A Day in the Life

So some of you may be wondering, what do Eric & Haley do while they are on the farm, La Flor de Paraiso. We start our day off with breakfast in the morning around 7am, and then get to work at 7:30am. Each day, we have a new assignment, whether it be agriculture, farming, helping in the kitchen, tending to the animals, managing the medicinal herbs, or compost. We work til about 10am, and then have a 30 minute break for refreshing drinks – which are much appreciated when hauling heavy loads of grass in the morning. We then work again til noon, when we have our lunch. All meals are cooked by one of two people, and they use mostly only vegetable, fruits and herbs from the gardens and milk from the goats – but they make some delicious dishes.

In the afternoon, we get a couple hours off to shower, relax and socialize. Then we have an hour of Spanish classes where we learn and practice in a classroom – and a little homework is assigned. The rest of the day we have to ourselves to either travel into town, read a book, update our blog, hike through the natural rain forest, stroll through the farm, or just relax. About 6pm we have dinner. Typically a thick fog/cloud has moved in by this time so you can no longer see the countryside.
While we are at the farm, we are staying in the Bobo Chiso room. Our modest accommodations include a double bed, twin bed, table, private bathroom with a hot shower, sink, and toilet, and windows with quaint curtains. Due to the chilly nights, we keep several blankets on the bed. We are the only ones staying in Bobo Chiso, except for some crickets and a couple of spiders that have chosen to keep us company.
For this past weekend, we visited Lancaster Garden just outside of Paraiso. They have an assortment of over a thousand species of orchids, most of which were blooming or beginning to bloom now. They were quite amazing, with large, brilliantly colored ones, and little tiny ones, some that grow in pots, and others that hang to wood on the walls (air plants), and some that didn’t look like orchids at all. In addition, they have a long walking trail that lead to areas of different types of plants, including palms, many different species of Birds of Paradise, ferns, succulents, giant bamboo, a Japanese area with a pagoda and pond with a bridge, and a small waterfall.
We had lunch in Paraiso, went to the local market where we had a fresh coconut drink, and treated ourselves to some orange and pineapple ice cream as well. Sunday was a lazy day with pancakes for breakfast, reading of books, talking with the founder about potential plans to convert some of the farm into an eco-village, hiking in the rain forest, and visiting with other volunteers.