Day 2 Morning - by Felipe and Nadia

As planned, our wake-up call was at 6:30, however, most of us didn’t make it out of bed till 8:00. Breakfast started at 7:00, and we all enjoyed a nice plate of scrambled eggs, pancakes, fresh bread, fresh fruit, and fresh juices.

Street Art by the hotel:

Nadia

At 9:00, we drove to the sustainable village, Yunguilla, about an hour away from our hotel. 

There we met our two tour guides who gave us a brief history lesson on the village and how it came to be.

**The community’s resources had been destroyed by previous generations in order to make charcoal. In 1995, an NGO came and got 18 families on board to work together in order to restore the village. Now, 20 years later, 55 families are all gathered in this one village to further the goals of sustainability, that’s 95% of the people living in the area!!**

We then split into two different groups, one with each tour guide, and went on  an hour long hike around the village, where they showed us some of their projects. We first saw a greenhouse for orchids. The community has 200 different identified species, 50 of which they trade to make a profit in order to keep their sustainability projects going. 

We then hiked up to an organic garden, where we got to try uvillas (an indigenous fruit), and see all the other plants/vegetables they grow there. Adjacent to the garden was an ongoing restaurant project. The goal is to build the restaurant which will serve food made from the plants in the garden. We then saw where they make their marmalade. They make four different varieties, one of them being from the uvillas which we tried in the garden. We then saw where they make their queso fresco (delicious cheeses!!), before heading to lunch.

Felipe acted as translator for one of the groups...  here we are learning how to can the jam!

For lunch, we ate food all made from their local, organic produce. We started with a freshly made cantaloupe juice, and a spinach, potato, garlic, and onion soup. We were then served a second course with beets, lettuce, potato pancakes, avocado, and seasoned beef. The potatoes, which are their indigenous species were excellent. The soup was also interesting, it was meant to be eaten with the popcorn inside of it. For dessert, we got to try the queso fresco made in the building we had toured, and crackers with marmalade made from the local fruit etwas. It was so delicious! Before leaving the village, we all had to buy some of our own marmalade, so look forward to that upon our return!

We would like to take a second to thank all of the chefs and tour guides for taking their Easter Sunday to accommodate us. The tours they gave and lunch they served were both absolutely fantastic.  

And check out this road side bodega... fresh pork anyone?