Summer journal entry (ACTIVE)

This summer I was active by going on multiple hikes with my family while exploring our beautiful country, but the one that stood out to me was in Heredia. We stayed with Karen and Roberto who are extremely good friends, and like our grandparents from Costa Rica. They have a large property in the mountains of Heredia that’s super peaceful and surrounded by nature. We have been visiting them there for years, and it’s actually where we stayed when both me and my brother were born. I really enjoy staying with them and it’s always sort of nostalgic. The first morning we were there we went on a long hike around their property with Karen guiding us, she’s extremely knowledgeable and listening to her is very interesting. They also have around 8 dogs who love to come on the walks making the experience even more memorable. The hike started from literally the back of their house, and Karen guided us as we started going up into the forest on a little trail. The nature around us was so beautiful, everything was green and the air felt so fresh. We then passed a little bridge over a river, and continued walking. Then we reached the cafetales, in this property which is shared between a few people, there are fields of coffee plants which were super cool to see again after not seeing them for a few years. Karen showed us around, we tasted the coffee bean fruit and she explained how the workers collected the coffee. This year the coffee plants had so many fruits it was very impressive to see. Something not as positive was when we passed a field that looked dead, Karen explained that one of the owners decided to use pesticide on this piece of land to clear it which was extremely infuriating to her because they hadn’t used pesticides on this soil for more than 20 years, all of their coffee is grown completely naturally. It was super upsetting to see this as she explained that it takes up to 7 years for the soil to be rid of them. Through the hike she made us try different spices and fruits that were along the trails like cardamon and a peruvian herb called chincho. This was memorable for me because it had been a while since I had been in the middle of nature like that, it felt sort of like an escape, everything was so calm. As we made it back I felt like my mood improved, in a way I felt more fulfilled and energized. During the hike I felt very serene and grateful to be able to be in places like this without leaving my country and just taking a path from the house. I connect this story from my summer to the learning outcome number 7 as firstly Karen in my opinion is a role model when it comes to ethics, and the story about the coffee allowed me to analyze the ethics of the owners choices, and the consequence it has on the land and nature. This story also connects to the Ib learner profile of Knowledgeable as during this hike I learned many different things from Karen about the nature around me. Such as the names of trees, plants, the consequences of pesticides, invasive species, what different spices look like as plants, and the process of how they cultivate the coffee. Some interesting things I learnt about coffee cultivation are; they keep the coffee plants shorter so that it’s easier for the workers to collect them, and all coffee from Costa Rica is still collected by hand. Learning more about coffee was super interesting as it is such a big part of our local culture and economy.