This weekend we stayed in town (if you can call it a town) and relaxed. Saturday we went and visited Klaus’ Secret Garden in town. Klaus, a German man who looks like one of the seven dwarves, owns this little paradise at the bottom of the Valley. We walked to this private botanic garden from Cloudbridge, which took us about an hour to get to the bottom of the road. Inside we were surprised at the quality and expanse of the secret garden, which was well worth our 3 dollar entry fee. Having hoofed it back up the hill before it rained, we relaxed and cooked Gallo Pinto, the omnipresent rice and beans. Sunday, we slept in and got a ride down to San Gerardo for the feria, the local farmer’s market, where we bought one of everything there. Cheese (Mozzarella!) and yogurt from one vendor; Avocados, Spinach, and Platanos from the other. We completed our shopping at the sole store in town, and then played a little soccer with Sebastian, Jenny’s (the owner) partner’s (the co-owner I suppose) grandson who is visiting for a few days. The hour walk uphill became a easy breezy 15 minutes in the car, and we went back to cook for the potluck! I made arepas, and Sama made oatmeal, pecan, chocolate chip cookies (both the pecans and the chocolate chips we can not find in town, but were borrowed from Tom the manager). BIg hits at the potluck. We shared a meal with everyone on the reserve, and spent the rest of the evening chitchatting and playing cards.
Today We went up to the research plot and finished a whole quadrat in one day! Woohoo! 2 down, 23 to go. We came back so Sama could get a spanish lesson from a local, and we’ve made two delicious meals with the abundance of groceries we bought yesterday.
We send much love to the recently married Kiara and Giorgo, my cousins, and we wished we were there to celebrate on Saturday.
Matthew
P.S. Sama will write a blog post tomorrow with updates and pictures.
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