas (my fav!), fresh watermelon, yoghurt, and, of course, some version of rice and beans. All of it was made that morning by ingredients on the farm. I don't think it gets more organic and local than that.

In my blogs, I want to share a few of the awesome trees or plants I have been learning about. Thanks to the 2 resident sloths on the farm, I quickly got acquainted with cecropia treees. They can get quite tall, have candalabra-shaped crowns, and are the first trees to make comebacks from forest clearings. A sloth can latch on to a single cecropia for weeks at a time and only comes down once a week to bury his poop. I think this is wild because the sloth, in exchange for eating 20% of the trees' leaf mass, loyally plants fertilizer that only the tree can benefit from. Soo cool! Another favorite tree of mine is the bixa orellena, which is commonly known as the lipstick tree. When I passed by it with Stephen the other day, he plucked a quarter-sized seed pod from the tree and said, "Hold out your hand." He dropped several ordinary, brown seeds into my palm and instructed me to rub my hands together. Immediately, my hands turned a blazing orange-red color. Seeing the shocked look on my face, Stephen explained that indigenous women of Latin America used it as lipstick. I was even more surprised when he said that several big-name cosmetic brands were looking to market it on a global scale. I pretended not to be surprised when Stephen joked that orangy-red wasn't quite his shade though :)

I received a few plant manuals from the other rainforest tourguide, Robert. I am stoked to become an expert on all the ones we have at the farm. I am hoping within a month or 2 to become a tourguide too. I mean, when else am I going to get to say

and to your left, we have the Boussingaultia baselloides. Check out those rhizomes!

Equally as colorful as the scenery are the guests and workers at the farm. I am learning almost as much by conversing with the people who are attracted to such a special place. From Whole Food natural connosiers, to company presidents, then former Costa Rican rockstars, and finally to architect professors from Texas, I can't believe all the walks of life I am encountering. If this is what is going on in less than a week...?

My friend Kristin is not going to believe this- I might start leading yoga sessions at the bamboo garden every morning...

more soon! kjlas d; (i just wrote that because a toad just jumped on my foot and i thought it was funny so I'm going to leave it)