Finca Quijote de Esperanza, our farm, now has a Facebook page of it's own.  We will be talking about permaculture, Steiner, natural medicine, and all things related to healthy farm life and healthy people.  Please join us and click the "like" button.   www.facebook.com/FincaQuijotedeEsperanza

This beautiful eagle let us get very close before taking flight.  My daughter Christine captured her photo as she took off from a fence post on our farm.  Amazing wing spread with the sun shining on her.

This Owl was caught in a fence, my worker Maira found him this morning and came for cutting tools.  She cut him out and brought him to us to rmove the wire from his wing.  Marcos is holding him, and now Felipe and Marcos are on their way to the vet for treatment.

It's a BOY!!!!!   New life on the farm and he is beautiful, just like his Mom...   Life is good in Paradise....

Here he is, my stud, Bullie 2, father of every cow and toro born this year and last year.  He is beautiful, and smiling for you.

He was born just 3 days ago to #96 and Bullie 2.  So beautiful and big.  Marcos had to help pull him out.

This Boa, about 8' long, ate our neighbors chicken this morning, so we relocated him to our farm.  You can see the bulge...  He is full and not happy about being handled.

Costa Rican Pee-Wee adult

We grow organic bananas and plantains.  Lots of different varieties, and hundreds of them.  We eat them every way imaginable, and then some. The farms animals and dogs also love them.  Horses eat them peel and all.  I love hot ripe banana soup with curry, sopa de banano.

Farm life is routine, you have the I got to get it done everyday stuff, cows fed, wash washed, mid-morning breakfast (I don’t make an early breakfast), and your always trying to beat the rainforest rain. Yesterday I was picking lettuce and when I looked up there was our young male stallion, Macho, loose and in the veggie garden. NOOOOOOO. Macho might be young, but he is big, fast and powerful, Dad was a Spanish Pasafino. He was not interested in hearing from me, he was looking for good eats. I drove him with waving arms into the backyard and out of the garden and while the farm manager’s wife stood guard with her broom I went and got my quad for the round-up. Macho left the back yard and went two pastures down to where my husband was working on his backhoe….newly planted pasture grass, also a no no. I raced down on my quad and found Marcos our farm manager, picked him up and on the return trip as I turned a corner heading across a stream named Brava, here was Macho coming at us all wild eyed. Marcos jumped off the quad and ran back to open up the first gate, while I got out of Machos way. We directed him into his new location of the day. I would never have a stallion again, if given the choice. Macho’s only thoughts are eating and sex, sex and eating. I drove Marcos back to work, and I went back to fetch my bowl of lettuce and greens.

These are a pair of bueys working my neighbors sugar cane fields.  They are long horn steers.

Marcos with the catch of the day, Fer de Lance. 

Rocky is one of our nursery girls.  This is cow grass that we grow for transplant. Always trying to inprove the pastures with high quality grass.

We love to find baby bird  nests when they are finished with them.  This one is tiny, soft and beautiful.

This is one of our organic pumpkins.  I make pumpkin soup, pumpkin bread, and prepare it like a sweet potato.  My dogs love it raw, blended with water and poured over their dinner.  We call that pumpkin gravy.

This week we have had two beautiful baby horses born on the farm.  New life, new energy, and so precious.

The guys caught and killed another Fer-de-Lance.  Here is Marcos with the kill of the day. So dangerous.

Turrialba Volcano from my dining room this morning.  Beautiful.....

The Cabecar Indigenous will share their culture with us at this event. You are invited to attend.  We are accepting donations so that we can give the Cabecar children the gift of rubber boots.  We are also accepting donations so that we can give machetes and sharpening files to the Cabecar men.  With these tools they can earn a living and put food on the table. 

Your donations are most welcomed.  You can mail checks and we will purchase boots and machetes.  Our local supplier is giving them to us at his cost.  Thank you for helping the poorest of the poor to help themselves.

Finca Quijote de Esperanza

Ginnee and Phil Hancock
Apdo 178-7150
Turrialba, Costa Rica

A short slippery rock climb up and through a cool mountain stream brings you to this amazing waterfall on our farm.

Turrialba's weekend farmer's market.  Everything you can imagine and more.  Fresh produce, chicken, and the very famous Turrialba cheese.

At the base of majestic mountains flows the Rio Atirro. Its fast moving water is cool and refreshing, and the perfect reward after a long days work. Alan's first full day at Finca Quijote was labor intensive, and included hauling buckets of sand from the river, finishing the installation of a kitchen sink, and touring the farm. In the afternoon Matt and Alan took the dogs to the river and spent some peaceful time reflecting on the day.

Matt adventuring into and across the river, exploring the wonders of our rainforest farm and jungle.

How do you finish off a hard day of farming?  By gathering guavas and making guava jam of course.  Farm hand work is never done and Alan has the job of totally making the jam while I cook dinner.

