Costa Rica: April 2016
Border crossing from Panama to Costa RIca
Back to the bus. Only 15 hours later…we arrived. I should point out that, unlike all of the other long distance buses we have taken, this wasn’t a sleeper bus, AND we had to endure a border crossing- yet it was not the worst bus ride. Not by a long shot. I wouldn’t want to do it again, but it was okay. 🙂
Our bus driver was kind enough to drop us closer to our hotel instead of at the terminal and we walked the last 5 blocks or so. Our walk took us along a park.
Futbitol
It was Sunday and there were people everywhere- walking, running, biking, skating, playing basketball, soccer, and some just sitting under the trees, relaxing. It was refreshing to see this many people being active and the families together.
Javier had found us a very nice hotel, with a very nice restaurant, where I had the best salad, yes salad, in probably 6 months. It’s sad when you get that excited over salad. We asked the receptionist about a bus to Monteverde. She recommended that we take the 6:30am bus. I was starting to feel a bit sick, so I told Javier that I wanted to sleep as long as possible, and would therefore not be taking that 6:30am bus.
Our Hotel in San Jose.
Instead, we planned on taking the afternoon bus, rested for the rest of the afternoon, walked to a local spot for dinner, and went to bed early. We figured we’d be returning to San Jose after our trip to Monteverde, and we’d see any important sights at that time.
We took a 5 hour bus from San Jose to Monteverde with no air-conditioning. It was hot and sticky, which made it feel much longer than 5 hours. When we arrived to Monteverde, it was surprisingly chilly. We grabbed a quick dinner before continuing our walk to the guesthouse and pretty much covered the entirety of the town in that short distance. Monteverde is definitely a tourist town, but with most tourists towns usually comes fairly good food options- something we were really looking forward to. 🙂
Coffee beans
Shortly after we checked in, I went to bed early, while Javier played Fifa with the receptionist and booked us a coffee/cocoa/sugar cane tour. Since we opted to skip the coffee tour in Colombia, we wanted to catch it somewhere, and this seemed as good a place as any. The plantation we visited was an old, family-owned plantation. They have been growing coffee and sugar cane for generations and dabble in the cocoa market as well. We learned a great deal on our tour. He explained how the coffee plants are grown in pairs and are harvested only 5 times before the entire tree is removed and replaced. He went through the fermenting and roasting process and we were able to watch the workers check the machines as the beans were roasting and even pulled a few out for us to nibble on.
Coffee tour in Monteverde
One of the most surprising things we learned on this tour is that Costa Rica exports all of their “good coffee.” There’s a machine that sorts out the size of the beans, and there’s a range. Outside of that range are considered inadequate for sale and is therefore put aside, but not discarded. Because Costa Rica is a small country and small supplier, they have to market themselves for quality, not quantity. Therefore, their coffee is too expensive for their own country. That’s right, you can walk into a store in the USA and buy a bag of quality Costa Rican coffee, but not in the stores in Costa Rica. They don’t stock it because the people can’t afford it. Instead, they sell the imperfect, less quality beans. You can find this coffee in the tourist places, but that’s it. Kind sad, huh?
Coffee tour in Monteverde
On our walk through the plantation, we saw a sloth hanging around in the trees. We were told that they only come down to poop…about once a week. At one point, they had a few of us sit in this brightly colored wagon, which was pulled by an ox. For some reason, I don’t mind being pulled by a horse, but felt kinda bad for the ox.
The plantation also grows sugar cane, which they mixed with molasses for us, poured on a wooden board, gave us a wooden spoon and said, “Stir!”
Sugar cane
As we did, the substance hardened, making a taffy at first, and finally, a type of rock sugar, which we used in our (cheap, local) coffee for breakfast the next few days. Our guide grabbed a piece of sugarcane, cut it into straws, and passed them around. He then cut up a lemon-type fruit. I say lemon-type because it tastes like a lemon, but is the color and shape of a mandarine. When we saw it on our plates earlier, we thought it was an orange, and tried to eat it. We were quite surprised. We squeezed the sour fruit onto the sugarcane and chewed. It was delicious. The other use of sugarcane is to make rum, which they do, but not for sale since it is illegal- just enough to make moonshine for the tourists.
