4/7/17
Did I mention why I’m even on this wild adventure yet? I have been wanting to go to Vanessa Chakour’s Sacred Warrior ‘Rewilding’ (how apt!) Retreat, and my schedule finally allowed for the dates to align! Seems as if all the stars aligned to help me go on this trip, except then they turned around and started laughing at my mortal self, giving challenges to overcome en route.
Well, regardless – I made it! I’m in Puerto Viejo de Limon, in Talamanca (there are apparently two cities named Puerto Viejo, and alas, I’m in the correct one!). The cab we took from where the terminal bus stop drove down some narrow streets and unpaved dirt roads to arrive at our destination of “Hidden Garden (Jardin Escondido).” It really does seem to be hidden, because the cab driver had to make a few calls to figure out where this gem lies. It is the last house before the landscape changes to the vast jungle – so we are literally located on the edge between civilization and nature, cultivated and wild, Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, North and South hemispheres.
Hidden Garden is home to Rachel Thomas’s Caribbean School of Medicine. I’ve met Rachel before too, and loved her attitude, knowledge, and teaching style. She was away so I didn’t get to see her on this trip, but seeing her property was impressive enough. The main guesthouse houses 12 people comfortably, and is built on the principles of Sacred Geometry. It looks like a large glamorous treehouse built on land. It’s circular, with natural cedar wood, left in organic and natural form wherever possible. It has a spacious patio and kitchen downstairs and 4 bedrooms (each with a balcony) and 2 bathrooms upstairs, not to mention an enormous garden with innumerable plants, an outside shower and another little live-in house. It’s a green house – it makes efforts to be solar – heated, conserves water use, and has natural ventilation.
I’m going to love staying here, I thought. (And was right!)
