Chemin Du Verbosc

The driveway at night!

And in the morning

WElcome – from the Manx Cat

And the gorgeous dog

The kitchen door with original well

Upstairs Hall

Fruit trees – the business of the chateaux

My room

My desk

Sunny window seat

gorgeous carpets

Authentic wardrobe

The Upstairs landing

Other room next door

the Blue Room

the Blue Room

the Blue Room

the Blue Room

the Blue Room

The downstairs Landing

The salamander in the dining room

The Dining Room

The family china

Dining room windows

The downstairs Landing – coats

Sitting room with dog

Such a lovely hound!

Sitting area – in the sun!

Such a sweet host

Harp and other musical instruments

The Music Room

Music Room

Sunny Music room

Chemin Du Verbosc

Fruit trees escaliered

Exploring. Love the green lawns

Barns where fruit is stored

Original farm equipment

Barn

Cottages on the Estate

Gates

The Chateaux Chapel

Sunset over the lawn

On Air bnb and Booking dot com. Totally worth a visit. Between La Havre and Paris, just off various key roads and motorways, close to villages and churches with important Normandie tourist attractions, but beautiful enough to just stay and visit with Michel Allard, the châtelain.

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A view of Puerto Viejo and Caribe Sur

Autumn coloured almond tree leaves….

Autumn coloured almond tree leaves….

Almonds on the beach

Almonds in their original form

How those Almondais trees stay up on the beach

My personal swimming pool. That’s the reef just off the beach, and those are trespassers. They don’t know there’s more the same just round the trees.

My favourite swimming hole in Puerto Viejo near the village, under the trees

Leetchies – a truckload of them

Leechies

Cahuita – fallen trees

Cahuita – almost fallen trees

Cahuita – fallen trees

Can you see him?

Cahuita trail – left by the leaf-cutters in the tree above… beautiful but depicting destruction

Cahuita – racoon-like creatures will lookup name later

Observing the observer… totally yogic. Love that suit

Ha. A trained monkey. DO NOT FEED WILDLIFE ANYWHERE ANYHOW. You change their behaviour. NOT GOOD

My favourite local bird died. Camera not good enough to capture him alive, sad to see but glad I got this image of him

Amazing half-eroded coral branches looking like human bones…. a whole beach full.

Perfect Caribe Sur beach – this I think was Manzanilla

La bicicleta on the beach at Manzanilla

Can you see the hole in the cliff? No, really…..

Another perfect day in paradise

Cute!!!!

A funky treehouse retreat along the high way to Manzanillo

On the road to Manzanillo, before the hill. Love those treelined pavements

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Permaculture Training with Douwe Wielstra at Verdenergia

Discussing the nursery near my favourite spot for chilling, the heart shaped pond

Coffee plants al la Non-organic, unfortunately. Its complex and lots of work to convert.

This is the effect of cattle pastures and deforestation. Fairly common in much of the Verdenergia area

This is what our Permaculture project client was most concerned about, so that’s why the concept of an Infinity swimming pool, that fed into some ponds, and was managed without chemicals (details in other images)

This is an attempt at reforestation with very valuable hardwoods, but the ‘understory’ of naturally occuring low lying trees and some shrubs, is missing

Loved this tree – tells a tale about the effect of local winds

Douwe resting while we plot the area in footsteps, for a map

Ancient mapping technique – the use of stride length to calculate the whole area

Initial pictures – still need to add the detail of some of the great practical sessions we had, this selection currently is mostly images from a presentation we prepared for a “client” in relation to his property, a finca with coffee and sugarcane and cattle, which has the potential to be a permaculture paradise, if only a community could be formed – first step was planning the inital community house (with a natural swimming pool that flowed into a pond….)

Amanda prepared an absolutely beautiful diagrammatic map showing our suggested layout, and
Lauren prepared a huge planting list with great suggestions of what to plant, relevent to the area, erosion issues, reforestation requirrments and altitude, which I’ll add later too.

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Verdenergia Permaculture farm

Heart shaped mini-pool, wr had a fire-powered hottub party in this one night….

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Week 2 – more photos of The Osa/Kirtan/yoga

Jose, the chef at Iguana, is a genius, and breakfast was always a treat

These gorgeous flower-bombs would drop on our roof every now and then, and make a huge noise, although they’re so fragile and beautiful

Note the shiny floor covered in condensation…

Gorgeous yacht on the horizon at sunrise – Osa Peninsula, Drake bay

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Week 1 – yoga retreat with Kirtan Smith

New years Resolution… walking away from the old me

Iguana lodge – main reception

Oh – another 5:45 am sunrise, my dad will be surprised! ! (I don’t really do mornings)

A cheeky smile from Kirtan Smith our yoga teacher and retreat host

Another sunrise 5:45am

Kirtan, Spike and Jen on the beach for sunrise meditation

Yoga hall near the pool, Kirtan demonstrating a stretch

Blam-blam the other doggy host

Hightea in the afternoon with the ladies on my Casita balcony

Casita Comfortablesn- Iguana Lodge – very highly recommended

Dana at high tea on the casita balcony

Spikethedog was a popular host at Iguana Lodge, that’s beautiful Dana being charmed

Team swim

Junior (still extremely yellow) pelagic Water snake in Drake Bay

No need to comment. This is bliss, definitely

Diving into thegorgeous sweet water of Golfo Dulce

Nathalie enjoying the sun out on Drake bay

Testing the OLYMPUS TG2

Spotted dolphins in Drake bay

Spotted dolphins in Drake bay- there’s a family of 300 of these playful fellas

Walking in the jungle with Sidnar the naturalist

One of the bays on the walk to Matapalo

Sidnar the naturalist explaining monkey figers

Team yoga walking to the waterfall via the beach on Osa Peninsula south end

Warning – children and monkeys crossing….!!!

Sidnar explaining the amazing flower that falls out the trees nearby

Walking on the jungle road – the House of 3 fish

The end of our jungle walk – Matapalo Nature Reserve and King Louis falls

Team yoga in the King Louis falls

Team yoga getting into formation

Kirtan the tree-hugger, this ones about 200 years old

Sunrise over Drake Bay

Stone Balancing

Yoga on the beach platform with Kirtan

Spa area under the main yoga platform

Iguana lodge pool

The view of the casita balcony from the yoga platform

The casita

The Palm Heart Salad at the Pearl restuarant

Cycling in costa rica

We stayed at iguanalodge.com in the Osa Peninsula and it was absolutely amazing – highly recommended for families, couples (don’t get the upstairs casitas – check with me offline), and perfect for groups.
Lauren and Toby and staff…. call them.

Yoga retreat was hosted and classes taught by the divine Kirtan Smith, see his website here

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