Estimated number of men suffering from impotence is 140 million around the world and this number is constantly rising. purchase cheap cialis An individual should not take the medication more than they need cialis canadian see my drugshop to have the money to pay for herpes, chronic fatigue syndrome, urinary and digestive tract infections, pulmonary disorders, reducing phlegm, curing ringworm and impetigo among other conditions indicated on the company website. Similarly, there is another form of this same drug which generates viagra buy india much effective result and many men are switching themselves from kamagra tablets to kamagra jelly. Supreme Court ruled that the program was designed to be simple and easy to use. http://amerikabulteni.com/2011/08/27/new-york-400-yillik-tarihinde-ilk-kez-duracak-25-milyon-kisi-yollarda/ purchase generic levitra
Cacao Fruit
We made a quick pitstop at the cocoa portion of the tour. The family doesn’t grow the cacao because they don’t live in the right climate. Instead, they buy the fruit and make it themselves. We tried the cacao fruit, which tasted to us like chirimoya (a Peruvian fruit), with a big seed to eat around. They then roast the seeds, crack the thin outer shell, and use the pure cacao. We tried it, and it was really bitter. Our guide ground some of the chocolate, added sugar cane syrup and gave us each a little paste to try. It was much more palatable.
Using our sugar cane from the tour.
At the end of our tour, we were given a small local snack and, of course, coffee. By the time we left, we had heart palpitations.
Back at the hotel, we asked around for a place to watch the Champions League game. We were given a recommendation that turned out to be closed, but hopped next door. There were two games going on at the same time. Most people were interested in watching Real Madrid, and only a couple were interested in Manchester City. The TVs were back to back, so during the matches the guys would run back and forth anytime their was excitement. It was more entertaining than the game itself if you ask me. Javier would like to add that Man City qualified to the semifinal for the first time in its history.
Canopy time
The next day was a day of excitement and adventure. We had signed up for a canopy tour. The whole thing was really fast, and at times it seemed rushed. At the same time, this meant that we weren’t standing around waiting for everyone to start and finish, and at times, felt like we were the only ones in the forest. We had done zip lining once before in Hawaii, and let’s just say, this was like zip lining on steroids compared to that. It was longer faster, and slightly more dangerous. The zipline in Hawaii was engineered in a way to slow you down at the end, with a ramp that you ran up to finish. Here, they gave you a big glove with a thick strap of leather across the palm, which you would use to pull down on the cable above to slow yourself down. Definitely more room for error. There was a point on this tour, that one of the workers told us this was the last chance to turn back. After that point, we would be landing on another mountain altogether, and there was no way to get back other than to zip-line.
Canopy time! yes!
The last two zip-lines were optional “Superman” style, and they were loooooong. It felt like we were zip lining for several minutes, because well, we were. We flew over the tree canopy below. In Javier’s video you can see his shadow. At first it is very visible, and as he zips along, it gets smaller and smaller until it is only a little black dot before getting bigger and bigger as he neared the end. When the zip-lining was finished, we were offered a Tarzan swing. You stand from the platform, jump off, and swing back and forth. It didn’t look too high, but when I jumped off, I actually let out a little yelp. It was much more exhilarating than expected. Overall, this was a really cool experience.
On our last day in Monteverde, we took the bus to the Cloud Forest to walk around. We were in search of a toucan. There wasn’t much cloud that day, nor many birds that we saw, but the hike around the forest was very pleasant and we did see a toucan, just not the one we thought. We saw a green toucan, which fulfilled my toucan wish, just not what I was expecting. We also saw some little raccoon-looking critters, as well as multiple birds, and giant leaves. Overall, the trip to the Cloud Forest was not as exciting as we had hoped, but it was nice to be out and hiking around again.
Views from the Cloud Forest
For dinner that night we stopped at a restaurant we had been eyeballing since we arrived. While the food was just okay, we went for the ambiance.
Date night at the tree restaurant
The restaurant is open-air and built around a huge Ficas tree. The stairs wrap around the trunk of the tree and you have to duck to avoid hitting your head on the branches. You sit under the shade of the leaves, which have colored lights hidden all over, and when the sun goes down, those lights splash the tree with different colors that slowly change and move. It’s really cool, and such a unique dining experience.
We made our way back to San Jose for our final few days in Costa Rica. We splurged a bit and stayed at a nicer hotel, complete with laundry and gym. Woo-hoo! Our only excursion left was a trip to Pacuare River for white water rafting. We were picked up early in the morning and made the 3-hour drive to our starting point. We were the only ones taking the tour with this company for the day, so we had the raft to ourselves. We had looked at another, very popular company, and saw them, with all their people and rafts, getting ready on the side of the river a short way down. The water was low, so the rapids were small. At first, we thought it would have been more fun to have others in the raft with us, but truthfully, the water was so low at points, we got stuck. Our guide was able to wiggle us off rocks for the most part, but with all that extra weight, no way. The rapids are usually level 3-4, but on our trip, they were more like 2-3, which was just fine with me. I have only been rafting one other time, and not gonna lie…it kinda scares me.
yes!
The rest of our days in San Jose were spent relaxing, going to the gym, and preparing for our next adventure…
TO SEE MORE PICTURES OF COSTA RICA, CLICK HERE.
Canopy Youtube link: https://youtu.be/e8UGl59123k