Today, we met Guillermo (which is Spanish for William). I've spoken with three other people here in Costa Rica whose name is also William and it is much easier for Spanish speakers to say as opposed to "Grady."
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| In the coffee field with Guillermo |
Life Monteverde is a sustainable 42 acre farm that grows coffee and vegetables. The farm is owned by a group of family members and one friend. The farm's main focus is conservation and organic agriculture while always keeping in mind how to minimize the farm's impact on the environment. Guillermo invited us all to walk around the farm for 15 minutes asking us to notice how the farm attempts to be sustainable. After this, we all met back at area that they use as a cafeteria and classroom. We talked about the many things that we had seen such as composting areas, rainwater collection, alternative energy in the form of methane gas (collected from the pig droppings), reforesting and much more. There was even a machine used in coffee production that is operated by a bicycle!
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| My new friend at Life Monteverde |
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| Shannon! |
Guillermo asked that we form groups and come up with questions for him about the farm. There were lots of great questions and he wrote them all down. He divided our group in half and sent us to work on the farm! My group worked a little garden area while I used a machete to cut plants to feed the farm animals. It felt good to be outside working and learning with our new friends. Afterwards, we toured the entire farm with Guillermo as he educated us all about sustainable farming and ecology in general. We ended the day with a group discussion in which he addressed all our questions while we drank the coffee from the farm and snacked on fruit and goat cheese!
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| Maggie! |
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