My first 4 days at Essence Arenal

The view from my tent. It was like a treehouse.

 Hey all,

I finally made it the Essence Arenal.  It was quite the journey.  First, I missed my arrival date because I didn't plan properly for the bus trip. Once I arrived in La Fortuna, I missed the pick-up for the farm, because the driver didn't know my name (he was supposed to). So, I didn't get in a van with a stranger.  The farm people were a little frustrated with me.  Then I was late for breakfast in the morning, which put them over the edge.  I blame my roommate for the the night, she set an alarm, and was under the impression that it was lax on the time for breakfast.  It wasn't really her fault, but I had to talk to the owner and convince him to let me stay.  It was really stressful.

Anyways, now that I am here, it is all good.  The last three days, I have PUSH mowed the entire farm, and gathered stones for another day.  Both were an incredible amount of work, but I rocked it out.  I am losing weight pretty quickly, I haven't been on this good of track in a long time.  It is because of the hard work and the incredibly good food. There is an in house chef who cooks amazing vegetarian food, all from the farm.  Pretty much every meal is the best I've ever had.

Millipede I found while moving stones. 

I was living in a tent for a night, but then I was moved to another house with the chef.  His name is Manny, he is a cool guy.  We have been chillin out at night.  He is helping me with my Spanish, and I with his English.  We play God of War II, and drink beer.  On my day off, we are going to get food and have a BBQ.  It is gonna be pretty bomb for sure. He will teach me a thing or too.

My roommate Manny.  He fell in love with photobooth.

Yesterday night, Heiro, the farm help, took me into town to play indoor soccer, on concrete. It was intense.  The whole town was there.  The level of competition was very high.  I was playing goalie for the team.  Playing goalie requires a lot of communication with the team.  It was difficult to communicate with them, but they were very nice and understanding.  We played 2 games, and lost them both (4-3), (4-1), but the team was happy with my performance.  For those of you who don't know, I played in high school.

I just finished breakfast, so I need to bounce out to work.  These are some pictures from the farm.  The volcano is called Arenal.

Hope all is well,

Indoor soccer.

Joe

Volcano Arenal.