Doña Lily, planting trees and hope since 1998

20/01/2018

Cristina Weidlich for Fundecor. Photographs provided by Lidieth Arce for Fundecor.

Lidieth Arce, "doña Lily", is a kind, charismatic and leading person in the mountains of Heredia. Her heart belongs to Varablanca, where she was born and 25 years ago, she and the Cannon family opened the Poas Volcano Lodge. Doña Lily has invested her time, effort and dedication in the Varablanca area, such as tilling the land, working with other community leaders on environmental issues such as the Ecological Blue Flag, and looking for more options for tourists to find more reasons to stay, contemplate and appreciate the beauty of the area, and for this to generate income for local families, through the Varablanca Rural Ecotourism Cooperative R.L. - which she chairs.

"I love this town, I like the countryside, nature, my family and my work.

Since 1998 planting trees with the community!

She is the coordinator of the community committee of the Ecological Blue Flag program. The program has been running for 12 years now; "Since 1998 we have been planting trees, on average we have planted 3,000", coordinated with the Poas Volcano Lodge hotel and have also carried out solid waste collection campaigns. In addition, she has participated in the community's Integral Development Association for several years.

When asked about the mountainous wealth of the area, she tells us that she has had the good fortune to observe: weasels, rabbits, armadillos, pizotes, squirrels, turkeys, raccoons, monkeys, and "a mountain pig that once chased some co-workers. She likes to sow and take care of her plants, tidy up the garden and walk, maybe that's where all that love for the town comes from, for sowing and loving everything she does.

Thank you, doña Lily, for encouraging more people to visit, get to know and protect the beauties of Poás and its surroundings. Because Poás is more than a volcano!