Hacienda Mil Bellezas - The place of a thousand beauties

Yes this is actually the name where I am now! Doing my first Workaway in Hacienda Mil Bellezas, a a jungle and horse ranch remotely situated on the South Pacific Coast between Quepos and Parrita, close to the most visited National Park in the country called Manuel Antonio. My arrival is after dark (even though it is only 6pm) so I still have to wait a night before seeing the thousand beauties where I have arrived. Upon arriving I'm happy to discover I have a nice clean private room and bathroom in the guesthouse shared with 2 other volunteers Nicky and Morgan, with mosquito net, fan, space to hang up all my belongings. The white sheets smell good, there are no giant insects around as I had feared - I arrived in such a luxury place! After dinner (6pm regular dinner time actually), I'm in bed at 8pm feeling very safe, relieved, happy and blessed.

A super nice surprise on my arrival: 'Oh by the way we have kittens!' The 2 volunteers found them abandoned along the road walking back to the finca the week before and have been taking care of them. Three super cute small kittens on my lap on my arrival!

The next morning I discover how beautiful this place is and met the 4 horses Kenya, Brownie, Rose and Schubert. The 'work' for the volunteers starts at 6 am and consists in feeding the horses, cleaning the horse pen, brushing them and cleaning their hooves. The three of us were done in just about 1 hour, so plenty of time to freshen up and chill before the 8am breakfast time. Delicious breakfast in the rancho with rice and beans, eggs, fruit, toast and fresh lemonade from the fruit trees on the ranch. After breakfast, the next part of the 'work' until 12 is to go on a horse ride! Although the first day was different because the owner had a tour booked, a family of 4 was coming for a hike and horse ride. And I was then able to join them on the hike around the property and get to know this beautiful place! How rich and lush and green it is here. Just stunning, like a complete different world. The end of rainy season  means still quite some rain and mud on the paths, it was a nice easy adventure with beautiful view on the Pacific Ocean at the top.

On my second day, no horseback riding either because a tour was booked, we prepared the horses and took care of them afterwards. But the next 4 days we rode the horses every morning, about 30-40min through the jungle or up the road where Nicky and Morgan showed me all the great places to take a break, let the horses graze while we went for a swim in the rivers, such stunning and remote secret places the middle of the jungle. Waow, I just can't believe I'm here and this is actually part of the work, feeling extremely lucky and blessed. Each horse definitely has their own character, Kenya is the easiest one to ride and the one I choose each time, as a non-experienced rider. She is also the leader of the group when feeding time comes, she won't let any other horse eat before she does. Schubert is the younger one, don't get too near his back legs or he may kick! But he is still sweet and very fast runner. Brownie is always in the back, doesn't like to be in front and really sweet most of the time. Then there is Rose, she is quite a number, nervous sometimes and won't let you touch her when she eats, but she loves to ride and gallop.

The baby lamb and the mother - sad story
On the ranch, there are also some chickens, super cute ones who like to walk around the property but also go back to their pen to sleep around 5pm when the sun begins to set. And sheep! Markus introduced the male as the most dangerous animal on the property, because he is very protective of his females and will charge anyone coming near! When I arrived there was already a cute baby lamb born a few days before, and on my third day, a new lamb was born, sooo cute. Although Markus noticed that it was unusually small and that the mother wasn't really taking care of him as they usually do. Indeed we saw the lamb around the mother calling but no response, he tried to get her milk but had a hard time and even got walked on by the mom who just walked away and didnt care. It was really painful to watch her not taking care of him and this little frail lamb crying out with no one responding. He even walked out towards the fence and tried getting out, I took him in my arms and the parents sheep didn't seem to care, I took him down to the rancho and we tried to bottle-feeding him since he hadn't been fed since he was born. But we didn't managed he didn't take the bottle, didn't drink from it, we tried all we could. I went to put him back and saw him trying feeding from his mom again, good sign! But when I went back after our horse ride a few hours later, I saw him laying looking like he was dead outside of the pen... How sad! He wasn't dead, just even more frail and no longer strong enough to even stand up. It was now hopeless... this little lamb was going to die. What to do?? Just leave him there or ease his pain by accelerating the process? Couldn't do the latter, Morgan was with me and we stayed for a while with the poor little creature. It only died during the night, holding on so long with such little breaths. And while we were upset at the mom for not taking care of him and not caring for her child, we did notice she was acting weird as well, sitting all the time and not eating either. Sadly enough, she died a couple days later. Life on the farm is tough: animals do not all make it and sometimes there is nothing you can do. Hard lesson to experience.

