Robin with the pizza paddle.

Ryan tending the fire for later pizza baking.

This the Mastatal bus stop. Another group at the ranch built it as part of a workshop.

Guanacaste Tree.

This is a Guanacaste seed from a Guanacaste tree, which is the national tree of Costa Rica.

Another Costa Rica View

Juan Luis's kid and a great little puppy.

(No Caption Necessary)

A neighbor listening to Juan Luis.

Juan Luis keeps earthworms to make fertilizer. He's explaining the process to the class.

Trees. And sun. And plants.

Grant, Lydia, Norman, and one of Lydia and Juan Luiz's sons, whose name I'm not remembering.

At first we tried to inflate the bag using the exaust from a truck, but it was much too slow with the small hose we had. Fortunately, Juan Luiz (the farmer), had a blower that filled it in a hurry.

Kathleen with the gas outlet.

Before we could put the biodigester in the hole, and inflate it, we had to stretch it out and take all the wrinkles out of the material.

Linda uses a sight level to make sure everything is lined up correctly.

We installed a biodigester as part of the workshop. A biodigester takes a mixture of manure and water, which basically ferments, and produces cooking gas. The actual biodigester is just a big plastic bag.

Ion blowing the conch for lunch.

A scorpion crawled out of the roof. Grant killed it, and it fell into a container of water. It's still in the water in this photo.

Dona Maria.

Adam taking a photo.

Dona Maria and Papa.

A flower at Dona Maria's

This is Dona Maria's house. Last year, the workshop installed a small solar electric system to run a couple of lights. We checked out the system and talked with Maria.

A close-up of one of the lizards on the masonry oven, using only existing light.

Papa working on the solar shower upgrade.

A local holds the dead snake.

After one of the locals killed the snake, we all got to take a good look at it.

Almost Bit

This is the snake that almost bit me. We were playing frisbee around dusk, and my dad threw a long one at me. It landed in the bushes, and when I went to pick it up, I saw a dark shape in the frisbee. The locals identified it as a fer-de-lance, and rather dangerous species.

Two Guys at the Waterfall

Bananna Spider

One of the projects we did as part of the workshop was to enclose a batch solar hot water system. For the panels around the box, we used a natural building technique called "Wattle & Daub." This involved building a wooden frame, attaching bamboo to the frame, and filling with cob (clay, sand, & straw). Here Roger and Nick are giving us a demonstration of how it's done.

Another shot of the waterfall.

This waterfall and swimming hole is a 15 minute walk from the main house. (Ryan and I ran it in less than five). The lower pool is pretty deep, and good to jump into. Ryan and I climbed all over the walls, up to the upper falls, etc. It was fun to freeclimb over water, since if you slipped, you just got a little wet, with no broken bones.

Some of the students and I took a walk up the road after class. It was nicely misty after the rain.

Frank the translator, and Papa

Juan Luis (farmer who we later installed a biodigester for), Bertila (solar cooking teacher), and Ilan work on building a solar oven.

It rained like crazy two or three times while we were at Rancho Mastatal. It was great to see the tropical rain. I hadn't seen any since Ghana.

A closer look at bananna leaves.

Another pineapple photo...

For those of you who haven't seen how banannas grow, here you go.

Here's Robin washing something. She's often pretty swamped, keeping meals coming, and doing all sorts of other things.

Here Anna Louisa and Roger are readying the oven for baking bread. Anna Louisa was staying at the ranch for awhile. Roger works for the ranch. He's a great guy, and very funny as well.

Maximo! A great, spunky cat. He liked to attack hammocks, bushes, and occasionally people.

Some of the students in our open-air classroom. That's Greg on the left, and Norman on the right. Greg is from Anacortes. Norman is from the Dominican Republic, and has all sorts of great stories to tell about his life, as well as many jokes.

Another flower.