La Fortuna: A Regenerative Adventure

With our plans to head to Colombia all firmed up this last part of our stay in Costa Rica was partly finishing up our route around Lake Arenal and making our way back to San Jose. From Nuevo Arenal we went to La Fortuna which brought us to the foothills of Volcano Arenal. The volcano is not as visibly active as it was a few years ago when a near-constant stream of lava would be visible in the evenings. Nevertheless, it’s an impressive and dominating feature of the landscape. Moreover, the subterranean geothermal activity in the area means that there is a wealth of thermal spas in the area all tapping into the volcanically heated rivers that run through.

La Fortuna was unlike anywhere else that we’d visited to date in Costa Rica. It is most definitely a tourist spot and immediately has that feel as you arrive with loads of coaches carrying people to and from the various attractions. In the area there is the volcano, the spas and a number of waterfalls where you can take part in some high-adrenalin adventures!

Our house was not particularly well equipped with just a tiny oven that put bread off of the menu for a couple of days. We decided to eat out on our first evening and found a reasonable pizza place in town. From there we went to the central plaza which in spite of the heavy tourist presence had a really nice laid back feeling. It is a warm balmy place and the girls were happy to enjoy the relative cool yet still comfortable evening temperatures playing around the fountain.

We had only booked for 4 nights in La Fortuna and top of our list was to head to one of the thermal spas. After a lot of research Rachael had chosen for us to go to Ecotermales which we set off for on our first morning. Ecotermales is said to be one of the quieter springs and this probably turned out to be a good thing. There are a number of pools there which each flow from the main source meaning that the top pool is the hottest and then they become progressively cooler going downstream. We started off in the middle pool which felt hot upon first entering but quickly became comfortable even for the girls. We only spent a few minutes there before heading off to check the temperature of the other pools. The last one seemed to be where most families were spending their time and it’s around 30 degrees there. However, being the last pool is collects more of the volcanic sediment and does have a bit more of a sulphurous aroma! I made my way up to the top pool to see how that felt. It was like getting into a very hot bath – I think it was around 40 degrees. Whilst it was easy to relax into that kind of heat when getting out I did have a few moments of feeling very light-headed! It would probably be easy to overdo it in that pool and I didn’t use it again.

Probably the first surprising thing with the thermal spas is that they quickly become very comfortable. This in itself isn’t so peculiar but when you consider them in the context of an already very warm country that was the surprise. The surrounding air temperature was probably around 30 degrees that day and so I wouldn’t have expected to find it so comfortable to sit in water around 35 degrees!

Our second surprise was how happy the girls were to be there. We had made our booking half anticipating that we might not get as long as we would have liked. For us adults the idea of relaxing in hot waters fed by underground geothermal activity and full of rich volcanic nutrients is highly appealing. We weren’t so sure that the children would find it equally appealing. However, they very quickly settled into the pace of the place. We ended up spending nearly the entire day there arriving around 10am and not leaving until 3pm!

There is not a huge amount to report on the spas as it’s really a very slow laid back way to spend a day. If you are inclined to do so then you can have a cocktail but we went for an alcohol free version. It is definitely something that we would recommend and we all left feeling thoroughly relaxed and restored. It was to be the first of our regenerative activities during our stay in La Fortuna.

Our next stop in La Fortuna was something of an unexpected treat. Back when we first arrived in Costa Rica I had been looking into various chocolate tours around the country and had found one at a regenerative farm called Finca Luna Nueva. After looking at their website and reading a little about their work I’d decided that it was somewhere that I really wanted to visit. It was part of a rough sketch of ideas that seemed to be coming together as well: we knew that at some point we would be coming to see the regenerative work that Joe is undertaking in Colombia plus we had our time to come looking after Finca Las Koalas. With no specific application for what we would learn it still felt like at some point in the future these various threads would weave together. Additionally, when we had looked at Finca Luna Nueva it looked like a real treat; a blend of experiencing the various farm tours along with luxurious surroundings and good food.

With everything else that had been going on and with all of the planning and revision of plans that had been required, Finca Luna Nueva had slipped my mind until we were in La Fortuna and then I spotted the pin that I had dropped on my maps. We checked the availability and found that they had a family room available for just one night. We deliberated a little and decided that once again it was something that we would regret not doing whilst we had the opportunity so we went ahead and booked up our night.

The following morning we set off. We had booked ourselves onto the Farm Tour for the morning and then the extremely helpful reception staff had said that we would be fine to either check-in early to our room or spend time exploring the farm. This way we would get to maximise our time there and enjoy the farm-to-table breakfast laid out the following day without having to rush off to begin a tour. Our ride there was a little hectic as we had been having trouble with the Uber app which was coming up with absurdly small prices for our journeys which meant that no drivers would accept them. Fortunately, a nice lady did accept but as we hadn’t been able to pay with the app we had to first head into town to get some cash and then set off for the farm. It was close but we made it there with time to spare in the end.

After a short wait we set off on the tour with our guide Roy. First of all he began by explaining their aims to mimic the multi-layer system which exists in the surrounding rainforest. To try and use all of the layers of the forest to create something which is productive on many levels. One of the primary drivers for this is that it makes better use of the resources available. Growing single crops requires an approach in which each plant is being kept free and clear of ‘competition’. However, that leads to bare soil between plants which increases evaporation and thus increases the requirement for watering. At the same time those exposed soils are at risk of being washed away in heavy rainfall. By contrast in their agroforestry system the soil is covered in leaf litter and a thick layer of natural mulch which helps to retain water in the ground. This is further aided by the shade provided by the canopy cover.

