6/11 -- Getting to know you

Today was designed to immerse us in the lives of the local people. We drove to Sonafluca in the lowlands to visit a school and have lunch with a family. We started out at a grocery store where each person or couple was given an item to locate -- in Spanish of course. Some of them were easy for Google Translate, but the dessert was a challenge because it was a takeoff on the Spanish for guava, and not in the dictionary. In the grocery parking lot, Andres spotted a sloth in a tree and focused his long-range view finder on it. We each looked, and then he used our cell phones and the viewfinder  to capture a picture and a short video of the sloth scratching.

Upside down sloth

We also got a view through the clouds of Mt Arenal, the
local volcano.

 In Sonafluca before we visited the school, we walked around the village and stopped at a tiny grocery store. This is where you can find just about everything from groceries to hardware. The stores are too small to enter, so you shop by asking for what you need. Most people got an ice cream bar.

While there, we encountered a lady who wanted to show us her organic gardens. Her daughter was the primary farmer and was hosting one of the twice yearly seminars for a college on how to convert to organic. Some people were working on a section of the field, but most were watching. One of the watchers was a doctor who had spent  time in the US and spoke excellent English. He filled us in on the reasons for this transformation. Costa Rica hopes to become the first carbon neutral country in the world, and is well on their way.

Doctor (in green) explaining the seminar's intent

Orchids in the town. There are many that we have seen here.

At the  school, we were met by a cadre of girls and boys in traditional dress who 'adopted' us and led us to an area where they showed us several tradition dances. We were invited to join them for the last one which reminded us of musical chairs -- when the music stopped, you had to find another dance partner and the loser dances with a broom in the middle.  The principal joined us and took us on a tour to see what kind of improvements they have been able to  make over the last 8 years that they have been helped  by the Grand Circle Foundation (the non-profit arm of our tour company). The girl who had collected us at the gate very jealously guarded her relationship with us and made sure she was our guide through the school.

Next we headed to lunch at a local home, bringing the foods we had collected. One of my favorite dishes was the green bean, carrot and meat picadillo. 

A bird at the home

Kitchen (right) and dining area of the home

On the way back, we saw this man pulling
yucca (casaba) roots, which had been thinly
sliced and deep fried at lunch -- totally delicious!

A kind of a weaver bird next to the top of the nest.

When we got back to El Toucano, Andres led us on a  walk on the grounds.

An itty bitty frog

Another orchid