Punta Mona: Choose Your Own "Adventure"
Waking up at 5am seems to have become a trend, even when I'm not feeling sick. Even though it's not my favorite thing, I have to occupy myself for a little while until it's light enough to venture to the composting toilet. The concept is that you can go #1 anywhere, and #2 in these "hu-manure systems". Essentially, we help in creating the fertilizer that they use on the farm by covering our poo with sawdust.
Anyway, we eat breakfast together (gallo pinto, fresh fruit, eggs, passionfruit juice, coffee, or water) and have a little meeting with the SOLmates to go over the schedule for the day. We have the option of going on a farm tour/jungle hike before lunch, helping to make chocolate before dinner, and getting our hair braided all day. I chose to lay in a hammock and read/nap before and after lunch.
I did feel well enough to help to get the cacao beans out of their shells, which was actually pretty fun. The beans had already been taken from the fruit and roasted. Then they were ground up twice, and we added some sugar to the squishy mess. We also separated it into some bowls to add different fruits: banana, passionfruit, coconut, and also nutmeg. Then it was taken to be cooled down before the Cacao Ceremony that night.
For the Ceremony of Cacao, we sat in a circle in a little bodega near the main house, and Janiva (the SOL director) read a story about the spirits of water, air, fire, and earth and how they are parts of us. we went around the circle three times, each round telling something we are thankful for, a wish we have, and something that we hope for in our time in Costa Rica. We also sang some camp-esque songs in between each round.
Even though I wish I would have had the energy to take the farm tour, I was glad to have a relaxing day.
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