Punta Mona: A Rough Start
Today we didn't have class so that we could take time to travel to the province of Limón in the eastern coast of Costa Rica. We headed to Punta Mona (Monkey Point), an off-the-grid permiculture farm on the Caribbean. Although I like the idea of a zero-waste living, I was not excited about the multitute of large spiders, sand flies, biting ants, toads bigger than an outstretched hand, and howler monkeys that we will find there.
I didn't mind the 6-hour bus ride so much, because I could chat with other SOLmates, and we started watching a movie on our bus as well. We stopped at a Mom-and-Pop restaraunt, where we could buy fruit, drinks, and also try a tortilla yucca. Yucca is a root that is really similar to a potato, but when made into torrtillas is really sweet, and almost like a pancake.
We got to Manzanillo, a small beach town, where we loaded into 3 lantas (little boats) with our belongings in garbage bags to keep them dry. With everyone in life jackets, we headed out into the Caribbean.
Normally, I will say that I don't like the color blue very much, but after seeing the color of the sea on a clear day, I don't think I can say that any more. We rode the waves in our lantas, got salty spray on our faces, our hair, and our glasses, and after 15 minutes that felt too short, we got to Punta Mona.
Earlier this week, I was starting to get a cold, as normally happens when the seasons change. I didn't think that because the climate is even more different on the beach than in the valley, I would feel even worse. Adding my cold (I would find out later that it was actually a throat infection) to feeling uneasy about "camping," and you have me run-walking from dinner in tears with Hannah to her bed in a loft upstairs.
Our director is wonderful, and she came up later with some tea made from tumeric, ginger, lemongrass, and cinnamon that would help clear out bacteria. She also took my temperature to see if I was feverish, and it turned out that I was. Luckily, I could stay in Hannah's room, and after chatting a while, we went to retrieve my belongings from my private room. I felt okay enough to stand by the fire that the Punta Mona staff had started, but it wasn't long before I was too tired to stick around.
Times like this make me really glad to have Hannah here with me.
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