After a few days of riding and getting to know the place, Markus suggested that I also work with the plants - he is currently building new bungalows and there is always a need to make the place even more beautiful with more flowers and plants. Here plants are very easy to transplant and spread, so he showed me around some of the easy and beautiful plants that I can play around with and dig up from one place where they have already spread alot and bring a few to a new place around the property. There are also 2 ylang-ylang trees in pots that are ready to plant. The easiest to transplant is the Hummingbird tree (Rabo de Toro or Rabo de Gato or Porterweed, Stachytarpheta jamaicensis), only need to cut off a branch and place it in the soil with compost, and apparently it will grow roots. Wish I could be there to see them grow. Lots of other beautiful red and orange flowers that I dont know the name. Also planted some pineapple and 'Sacate Limon', a sort of lemongrass that also looks beautiful. Luckily I also got help from Luis and David, the 2 local workers on the farm and well as Vuk, the other volunteer from Serbia who's work is more construction and manual work around the place.

Meal times are always a great moment of the day, the rancho is really well equipped to make good food and Nicky was cooking delicious veggie burgers almost every night. Because we ate dinner at 6pm, by the time it was 8pm it seemed like it was super late at night, being already dark for several hours. The longest we stayed up was probably 10pm which felt like 1am!

Afternoons were  chill time and it usually rained, and when it rains, it pours! Sitting on the back porch of the guest house one day, bottle feeding the kittens with Nicky, and hanging out with Vuk and Morgan, we heard noises and movement in the trees in front of us, monkeys!

Eight days went by really fast and I had a workshop booked after this so couldn't extend my stay - although I would have loved to. What a beautiful experience on this farm, thanks to the generosity of Markus for hosting volunteers, the friendships with all the cool people there and the richness of Costa Rica's nature.

 Meeting Kenya

Arrival night: 3 tiny kittens on my lap! 

Cute comfy room

View of the rancho (outdoor kitchen) and the farm

Jungle hike 

This beautiful river is also on the property

The rancho at night

Breakfast time with the volunteers Vuk (Serbia), Nicky (Netherlands), Morgan (Idaho, USA)

 Newborn baby lamb, unfortunately didn't survive...

Banana trees on Hacienda Mil Bellezas 

Morning chores picking up the horse poop!


Saturdays: shower for horses

 Kenya all saddled up ready to go riding

Taking a break during our horse ride to swim in the natural pools on the property

Jungle trails on the horse

Fun times with Nicky and Morgan 

Also did actual work - transplanting new plants around the rancho to make it nicer and along the paths up to the new bungalows being constructed   

With the expert help of Luis one of the local workers on the farm 

End result of one of the new patches 

Planted ylang-ylang tree, wish I could see it grow and smell the flowers

Monkey-watching from the guesthouse terrace - photo from Vuk

The hummingbird tree - photo from Vuk

Vuk from Serbia and David one of the local workers on the farm bringing fresh grass for the horses

 Full moon at Hacienda Mil Bellezas

Delicious vegetarian meals cooked mostly by Nicky then Cassi. Nicky was cooking a new kind of veggie burger each night! And when she left, Vuk became vegetarian and continued cooking veggie burgers every night! My favorites: beetroot and cabbage

Fun burger nights with 2 new volunteers Cassi (France) and Julia (Austria)

 Last breakfast saying goodbye to Cassi, Vuk, Julia and owner Markus