This photo exemplifies the three days I spent at Rancho Mastatal in early December. After a month of sunshine and caipirinhas in Rio, my soul needed a peaceful place to mend and ground itself. This place was that. My fiancee is an architect who specializes in sustainable building and had been wanting to visit this place, a sustainability education center, for a long time. So we made a pit stop on our way north from Uvita. Words cannot describe the aura surrounding this place and the peaceful vibe they curate in their daily lives. Days are spent working in the garden or building new structures made of earthen materials and at night everyone gathers around the huge wooden table, hold hands, take a breath, and speak about what they are grateful for.

I cannot wait to go back there.

I didn’t take many photos during this trip because I really wanted to embrace the unplugged immersion in nature and natural things. But one morning I took a hike down to a nearby waterfall and found this light streaming through the canopy. It spoke the words my heart couldn’t.

Magic 345/365, Magical Light at Rancho Mastatal, Costa Rica, December 11, 2018