Unfolding As I Go - Carole's travel blog

It's my favorite thing: peanut butter. But tough to get by in a package-free way when living in Europe. So it is such a pleasure in the US to find the local bulk shop where they have an actual peanut grinder to get instant peanut butter in our own jar! To top if off, the organic raw honey dispenser is right next to it. I'm glad my grandmother has plenty of containers in the right size I need to get just the perfect amount for the 10 days I'm spending here. And even better, my cousin Laura is with me to have lots of fun during the whole process, her first time shopping bulk and discovering the joys of filling up our own jars. Thanks to the Fort Collins Zero Waste Group on Facebook, led by Katie who responded very fast with recommendations of where to shop bulk while I was in town. For those who don't know me that well yet: I've taken on the zero-waste lifestyle since 2016, co-created the Zero Waste Basel group and when living in Basel managed to have ver

First stop after Costa Rica: Colorado, USA! Just one hour north of Denver lies the town of Fort Collins where my grandmother, aunt, uncles and cousins live, at the foot of the Rocky Mountains. They all moved there from Iowa as a family in the 1950s when my mother was  a child . That's where I get my US mother tongue and citizenship. Both my US grandparents were born and raised on farms in the Iowa countryside, growing corn and soy beans. Three years without seeing my grandmother was just too long and I decided to take an extra flight on my way to Bali and additional stop-over in Colorado. And I'm so glad I did! I got to: - spend nice time with everyone of the family; - go on a beautiful sunny afternoon hike up Poudre Canyon with my aunt and uncle through snow, ice and creeks; - bake bread with Grandma; - hang out with cousin Laura and Kyle; - look at old pictures of childhood (mine and my grandmother's as well); - listen to the brand new composition of my uncle

This is it, I'm on the plane, flying out of San Jose. Three months have passed already, my 90 days in Costa Rica are over. With tears in my eyes I realize how attached I have become to this country and how much I have experienced here. Initially I thought I had scheduled too much time here, but now, 3 months later, I feel it wasn't even enough. Let me stay! And actually, I could stay, just a short bus trip to Panama would have been enough to re-enter and get a new 90-day visa. But I know it is time to move on, it is important for me to keep going forward on my journey and stick to my next plans. And I'm also very much looking to what is ahead. On my first days in the Costa Rican jungle I didn't think I'd ever stand the heat and humidity for so long, but now I am very sad to leave and wish I could stay longer, much longer. This country gives me a feeling of richness, abundance, it is so alive. And it turns out that humidity is actually very beneficial f

I could have spent my last days in Costa Rica partying and going out and visiting many things left to see, take that day-trip to the Irazu volcano or to the turtle beach, or I could have stayed longer in Puerto Viejo with friends or even gone back to Quepos for a day to see that special person I really like, but no, I'm doing what I really need and want to do right now, even if all the other things are so tempting and this is so hard to do: catching up on my blog! I am sitting here for hours in the hostel writing and documenting as much as I can about the permaculture course and days in and around Puerto Viejo and Cahuita. If I don't do it now, it will be even harder later. Here in the hostel, I can make the mental and physical space and have good wifi before I set off on the next adventures. Blogging and journalling has been a way for me to stay 'sane', centered and somewhat structured on this trip, helping me to keep the purpose of my journey in sight (somewhat

This is us with our freshly delivered certificates: we all successfully completed a 72-hour Permaculture Design Course! We are now ready to go and find our piece of land and design it to live off of it almost self-sustainably! Well maybe not that fast but we did get initiated to all the tools needed to make it happen. We spent the last few days of the course designing our own farm on a piece of land on the property. We could decide where we put our house and every component needed to live the life we chose to design, for example: nursery, vegetable garden, compost, septic tank, biodigestor, chicken house, water collector, vegetable, herbs, grains, fruit trees, roots, etc. This definitely got me thinking what was my ideal life could look like and this includes a yoga shala, growing my own food and waking up in nature. I would just propbably need a place that is less humid and less hot! I haven't been able to describe in these blog posts everything that we learned because it

On this plate you see h omemade kimchi, greens from  katuk ,  cranberry hibiscus  leaves and  moringa , served with a passion fruit dressing, vegetable/bean curry and  job's tear  grain from the farm. I needed a post just about the food, because every single meal was just incredibly delicious during these 2 weeks. And the best part is that almost all of what was on our plate came directly from the farm: the vegetable beds, the fruit trees, the bushes and even the weeds. Ana is such a good cook, she can make anything taste delicious. And of course Gricelda who was cooking for us every meal with such love and care. Everything was vegetarian and highly nutricious, I never got hungry, went for seconds every time! Curry made from 3 different roots from the farm: taro, yucca and breadfruit   A delicious buffet everyday  Yucca root, prepared for the meal below  Boiled yucca with garlic plant pesto, pickled oignons and bean soup with greens: katuk, cranberry hib