At 5am we drove off into the direction of Carate. First stop? Learning about the cattle farm of doña Maria that ends up at the beach of Tamales. Here they are conserving a part of the rainforest on their farm. As soon as we turned to the path that led to the farm Doña Maria appeared and welcomed us at the gate. She told us about the reality that they live in. She explained that they want to implement regenerative practices, such as holistic grazing and other ways that stimulate the biodiversity on their land. However, they just don’t have the practical means such as financial or human capital. Also, she told us a story about her husband and a new instrument that should make their farming more effective. Instead, because a lack of learning how to use it, he harmed himself and Maria needed to take care of the tasks that were normally done by two people. It showed again how families that live from a locally owned income are challenged nowadays through the current developments in the Osa. To increase the struggle of their reality even more, the prices of the land here in the OSA are rising very fast now. This only makes it more difficult for local people to keep living in the area, since it becomes more and more attractive by the day to sell their land and move to another place. This subsequently means that their knowledge about how to colive with the surroundings, that they learned through learning from their ancestors will disappear. Together with all the cultural, human, social and others types of capital they contribute to preserving this place as well. Instead, wealthy foreigners to this place and tourist organizations will move in this area, increasing the vulnerability to the negative spiral of contemporary market development. Also, the gap between the wealthy, who often are not dependent on the living income of this place, and the local people who do, only enlarges with this development path. Hence, we move even further away from a regenerative system instead of laying the puzzle pieces together and move towards it.
Along the way to our breakfast, we discussed the issues around the roads and bridges in this area of the peninsula. For example, during one of the maintenance processes of the third bridge, the others suffered a lot from the heavy vehicles that crossed them many times. Moreover, the first bridge, of the five that need to be crossed to end up in Carate is currently out of service for cars. This is not an issue during the dry season, since it is possible to drive through the rivers below the bridges and avoid the crossings. However, during the rainy season this will become a different story. At the same time, the local community that is living out in the Matapalo/ Carate area has been waiting for quite some time now for the bridge to be fixed. Another interesting learning about these bridges is that the bridge that was repaired, was repaired in such a way that the rivers cannot be used as an alternative anymore for when the bridge is out of order. Hence, if an accident happens and cars get stuck, it might take a day before the bridge and thus, the only road is cleared.
At the same time, the bridges and road did enable us to arrive at our breakfast place. Here, the online community of the Earth Regenerators, that has been supporting the different projects of Los Higuerones, was waiting to digitally meet our new regenerative friends. During the meeting a heartfelt connection was made in the digital realm that was felt in the offline world. It was beautiful to see once more how the digital community weaved itself into the physical world with ease and enlarged the heartfelt connection that we already developed in the previous days. The story of place came up once more. How important it is to actually create a compelling story that invites people to become stewards for the biodiversity in the Osa. No matter how short or long you might be living here. It was an important conversation that emphasized how beautifully today's technology can help with accelerating development in this space because it becomes possible to attract talent without the need to come over here specifically.
After the breakfast meeting we went on to Matapalo to experience what life is on this popular surfside of the Osa. We went for a beautiful walk in the jungle to visit the clear water of a waterfall. Here we had a meditation to connect with and celebrate the beauty and abundance of our surroundings. On our way back we were having some beautiful conversations about conservation and regeneration. Sharing a bit more of our vision on how conservation can be upgraded to regeneration through supporting locals with attracting various types of capital.
Our road continued to the area of Carate for lunch at one of the most beautiful places that celebrates the of the Osa, Luna Lodge. Luna Lodge is a placed that has been dreamed into existence by Lana, the founder. She invited us into her home with a big smile and showed us the land she has been stewarding for a long time already. Everything she has been envisioning was focussed on creating a place of regeneration. Regenerating people, regenerating the place, and the reciprocity that happens when we keep dreaming, speaking and acting from our own place of pure love. At Luna Lodge they are continuously working to become a more regenerative. Starting with the food that is offered to guests from their own land, to a non-toxic water pool. The latest development is the process of applying a new composting and gas system that allows to fertilise the soil in a complete natural way possible while using the gas that is generated for cooking for example. We enjoyed a delicious lunch with a marvellous view while digesting the morning experiencing this place of abundance.
After the lunch we returned in the direction of Matapalo for a visit of Bosque Del Cabo. On our way we crossed the river bank where we were presented with the contrasting reality of gold miners that are living in that area. Goldmining is still very present in the Osa. It is a way for many campesinos to earn money, going out into the heat, and gather the little pieces of gold in the rivers. It is a tough job, that demands a lot of physical energy from the bodies. Therefore, many Gold Miners face many physical challenges when they become older. However, since they don’t see a different perspective for themselves, they need to keep working in the way they do.
Arriving at our destination we visited many areas of the land with Laura who explained a lot about the regenerative efforts that are taken on the property. Furthermore, she told us about her project to give turtles in the Osa a peaceful place to lay eggs and return to the see. It was beautiful to hear her story, what they are doing, what challenges they encounter and what positive spin offs are also happening true their efforts. We celebrated the day with a sunset on the Pacific coast line and coconut water that came straight from the land. Later, we met Laura again during the community dinner that was organized to increase the engagement with local people at a local place that offers visitors a beautiful place to stay at one of the beaches in Matapalo. All in all, it was another full day of experiences and making more connection with the biodiversity of the Osa with insights that evolved into further collaboration nowadays.