Saturday we set out to see some new places and had a wonderful day! We headed to Volcan, and then east to Bambito where our friends were exhibiting at an art show. This is a lovely area in the mountains with streams flowing over rocks, big pine trees, and cool breezes.

After this we headed even higher into the mountains to see Cerro Punta, an area known for growing vegetables. I had visions of wide fields and was quite surprised. It is high in the mountains, very cool, and vegetables are grown up the sides of the mountains! I will definitely look at our vegetables with new appreciation after seeing all the people hard at work, often clinging to the side of a mountain.

Beautiful mountains in the Volcan area.

Bambito – the resort overlooked this beautiful stream surrounded by tall pines.

There was this gorgeous huge tree in front of the resort.

Joel stood in front of the tree so you can get a sense of it’s size.

Much of the area was very lush and green

Beautiful clouds!

There were a lot of these beautiful trumpet flowers. I especially liked this color.

Many trees were covered with bromeliads and other plants.

A lush green pasture with cows.

What a beautiful area.

As we get closer to Cerro Punta we start to see vegetables growing, and these greenhouses were full of seedlings.

Vegetables everywhere!

Men hard at work in the fields. You can barely see them, but you can see their white buckets scattered through the field.

More men at work in the fields.

Vegetable fields on the sides of the mountains

More vegetables on the sides of mountains

A close up of the last area so you can see the man working on the side of the mountain.

Fields with irrigation pipes.

Mountains covered with vegetable fields!

We saw all kinds of things growing – squash, onions, carrots, potatoes, celery, cabbage, broccoli, beans…

Fields and fields and fields!

On the way home we stopped at one of the many produce markets by the road.

How fascinating to see this area, and see what goes into producing our food! I was told that the volcanic soil here is very rich, and the cooler climate makes it possible to grow a lot of cooler weather vegetables.

I was also told it’s inexpensive to buy produce there and since we were there, I loaded up. The bags hanging above my head in the last photo – they are $1/each. I bought 3 bags of tomatoes, 1 bag of beets, 1 bag of onions, 1 bag of carrots, a very large head of broccoli, some green peppers, and two large cucumbers  $7.90.  This area is about 1 1/2 hours away from where we live so not practical for regular shopping, but I’ll certainly take advantage of it if we are in the area.

I am so thankful for this delicious healthy produce that we enjoy every day, and for all the hard working people who grow it for us. I’m also thankful that we were able to visit!