Agroecological Farm
Placement number: 0152
Location: Costa Rica
Preferred Languages: English, Spanish
Date: All Year
Minimum Period : 1 week
With stunning views of El Valle de General and Costa Rica’s tallest mountains, including Mount Chirripo, La Gran Vista Agricultural Ecological Farm is well named. It is situated in the county of Perez Zeledon, three hours south of San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica, in an area of outstanding natural beauty. Protected forests, sublime beaches and fabulous waterfalls can all be found nearby. Finca La Gran Vista was established on January 16, 2001, as a non-profit project with the aim of spreading awareness of environmentally sustainable agricultural methods to other farmers in the region. It is intended to provide an example for other farms of how the following practices can be employed successfully:
- Organic farming
- Soil regeneration and conservation
- Natural herbicides
- Natural pesticides
- Enhancement of the natural environment.
The manager of the project, Donald Villalobos, is an agricultural engineer who has worked with the Ministry of Agriculture for over 29 years and has seen first hand how traditional farming practices have contributed to habitat degradation in Costa Rica. To bring about change in the way agriculture is practised, it must be demonstrated to the farmers that the new practices are superior to those currently in use. In an effort to foster this kind of change, Donald has set about creating an ecologically friendly farm that uses the land sustainably; in doing so, he has virtually eliminated soil erosion on his property.
The finca receives volunteers regularly throughout the year from across the world, and particularly from the USA, Canada, England and Australia. Their involvement is invaluable to the development of the farm and to the fulfillment of the main goals Donald has set. Over the years the finca has been fortunate enough to receive volunteers from English and American companies, foreign students at Spanish language schools in Costa Rica and ecology students. Notable recent achievements include constructing an electic fence, digging a frog pond, excavating a special site to produce natural biogas, replanting grass, constructing a spacious living area for volunteers at the front of the main building, constructing terraces, planting trees and repainting the school and church in the community, El Peje.
The farm is run by a family of five: Xinia, Donald, Max, Larry, and Terry. Finca La Gran Vista is twelve acres in extent, and accommodates horses, chickens, ducks, medicinal plants, fruit trees, grass for forage, several crop species, spring-water wells, an area of rainforest, red worm composting for soil regeneration, and a pond.
Role of Volunteer
A typical daily schedule will be as follows:
Work: 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.
Break: 9:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.
Work: 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
Lunch: 11.30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Work: 1:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
The work will include construction, feeding the animals, planting seeds, soil conservation, maintenance of medical plants, using and producing organic fertilizer, maintaining the spring-water wells, and harvesting crops. Each morning you will find a whiteboard with the day's tasks, which will be assigned by Donald The work is at times challenging, but volunteers have invariably found it stimulating and rewarding. Please respect the instructions of the staff, and leave tools such as shovels and hammers clean and in their correct places inside the tool shed, along with boots or work shoes. There are several projects on which the volunteers will be working while at Finca La Gran Vista.
They include:
- Soil remediation
- Medicinal herb plot
- Solar dryer
- Terrace construction
- Vegetable plot
- Biogas production
- Frog and fish pond.
You will need to be reasonably fit for some of the work. Donald and Larry work very hard, but their patience and sense of humour make for a cheerful working atmosphere. Volunteers will not have to work very early in the morning nor late at night. The working schedule, though intense, is intended to be exhilarating, not exhausting.
Cost
Cost is $20.00 per day for 3 meals a day and accommodation. The volunteers will stay with a host family in a rustic cabin. There are four rooms set aside for the students, with two bunk beds in each. Another set of cabins is soon to be constructed at the edge of the forest, two hundred metres from the main Finca building. The Finca is generally well-equipped, with hot showers and electric power sources in bedrooms.
Meals
The host family will cook all the meals except on the days off. The meals will consist of simple Costa Rican food, and will include a lot of cooked rice and beans. Volunteers can learn how to process, and help drink, their very own house wine, a sweet concoction that always goes down smooth. With the large number of guests staying, Xinia will need a little help in the kitchen, and so each volunteer will help with food preparation for a day. This will give them a chance to practice their Spanish, learn a bit about typical Tico cuisine, make frescos, and possibly cook with biogas. We ask that everyone help with the dishes after lunch and supper- it goes much faster with a little bit of help. The best and fairest way to manage this is for the group leader to organize small groups of three who take it in turns to wash up after each meal. Please remember that vegetarianism is not the norm in Costa Rica, but simple requests for no meat can easily be honoured. Don't expect veggie lasagna or soyamilk, but you will enjoy lots of salad, fruit, eggs, cheese, rice and beans.
Travel
Upon arrival in Costa Rica. once in San José, volunteers take a three hour bus to San Isidro ( Tracopa Company, back from La Coca Cola Bus Station), stopping next to the Super Weber supermarket in a village called Repunta (15 minutes out of San Isidro). From there, volunteers will be picked up and driven to Finca La Gran Vista.
In terms of trips into town from the finca itself, the local bus runs every hour to and from the nearby town of San Isidro , from a bus stop twenty-five minutes walking distance from the project site. Coming back from the town, volunteers in the past have found it easier to take a taxi all the way back up to the finca (about 5000 colones); the bus back is a cheaper option, but the walk from the bus stop is a good 40 minutes uphill.
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