This title can be taken in two contexts. The first is the service project we were able to do, painting a local school in Monteverde. Thus, helping forge a path for education in the community by helping improve the schools. The other context was the wrong turn we took on our way back to our homestay. We forged our own, extremely long, path from one MasxMenos to the next. We walked through the center of a small town called San Pablo and it was very interesting to see the different places and explore a new community in Costa Rica, although we were all very hungry and tired from the long day.

Before any of these events took place, we began our day on another coffee farm with Don Guillermo. Like many farmers in the Monteverde region they have shifted from solely farming to offering a tour as part of their service to have two different streams of revenue. The modern lifestyle and increase of tourism has caused the newer generations to stop the farming and push towards the tourism aspect. This has caused a dairy rich community into a community with a few cow farms still left. My wish would be that the newer generations carry on their elders farms, but in my personal opinion I would want to get off that farm to. Especially with the education focus in Costa Rica I would want to get out of a labor intensive business. As part of a community it would be important for those ticos to carry on the farm to help the community and provide for each other as a good community should.

An important part of a sustainable farm is the engineering and technology. One example that we touched on in the tour was the creation of fertilizers through different environmental processes almost like recipes. They can help the creation of experiments to improve the plants to ensure better processes are continuously discovered. These are crucial for the health of the farm and plants. I think many things bring joy to these tico farmers. The one linked to the tourist side of the farm is I think it brings them joy when tourists express interest in these farms or a desire to help. Creating a positive tradeoff for both the farmer and the tourist. Another thing is discovering a new, cleaner way to farm. The one zone of coffee plants we saw to day were result of an experiment where no pesticides were used. Don Guillermo was very happy to share after 6 years it was a success and it now grows more coffee plants than the ones with pesticides. You could see on his face the joy of creating a larger quality and a better quantity of coffee plants on his farm.