Random Food Sources

What do a loaf of bread, a coconut and pure Costa Rican cacao have in common? Today, we randomly found each of them on the road - or more accurately, two of them found us.

We started our morning with a family escort for Laura up the mountain to the yoga center, leaving the house at 5:30 AM. It is a tough hike up about 600 meters in elevation to the Pavones Yoga Center but the girls and I wanted to keep Laura company, get some exercise and start our day early. At the bottom of the hill, a big orange dog adopted us and we promptly named him "Rusty". Rusty ended up escorting us all the way to the top and then all the way back down again to where he found us! He turned out to be a very friendly and loyal travel companion for almost an hour.

Now on to the food...

On the way back down the mountain, we saw a ripe coconut hanging from a tree beside the road. While the coconut looked temptingly easy to reach, it turned out it required April on my shoulders twisting it for several minutes before we were actually able to harvest it. Once plucked, the coconut went into our backpack to be carved up as a snack another day.

After "school", the girls and I decided to venture south along the beach to the next village, "Punta Baco". Bouncing down the one-and-a-half-lane, dirt road that connects Punta Baco to Pavones, we were negotiating the head-on passing of an old pickup truck when the driver stopped and waived us down. He was an Italian ex-pat named "Che Che" who bakes and sells gluten free bread around Pavones. We bought a loaf, driver's window to driver's window for 2,500 Colones (approximately $5). It was still warm, smelled amazing for the rest of the drive, and turned out to be a fantastic loaf of bread!

Later this afternoon, pulling up in front of our house, the girls jumped out to open the gate and said "hola" to an old woman that was walking by. She stopped to chat in Spanish and, finding myself completely unable to keep up, I quickly responded with "Disculpe, no hablo espaniol" (Sorry, I don't speak Spanish). She frowned, reached into her bag and pulled out a package of cacao which she apparently produces and sells locally. Another $5 transaction on the road through the window of our car and we have the main ingredient for a flourless chocolate cake I am going to bake the family for desert later this week.

Blog-worthy? Each on their own probably not but funny to end our day with three foods you would never collect this way at home. It is a different world here.

Hasta la vista!