Day 11 – Soma Garden

Today was our first booked activity since we arrived here.

I started following Soma Garden on socials and just knew we had to go for a tour.

Vaughn the farmer was very easy to work with and very accommodating. We met his mom last week when we purchased his dragonfruit from her.

We had a tour scheduled for 11:30, running anywhere from an 60 to 90 minutes. Well we stayed for three hours and had the best day. There was a father and daughter who was on the tour also.

Vaughn is one the most knowledgable horticulturists we have ever met. His knowledge of tropical fruit was beyond what we could hold in our heads. It would take us multiple visits to remember a fraction of information he imparted on us.

We walked the gardens learning about all the different varieties of trees and plants he has. At certain points we would stop, he would pick us a leaf to smell or grabbed a piece of fruit for us to sample. This is our kind of activity we love.

Mike was in pure heaven when we were lead to two starfruit trees, dripping with fruit. We stood under the trees picking starfruit and devouring them.

After the tour we went up to the farm stand to sample more fruit with his mom. She had made fresh “salsa” to put on fried breadfruit and Vaughn made guacamole. I overindulged in fruit, I wanted to keep going but I listened to my stomach and stopped eating.

Once we stopped eating, we took a dip in the river at his farm. We swam in the Mermaid Pool. At the swimming spot I meet two lovely little girls and they sang me four songs. I felt very honored they shared them with me. They wanted me to watch their swimming skills, which I was pleased to do.