Asoporola Eco Lodge - La Amistad

Hola!
I'm back online after three days in Asoporola Eco Lodge in La Amistad.  There are 72 families living in Asoporola and they all work together - producing coffee and bananas organically, growing vegetables, working with honeybees, and making cosmetics.  They have cattle, chickens and pigs and "live off of the land."  They also provide "agro tourism" experiences, which is what we participated in.  We milked cows, (photo below) planted coffee, learned how to make mosaics, jam and cosmetics, and hiked in the forest.  Somehow they share in the profits, but it's still not clear to me exactly how that works.  They live next to a national park and help to preserve it.  La Amistad is the largest national park but the least visited.  The government isn't interested in increasing tourism in the area, but they do research there.
Now we are in Manuel Antonio, a resort area on the ocean where we have internet access and can work on our curriculum projects.  I've traded waking up to the roosters crowing to the monkeys howling!
Below are some pictures of Asoporola - a local artist named Pancho created mosaics on almost every building - I took a shower in an open air bathroom make entirely of mosaics.  Hope the photos give you some idea of what it was like.  It was an experience like no other - I loved it!
I'm also adding a couple of photos from the walk on the beach back in the Corcovado Reserve so you can see our guide cracking open the coconut with his machete.  Several of my friends here have bought machetes to bring home - not me!