TO THE COFFEE FINCA!

We left the big capital city of San Jose for the countryside up towards the volcano - it doesn't do major eruptions that cause damage like in Hawaii. OAT has found a small coffee plantation run by the same family for several generations and we stopped there. First Miguel and Jannette (they met at 7 years, were girlfriend/boyfriend by 15, and married for 31 years!!) showed us the roaster and put in a load of beans to roast while we were out in the field. It would take about 40 minutes, depending if you wanted medium or dark roast.

Coffee cherries - several layers with 1-3 beans inside.

Church we passed in our travels

Cloud Forest

Coffee plants - flowers, beans, all different stages

Miguel preparing coffee for tasting

One of our group cooling the beans after roasting

Huge machine, made in NY, for drying beans

The paths in the fields were covered with a mulch made of the husks off the coffee berries. There are several layers surrounding 1 - 3 beans in each "cherry." We saw the flowering plant, and also the beans or cherries growing in different stages. The bins that the workers (mostly from Nicaragua that come over for the picking) are carried and loaded with the cherries and paid by these tokens - 1/4, 1/2 or 3/4 full.  Everything is picked by hand. After watching this whole process, I see why coffee is so expensive!

The cherries go through several processes, to take the husks off, to dry the beans, get them ready for grinding. This finca is semi-organic which means they DO treat the plants for a fungus. This finca is small so they sell their beans to other companies. Most coffees you buy are mixed with many different sources. You can't really buy what we bought - pure CR coffee from this one farm.

While driving here Alex talked about CR economy and we thought coffee was the #1 export. WRONG!  It's technology!  Who knew? Intel has been here for a long time. Lots of medical equipment is made here - like cardiac catheters. Of course, tourism brings in a lot of income to the economy. And fruit is high on list of exports.

They make a great effort here to preserve their natural resources. The (Alex called it rustic!) hotel where we're staying for two nights is in the rain forest. No AC, but ceiling fans. There are round palenques like the pre-Columbian indigenous people used to live in here (our roofs are made of plastic, however, as it destroyed too much to keep replacing the thatching. It's called Sarapiqui's Rainforest Lodge, named after the river we rafted down today. We did about 5 miles in 2 hours over some pretty exciting rapids! No one fell out but we were prepared what to do! this river apparently continues on, after another 5 hours, into Nicaragua.

Their idea here is to "create a place for further conservation of nature and eco-development,  in combination with sustainable tourism." They use solar energy, local natural materials and an innovative waste-water treatment installation. Tonight we will go to a presentation on the bats here. (see them on the ceiling of the lobby!)

Closup of Toucan through scope and camera

Bats on the ceiling of the lobby

Our pool off the bar!

Today we started with a 6 a.m. birdwalk. It started raining but we still were able to see quite a few including an iguana with a spiky back high up on a branch. Alex is very knowledgeable. Lots of toucans and tanagers (scarlet rumped!)

Then after breakfast we left all valuables and jewelry at home and drove a couple of miles down the way to load onto 3 rafts for our trip down the river for about 5 miles. Some of the rapids were quite thrilling but no one fell out.

I'm on the left, back, turquoise shirt!