Noemy's little paradise

Thanks to jet lag, we were wide awake before 6am after our first night, so we had plenty of time before heading to our first workaway station. We used this time to have a cozy, typical Costa Rican breakfast at the hostel and then took a stroll through La Fortuna (that's when we really realized for the first time how unfamiliar the climate is for us).

Noemy, our first host, had already sent us a bus connection to her property ('just say you want to go to Noemy, the bus drivers will show you the way'). Just like the night before, there was a lot of honking during the bus ride, and the bus had definitely seen better days. The condition of the roads made Janina long for a sports bra. As promised, the bus driver was able to describe the way to Noemy, and after a short walk, we were already there :)

Noemy is an incredibly lovely woman in her 50s who lives on a 9-hectare property with her 16-year-old son, a few chickens, and an adorable dog named Lucky (yay, a dog!). She practices permaculture here and we were immediately amazed by the incredible biodiversity on the property and felt very welcome. Our own little home for the next 3 weeks is a quite rustic wooden hut with a toilet and shower, where many animals feel comfortable thanks to the numerous ways to get into the hut (including quite large grasshoppers, geckos, moths, cockroaches, ... the whole program), but we have already gotten used to it after two evenings. The nightly insect check will probably become routine :)

We were particularly impressed on the first day by Noemy's extensive knowledge of all the plants and how thoughtfully her permaculture is designed. All plants here have multiple functions (e.g. nutrients for the soil, soil aeration, food for humans, etc.) and are arranged in harmony with each other. Bananas, papayas, grapefruits, yuccas, gold plums, mandarins, spinach, rice, beans, corn, mustard, ... and a lot of edible things that we unfortunately couldn't remember the names of. The special thing about her permaculture is that no chemicals are used, which of course increases the workload significantly. It is all the more impressive that Noemy handles most of it alone and is absolutely passionate about organic permaculture, even though she told us that she is considered crazy by many acquaintances and family members :) We also notice very clearly how physically demanding the work is, but the hot and humid climate definitely contributes to us falling into bed completely exhausted in the evenings.

We also really liked that Noemy immediately told us which tree is the favorite of the sloths :) She takes a lot of time with us every day to walk through her little forest and look for animals or take a short break from work to observe the many butterflies and birds. And the constant observation has already been so worth it! After only 3 days, we have seen hummingbirds, birds and butterflies in the most beautiful colors, toucans, parrots, colorful frogs, bright green lizards, an over 1 m tall iguana, and of course the long-awaited sloths (and a sloth baby!). And we're not even close to being done :)

In addition, we are absolutely spoiled culinary-wise here - we eat 3 times a day with Noemy and her son, and a meal is cooked every time. And with the variety from Noemy's garden, many of which we didn't know before. Our personal favorite so far remains the breakfast on the first morning: fried yucca with garlic, scrambled eggs with some leaves we don't know, and homemade tortillas. Fresh papaya, banana, and freshly squeezed grapefruit juice, a dream!

Insight from the first days: Geckos eat moths and have therefore become significantly more popular with Paddy in the popularity scale