La Fortuna, Alajuela — September 15, 2024

September 15th, La Fortuna. The garden behind the lodge is a teaching plot — long raised beds, dark wooden borders, banana trees leaning in close. I follow my sister down a soft dirt path, and we stop over and over... Here is the one thing I felt deeply today: a tropical garden is really a partnership with what you cannot see. Every banana leaf that drops, every handful of leaf litter on that path, gets broken down by fungi threading through the soil — the mycelium is the quiet bookkeeper, turning yesterday's canopy into tomorrow's cordyline. Think of it less like a garden and more like a slow kitchen, with the cooks living underground.