Christmas in Valle Azul at Matilde's

Spending Christmas so far away from home and family, I was looking forward to arriving at Matilde's house. She and her family seemed to be a very warm and welcoming from their Workaway profile so it was the place I wanted to be for Christmas, especially because they are engaged in environmental and social projects and she said they don't do anything commercial with gifts but simply spend time together and cook food, perfect. They truly were welcoming and warm, I was really happy to be there. I spend 4 really sweet and fun days with Matilde, her daughter Nissa (19) and family friend Raquel with her children (although at their grandparents for the vacation time). The time with them was very chill, relaxed and fun. There wasn't much work for me to do because I stayed so little time and it was mostly raining the whole time, so not possible to work in the garden. 'What do you do when it rains here?' 'well, just as we are doing now, we have nice conversations, we cook food and do creative things like painting, knitting, etc.' Pura Vida! I did just go to pick some oranges (green!) from the tree in the backyard to make orange juice, scatter the compost in the garden mostly for the chickens, learned to cook a few typical dishes like roasted pineapple, so good! I also visited the neighbor farm project with other Workaway volunteers down the road working off-grid and with permaculture.

Valle Azul is a tiny village of just about 1500 people, that still has a primary and secondary school, 4 supermarkets, 1 'verdureria', 1 bar, 2 restaurants, impressed! Our first thing in the morning I arrived was going to get fresh fruit and vegetables, so many delicious-looking and many unknown things to me. The rest of the day was simply hanging out, reading, talking, cooking, eating and even a bit of dancing in the evening on Christmas Eve!

On the 25th Raquel took me for a walk all the way to see the thermal baths and the jungle around with this impressive 400-year old tree. Beautiful lush green forest. 

One thing that was hard to for me (and has been hard in this country and will be even more in the next months) is the extreme humidity. Everything is moist and humid and just doesn't dry. My shoes were wet the whole time! Back in San Jose were the air is much dryer, I have a day to wash everything, scrub the mold off my backpack and let it dry before the next jungle place - which will be at 1600m altitude in a forest eco yoga lodge near Cartago, let's see what awaits me there!

Fresh fruit and vegetable in Valle Azul 

If you want to calculate: 1 dollar is about 500 colones and 1 euro is about 600 colones. 

 Such a sweet time with this family for Christmas :-)

That's the street they live on - Valle Azul 

Roasting pineapples for Christmas Eve 

Impressive walk to the forest and thermal baths with Raquel, seeing this 400-year old tree  

Little Aura (who is pregnant) followed us the whole time

One part of the thermal baths - in the middle of the jungle!

Night out at the only bar open on the 25th! 

 Blurry Christmas meal with the typical food: tamales! and delicious tortillas made by Yolanda

Thanks to Matilde and Nissa for their warm welcome into their home