Buenvivir

Caribbean coast. Zero complaints.

Arriving in Costa Rica felt so familiar. Like stepping into the home of a good friend you haven’t visited in a while. You still know where they keep the cups in the kitchen, you know? That’s what it felt like for me to come back to Central America. I could navigate the city, I spoke the language, I recognized the smells. I knew the feel of the air and the shape of the trees and the colors of the buildings. In many ways it was the same home away from home I knew so well before, but a new country in a familiar region also offered a lot to explore.

I was traveling this time not for work but for school. Rather than leading students, I was a student myself, on a field course as part of my graduate studies. I joined a small cohort of peers focusing on Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) of sustainable development projects. And while M&E is a skill set that I have long wanted to get some real training on, my biggest takeaways from the trip ended up having very little to do with it. What I learned was (arguably) much more valuable.

To set the scene, Costa Rica was everything you think – lush green mountains, volcanoes, tropical forests with beautiful bright-colored flowers, and picturesque beaches. We ate rice and beans (usually gallopinto) every day for nearly every meal, along with super good coffee and fresh juice made from delicious fruits, a lot of which are hard to find in the States (guanabana was a fave). And yes, there were sloths, along with monkeys and toucans, and sneaky iguanas who would show up next to us at breakfast.

Plato casado aka meal with all the fixings - rice, beans, plantains, etc, plus mango juice

We spent the first six days of the trip on the campus of EARTH University, basically in the center of the country. EARTH was a big part of our inquiry into M&E and sustainable development. It’s an agricultural university that brings in students from all over the world to learn sustainable farming practices, community development strategies, and business skills. The idea is that they will then return to their home countries and become “change agents” for sustainable development. We were there to learn about the different projects their students work on, as well as some related social enterprises in the area. We saw:

Seeds of the lipstick tree

• Native plant gardens. One fun thing there was a tree whose seeds broke open into red powder that was traditionally used as make-up.
• Organic farming projects, in particular an experimental banana farm where we tasted like seven varieties – pink bananas, tiny bananas, bananas with seeds, they had it all!
• A different, non-organic but certified sustainable banana plantation which was much bigger. Bananas were pulled around on cables (“banana trains”) to and from harvest, and we got to see the whole operation of sorting and prepping for market - including distribution to Whole Foods. It was way cooler than I thought it’d be.

The banana train, produce en route to a Whole Foods near you

• A small farm and budding eco-tourism venture at the home of an adorable older couple named Lila and David. They told us their goal was to build a place where the children of the neighborhood could plant their own trees and watch them grow as they were growing, too. Where is my heart-eyes-crying emoji?
• Multiple cacao farms where we gorged on a thousand varieties of chocolate and sweet fresh cacao fruit, and learned about the whole bean-to-bar process. We also spoke with a member of one of Costa Rica’s indigenous tribes about the spiritual significance of cacao. There are whole complex legends around it but basically chocolate is the drink of the gods. I definitely see how they drew that conclusion.

Cacao tree

Throughout each site visit, we were supposed to be gathering data for our project, which was to outline a formal evaluation design for one of the sustainable development initiatives we saw, based on our observations and conversations with the people working there. So we interviewed several people involved, and one common theme surprised us all. It’s something Latin Americans call buenvivir – good living or more accurately, quality of life. Over and over when we spoke with folks about their definition of success – What is your hope for this farm? For this business? What is your ultimate goal? – they told us they wanted to live a good life and improve the lives of people in their community. Financial success and production were a means to achieve buenvivir, but they rarely mentioned profit, only stability. I was surprised to hear such a resounding chorus on this from people all pursuing small enterprise. Maybe I’m cynical but I really don’t think we’d get the same answer in the States.

There's a sloth up there! I'm sorry,
what were you saying? When's lunch?

Outside the project, I had fun living a college lifestyle again and getting to know the other students in the cohort. We would organize snack runs into town, dance parties at the nearest bar, meet-ups at the campus coffee shop, and exploratory quests to find a hidden swimming hole we’d been told about. We played cards and drank beer in our “dorm rooms” at night, and ate all our meals at the school cafeteria. It was impressively easy to feel, and act, like a kid again when I was back in that setting. Several times I caught myself doing the exact same things that get under my skin when my own students do them – getting distracted during a scheduled speaker, getting frustrated when we weren’t given enough free time. Light bulbs went off. Next time I may cut my kids some slack.

Final sunset from a San Jose rooftop

After nearly a week on the EARTH University campus, we spent a final two nights on the Caribbean coast in Cahuita. It was beautiful, beachy, and full of ex-pats. I don’t blame them for wanting to relocate there – I could have played in the waves a bit longer. But after the program ended I quickly caught the bus back to San Jose for one more exciting new encounter. I got to meet up with a whole branch of my fiancé’s family whom I’d never met, the Costa Rican side. His cousins brought me to dinner at a mirador – a fancy restaurant up in the mountains that overlooks the city. We had a lovely view and an even lovelier time getting to know each other. 

Because of the family, I know I’ll be back in Costa Rica one day, and I very much look forward to it. I mentioned at the beginning that I felt very at home there, in a lot of ways. I also got to depart from my norm enough to feel refreshed by the end. I focused on the present, and experienced buenvivir – remembering that sometimes living a successful life means slowing down and enjoying the beauty around you.