la Finca... and la Family

i had a sweet time last month on a weekend trip to the Lucas family farm. it was only a 3hour bus-ride from the city, but it had been a long time coming, i was finally free to be able to go along...

i loved the swim (and shampoo) in the river...

 

i loved lounging and listening to all the commotion created over mealtimes...
i loved imagining all the history in this humble country home, and wishing the walls could tell the story...

i loved the fruit...and the silly fun "working" in the fields...

   

i loved thrashing through acres of fallen cacao leaves...

i loved catching mandarins and eating all the ones that split open when i missed...

i loved tromping with friends under the shade of endless plantain trees...

 

but what i loved most was being with a family... i hadn't known how much i had been missing it. 

and though i was a invited guest, an added part, welcomed and included in all the 'to-dos' and in all the relaxing... there were moments over the course of the weekend when tears filled my eyes, and i felt the pangs of homesickness more than i have ever felt in the past seven years combined. 

i hadn't expected that, it caught me rather of guard... but i relished being a silent observer, and felt like i couldn't get enough. 

the teasing banter between cousins, the rough uncle-hugs, the playful arguing of women's voices from the kitchen over who paid for this and who paid for that, the chorus of laughter over the simplest of family jokes...

it all brought 'home' flooding back. And in a culture and in a context so foreign, it was all so wonderfully familiar...

it was family.