Alan has the lead and Marcos our head man is bringing up the rear of the herd as they head past my house and towards the town.  It is a long and winding road that crosses over many streams before they get to the new pasture.

This week the men opened up a new pasture after fencing it and stringing barbed wire.  Then comes the fun part, driving the cows from a pasture at one end of our farm down the road, through the town of Esperanza and on to the new pasture.  The locals clear their children out of the street and watch the cow parade complete with cowboys.  I find it exciting to watch them coming down the road.  Alan Eaglewolf, a guest worker at our farm is leading the herd.

Carlos is picking his way across the Rio Oro.  The river is very cool and refreshing...

I wake up to this view everyday.  The Turrialba Volcano, blue skys, happy birds, paradise...

A Cabecar mom gave birth to a healthy baby boy at the farm.  We took her down the mountain to meet the ambulance and go to the hospital.

The wildlife in the rainforest is amazing.  Boas like warmth and they are smart snakes.  This is a big boa who likes to lay in the compost pile and wait for mice, rats or other small animals to come visit him or her.

This evening in the dark, an ambulance came to our house. They were here to pick up an indigenous young person who they believe had been snake bit on Friday, today is Tuesday. He is bleeding from his ears and his eyes. The weather has been too bad to send a helicopter to the Cabecar’s Chirripo Reservation to rescue this young man.




It is our rainy season, and this afternoon it rained as hard as the hardest rain I have experienced. We get 300 inches of rain a year. Hard rain, white-out rain and today’s rain blew down the valley, not up which is usually the direction it comes. So it was blowing down from the reservation.



We heard the ambulance squealing it horn, so when we finished dinner we took the quad and went further up mountain to see if the ambulance was in trouble. He was not, but the indigenous had not arrived as expected. Felipe and I went as far as the Rio Oro on my quad and there was no sign of the Indigenous. The ambulance left and we went home after checking gates, and taking a look at Brava and what damage had been done following the big water event.



I expect the ambulance will return, either tonight or in the morning. My best guess is that the storm was so severe that the men carrying the young man down have not been able to ford the rivers. At various places, they must walk through the river waters, on a good day for as long as 2 hours. This trip can take 7-10 hours depending on various conditions. A healthy Indigenous can make the trip down, running all the way under great conditions in 5 hours. Carrying a bleeding man, in landslide and whiteout conditions…. These are amazing people, able to overcome unbelievable odds.



When the rains stopped today, and I could see across the river, the Rio Atirro, I saw waterfalls cascading down the Fila Atirro. There were also several new landslides, one very large slide on a vertical slope. Not part of our farm, but dangerous for the river.



The bridge in front of the mill in Atirro, is in desperate need of repair. The locals are protesting, in the middle of the night they removed the giant steel plates that we drive over and threw them in the river and they cut down trees and placed them in front of the bridges so people would not drive to their deaths. Good thought.



The Rio Atirro Bridge has become so dangerous that we really needed to question driving across loose and missing steel. The buses refused to cross, and the government is dragging its feet, so the people made their point, dismantled the bridge, then marched to the Casa Presidential and voice their complaints. We can ford the river in our 4 wheel drive truck on a good day, if need be. But today a neighbor was kind enough to open his locked gates and to allow us passage through his beautiful farm. Thank You Machina Viejo!

My friends having the rafting adventure of a lifetime.  Team work, wet and wild in Turrialba.

Awsome recreational, once in a life time fun in Turrialba, Costa Rica.   This is the best!

My friend Vickie and her nephews have been visiting with us.  Here is Vickie repelling down waterfalls. 

Babies are so sweet, loving and kissable.  The twins are very entertaining.    We love them.

It's a jungle out there!!!

It is a long vine snake being crushed by a lizard.

Every now and then, there is an opportunity for a great rainforest photo. Felipe was outside and saw this real life drama unfolding in a tree. He ran in grabbed his camera and took these photos of a lizard eating a vine snake. WOW, this is rainforest life, but most of time we miss these dramas. This is a big liz and a really long snake. I think these lizards look like gargoyles.

Girlfriends 9 puppies eating their homemade meal of eggs, rice, oatmeal, and bananas.  They are fed by me, their co-parent, about 4 or 5 times a day.  They are now receiving a little meat with their evening meal.  I put down the cookie sheet and they assume the position.  Sweet.

The volcano this morning at 5:39 AM from my kitchen window.  It is a beautiful sight to see.

The puppies are getting really playful, we just this morning built them a new playground with shade, and a view.

Girlfriend had 9 puppies, and wow, are they a lot of work for both her and me.  When do I get to sleep through the night again?

Our herd is on the move to another pasture.

These twin Brahman are so sweet and gentle.

Phil working on the John Deere 310G

Volcano Turrialba is a beautiful site seen from our farm.  This photo was taken by the volcano cam today.