This weekend, I had the opportunity to visit Punta Mona in the southern Costa Rican province of Limón. Punta Mona is an off-the-grid permaculture farm that aims to live life completely self-sustainably in sync with the environment. Created by Stephen Brooks, one of the foremost world leaders in environmental sustainability and permaculture technology, Punta Mona is wonderfully isolated (it can only be reached by boat or by hiking through the jungle-- no roads lead there) and a true slice of paradise.
So, on Friday, everyone in the Sol Education program (affectionately called SOLmates) boarded a bus and traveled south to Limón. The culture of this province is wonderfully rich with Caribbean influence; the dialect is a hodge podge of Spanish, creole, French, and English, and the FOOD is some of the best I've ever tasted. Not to mention Limón is home to some of the most beautiful beaches in the world. Unfortunately, because of the intensity of the drug trade, the province is also considered to be the most dangerous place to go in Costa Rica. Because of this, we were all so thankful to get to go to Punta Mona in the security of our group and of the farm's location.
My first experience in the Caribbean:
We had to pile into small boats called lanchas to travel about a half hour by sea from the port of Manzanilla to get to Punta Mona.
The ocean was absolutely incredible.
Upon our arrival, we were greeted by none other than Stephen Brooks himself, the founder of Punta Mona, along with about a dozen other joyful workers. We were introduced to the two main buildings, both situated right next to the beach, where we would eat, sleep, hang out, and watch the residents prepare our ridiculously amazing meals.
(yeah. Those are hammocks up there).
Permaculture is basically planting a ton of varieties of plants so that you'll always have something to eat, and supporting that system by reusing resources in a self-sustaining ecosystem. At Punta Mona, every part of every meal was grown right outside the kitchen, 100% organically. It was some of the best, freshest food I've ever, ever had. Each night, we dined by candlelight in the midst of the jungle surrounded by the sounds of the ocean waves and wildlife.
On Saturday morning, we took a tour of the permaculture farm led by Stephen Brooks himself. I learned about and tried tons of fruits and vegetables that I simply picked off of limbs. It felt like walking through the Garden of Eden. And my, did I taste and see.
This is Stephen standing next to a cluster of bamboo. A really, really BIG cluster of bamboo.
Who knew that Wonderland plants existed in real life?
One of my favorite things I've ever seen had to be the jade plant. This is a real thing.
Saturday afternoon, we just got to have hammock time, explore, or kayak, so obviously I did all three, especially with this view.
At night, we slept beneath mosquito nets and listened to the sound of the ocean coupled with the wild noises of the jungle. This includes calls from troops of howler monkeys that live in the area. Fun fact: howler monkeys are the loudest mammals on the planet. They actually sounded a lot like what I think dinosaurs sounded like. It was eerie and awesome.
The next morning I got up early to see my first Caribbean sunrise... And wow.
After breakfast, we got the chance to make CHOCOLATE from literal scratch. Like, take-the-cacao-fruit-off-of-the-cacao-tree-and-chop-it-open-with-a-machete scratch.
Cacao has officially replaced the honeycrisp apple as my favorite fruit. Eaten raw, the meat of the fruit covering the large cacao seed is white, soft, juicy, and sweet. It's nature's ice cream. We all got to try it while we roasted, peeled, and ground the other cacao seeds. After rolling the cacao into morsels mixed with things like honey, fresh coconut, chai spice made from the garden, sea salt, or ginger, we got to try them later on. Language doesn't capture those tastes or smells.
Finally, we had to say goodbye to the little piece of paradise. But we return armed with information and ideas on how to shape our world and live sustainably with our planet thanks to Stephen and his crew. It was a ridiculous privilege to be at Punta Mona, and it was a weekend I'll never forget.
