Dena La Explora: Medicinal Plant Start

Today, I woke up early to go on my medicinal plant walk with Don Chinto, Kari’s original host dad from the Peace Corps. We arrived at his house at 8am, and he welcomed us in. I got to see Kari’s original room in Tabuga. He started out our walk with plants from his garden. There was Aloe Vera and Oregano as well as a few others. The most challenging part is that he can’t read or write, so he just gave me the Spanish name of the plant, and I had to do my best with the spelling. There were many interesting plants as we continued our walk. At one point, I smelled so much garlic. I commented, and he swung his machete at a tree and picked off the bark to hand to me. The smell of garlic was so strong, and apparently, that tree is called “ajo” which means garlic. It is not edible, and has nothing to do with the actual garlic plant, but it has the strong odor of it.

Carlos and Carlos

We walked all the way to the Lalo Loor Reserve and up the mountain. I ran into the other students doing work there. As we walked, there were times when we wouldn’t see a medicinal plant for 20 minutes at a time. The whole walk was tiring up the mountain, but when we passed the lodge, the cook inside told me to sit and relax as I ate fresh pineapple and oranges. After a 20 min break, we continued down the mountain and back into town. We checked out a woman’s garden for any of the plants I needed. Then a man named Carlos and his son Carlos’s garden. Carlos and Carlos were so helpful! The little boy was 11 and knew so much about the garden. He also loved my camera and was so excited to help me. They gave me a fruit from their tree called “fruta china” and told me to take a bite. It was DELICIOUS. We know it as Starfruit. After their garden, I told the little boy to come to the library that day, and he did end up coming with his little sister.

That garden was the last of the day, so I headed off to lunch and to the library later. I took a ton of photos of the kids. After the library, I wandered around my neighborhood taking more photos.

It is Jennifer’s birthday, so when I was done at the Library, I made her a chocolate cake. I made a bit extra because I had extra batter. My family really loved the cake and asked me to make it again soon. It was a fun family night.