Vic and I went to visit her friend Margarite at her nice cafe/art studio on the main drag of Malpais yesterday. She is a really amazing artist, from what I saw at the cafe she does a sort of contemporary Costa Rica vibe to her art. Lots of colour in a paint collage style, very nice. The food was good too, nice Breakfast selection. The original plan was to have a nice swim in the ocean before we had to return the quad we rented but we were hijacked by Margarite as she insisted we follow her up to her new house that was just recently finished construction.
We went and got the tour. It's a lovely house, all white concrete, very open-concept style with a quaint salt water pool in the front. We had a dip and talked about the property and her plans for development. It was a nice visit. She suggested we take a road close to her house up to the top of the mountain to enjoy the view so we did just that. It was a nice drive up on the quad via a gravel road until about half way when it turned into a well designed concrete road. This new road winded us through a dense bamboo patch where a rather large piece of leafy bamboo had broken and blocked the road. The natural blockade, probably a product of the evening thunder storms we've been having, prompted us to park the quad and walk the rest of the way up the mountain. Once we passed the bamboo forrest on foot it was a short walk to the top where we were greeted by an amazing view of the ocean and the whitewater waves crashing along the shore.
It was beautiful. I tried tramping through some brush to get a better view but as soon as I stepped into the green canopy I realized that it was full ofa plant I just learned is called Mimosa Pudica. As soon as you touch the leaves of this plant they recoil and curl up very quickly only to reopen minutes later. It was very Avatar. We had some fun playing with the recoiling plant and then set back for the quad. When we got back to the bamboo patch and the quad we took some time to appreciate how awesome bamboo was. I noticed that many shoots had been cultivated already and we discussed what a shame it was that bamboo wasn't more widely used because of its quick growth it is such a eco friendly building material.
This conversation sparked an epiphany in me. I decided to spend my time in Costa Rica learning more about bamboo and its applications. I spent all morning today researching bamboo nursureys, bamboo construction companies, architects that work with bamboo, bamboo training courses in central america and anything really I could find about permaculture and sustainable building practices. I feel alive with inspiration right now!
My morning of research turned out two gems I'm excited about pursuing. One was a 5 day training course in bamboo construction that's offered at the end of October in Mexico, and the other, an environmental learning and sustainable living center, rural sanctuary and lodge located in and on the edge of the last remaining virgin rainforest of Costa Rica’s beautiful Puriscal County called Rancho Mastatal. I've contacted both places and am very interested in hearing back from them. The mexican course may not work for me because I didn't plan on staying till the end of October but you just never know! The Ranch on the other hand offers volunteer and intern placements and I am very interested in visiting and helping and learning there. We will see how that turns out!
I think today will be my last day in Malpais. We are heading to Pavones tomorrow but first we will head to San Jose to try to purchase a camera so I can make this blog look better :)
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