Rancho Mastatal: The Happiest Place on Earth

It's hard to summarize the last month during my internship in Mastatal, Costa Rica. There is no way to explain the beauty, people, or dynamics that make the place so special but I'll let you in on a few highlights.

Set in a town of 150 people, the Ranch is secluded in pristine rainforest full of hiking, waterfalls, and crawly creatures. Internet and phone lines have just arrived in this secluded haven for the first time. Crazy. It's hard not to use the internet when its free just down the street but I will do my best to resist in efforts to mostly maintain my secluded summer.

A common day on the ranch involves playing with poo. Cow poo to be exact. We make waddle and daub houses out of bamboo and a clay, sand, poop, and straw mixture. The first step is weaving a pannel with bamboo, then combining the wall ingredients by dancing around on top of them on a giant tarp to get mix them together. We then form the mixture into blocks, make a chain and toss them to the building location. The bricks are smashed onto the wall from each side and molded together into a wall. Repeat. After lots of poo dancing, we completed a tool shed and have since started to work on a new shower structure.



Another favorite activity is baking day! We make Sourdough Ciabatta bread and bagels and Bake them in our cob oven. Its freakin delicious!


Other highlights include: (click to see more pictures)

• an intern beach trip
• day trips to swimming holes and waterfalls where we paint ourselves with clay rocks
  
• dressing up as pirates and wenches for cob oven pizza night
• Playing ultimate in the mud with the locals
• Learning how to build furniture and use all sorts of tools like chisels, planers, a table saw, and other stuff I don't even know the name of. Thus far I have worked on 2 different tables and am about to embark on some cubby making.
  
• Building a floor out of clay, sand, and straw and learning how to level it.
  
• Taking a trip in the back of a chicken trucks with 40 people and a motorcycle packed in to watch a soccer game. Craziest ride of my life!
  

Se really, I am working here. Despite the fun, I am learning a lot about natural building and sustainable living. In fact, I am about to write 5,000 words about it which are due in about an hour....Good thing the profs don't know there is internet here!