New Friends, New Food and a little bit of Mysticism

On Wednesday we spent the day at Finca Luna Nueva. We took a tour of the facilities where we learned about organic biodynamic farming in Costa Rica. The tour lasted a few hours and some of the highlights were:

• meeting the pigs and goats who help work the soil when fields are being rotated
• tasting tumeric straight from the field. If you ate too much, you were left with the "mark of health", which means your teeth and lips were stained yellow.
• Seeing a toucan and a sloth in their natural habitat. I bet the sloth is still in the same tree today as it was yesterday... that is how slow they move
• Eating all kinds of herbs, beans, plants from the garden and fields.
• Learning about all of the elements involved in biodynamic organic farming, such as an astronomical planting and sowing calendar and the balancing of the interrelationship of plants, soil and animals.

Check out the photo gallery for more pictures and explanations.

Enjoy!
Carolina

Last night, our group met with Kim Dooley from Texas A&M who is here visiting their Solstis Center and who is also a part of the grant. She introduced her interpretation of the RLOs and then we all as a FLC discussed and brainstormed some of the groups topics and objectives.

This afternoon we are headed to Rancho Margot, and good example of Eco-tourism in Costa Rica that is on the outskirts of Arenal, the volcano! More stories and pictures to come...

We're here, and it's dark and not rainy

Hola from Costa Rica! We're here, and the Internet is great. Here we are at the hotel, checking our e-mail:

Notice all the netbooks. These are awesome little machines. Paul Thomas took this photo with his iPhone. Those are also handy little machines.

Tomorrow we head out at 7 a.m. for Finca Luna Nueva in San Ramon. Finca Luna Nueva (New Moon Farm) is a certified organic biodynamic farm. We're meeting a group from Texas A&M. More details to come tomorrow as internet is available.

Buenas noches to all!

Ready... Get Set...

A handful of CAES teaching faculty and staff are participating in a teaching-focused international experience, traveling to Costa Rica to develop Reusable Learning Objects to bring the "world" to their classroom.

As a Faculty Learning Community, we will be visiting agricultural locations such as small "fincas" (farms), larger food producers and educational institutions, all while experiencing the Costa Rican culture!

Below you will find an itinerary for our trip!















Please visit our blog as we document our travels, our process and our learning experience!