We continued along the tour and our next stop was to taste some termites! For us this was not perhaps the shock that it might be for other people taking the tour. Both of the girls have eaten ants and they don’t view it as anything out of the ordinary but rather a fun and tasty snack which delivers itself! So without hesitation Zia popped her finger into the nest and tried a few. They’re not particularly flavoursome and for me don’t really compare to the huge variety of flavours that we have experienced in various ants. I was explaining to Roy that we had tried various ants on our travels and that we had been disappointed with the taste of the leaf-cutter ants: Rosa had been first to try them and she said “They’re crunchy and taste of nothing!”. He told me that they do not have a sting and therefore don’t contain formic acid which would explain the absence of flavour.

As the tour continued we saw a good variety of fruits and other crops which would probably be too much to write up and also loses so much if you don’t get to taste them! Of particular note was one tree which produces a fruit that could be used in place of potatoes as a source of carbohydrates but because it is using the vertical space it takes us far less land than other staple crops would. We know very well from our experiments in the UK that tree crops such as acorns and chestnuts are far more sustainable options than our current carbohydrate crops. For all of us on the tour I think that the real star of the show was the ‘finger lime’ which when opened up contained a cluster of tiny ‘eggs’ with an intense citrus hit. This struck me immediately as something which chefs would absolutely leap upon and it surprised me to hear that nobody was using it yet.

On our tour we met Monica who had been to a lot of the places that we had visited around Costa Rica as well. We enjoyed catching up and discussing food systems and comparing our respective experiences of the country. One of the things about going to somewhere like this is that if you are interested in regenerative agriculture then of course you’ll get to meet lots of other people who share your interest; from other guests to the staff it becomes an attractor which makes it a rich mixing pot for nourishing conversations.

With the tour behind us we checked in to our room and then couldn’t keep the children from the pool any longer! They went in for a swim enjoying the luxury surroundings in which we’d been lucky enough to find ourselves. After that we were off to the restaurant for lunch. The food selection was very good and it was great to know that the produce was all coming from on site or very locally. I think that we were a little disappointed however that the menu did not reflect or make full use of the diversity of produce that we had seen on the tour. I assume that this is in part a challenge of coming up with a menu which is predictable and replicable but I for one would have loved to see a closer integration between the diversity on the land and the diversity on the plate. Putting to one side that minor criticism it was the first time that we were going to stay somewhere that cooking would not be a consideration or an option and that was yet another extremely welcome break if only for one night. Dining out is not something that we have done a lot of on our travels as we have a budget to adhere to and we enjoy cooking but equally we did enjoy those 2 days without having to do any!

The rest of our day passed with a few more trips to the pool, some short walks and conversations with a few people as we went around. We spoke a little to Tom and Terry the owners of Finca Luna Nueva and it was interesting to get some of the background. We learned that during the pandemic they had been stuck in America and the farm had continued to be run by the staff in their absence. I was interested to find out how it had survived without the tourism element and asked if they were part of local supply chains sending the produce out to local businesses or residents. I was surprised to find out that this was not the case. There is nothing wrong with this kind of eco-tourism model but it does make me wonder about exactly what kind of influence that model can have. It becomes a showcase for something which is theoretically possible without proving that it can work. By this I mean that it is making a case for regenerative agriculture based on the benefits it affords to the land without demonstrating a viable economic business model. For contrast, the work of Richard Perkins in Sweden focuses much more heavily on demonstrating an actual farm which is able to be both profitable and regenerative at the same time. In the interest of fairness it should be noted that even Richard’s model is still supported by the camping activities on site as well as his courses. Similarly, when we visited our local regenerative farm before coming away the owner was telling me the sad truth that per acre he would do much better from their glamping than from their pastured poultry eggs or their no-dig market garden! Hopefully, this is part of a transition. At this point in time people need to be reconnected with how their food is produced and all of these efforts at regenerative agriculture are through one lens dependent upon this food tourism yet through another lens they are leveraging a point of influence to change the food system. The more people who visit them, spend time there and understand the importance of what they are doing will hopefully lead to more people valuing their efforts. In time I hope that as Richard proposes it will become just as much of a financial temptation to go into farming as it is to pursue a well salaried job in the city. Sadly, at this point in time that is not the case and farmers continue to struggle to make a decent living doing something which we all so desperately depend upon them to do but hidden under layers of trade and convenience.

Finca Luna Nueva is placed right on the edge of the rainforest and connects to the Bosque Eterno de los Niños. That night as we went to sleep it was to the sounds of the rainforest. In spite of a late night staying up to finish a bit of writing and send out the newsletter I was awake by around 5:30am. A bit like a kid at Christmas I couldn’t resist getting up early to listen to the sounds of the rainforest transitioning from night to day and catching the sunrise.

From our trip to Ecotermales to the stay at Finca Luna Nueva we had experienced a few days which could happily sit under the general heading of being regenerative. We began with regenerating ourselves but all through participating in and supporting other regenerative endeavours. This seems to be a positive pattern which repeats – things which are good for the environment tend to be good for us as well.