On Wednesday Feb 15 - We got up at 2am for a 5:17am flight to a nice warm place - San Jose, Costa Rica! Ross says the weather is "pleasant"😍. Made it to the hotel, walked outside a bit and heard really loud birds squawking but couldn't even see them in the trees. So tomorrow the tour starts and a new adventure begins for the next couple weeks! Make Hay While the Sun Shines right???
Pictures are going backward in time.
Day 2 - San Jose, Costa Rica! Sunshine and breeze - I'll take that as I heard it was 19 degrees at home and 82 degrees here! 6pm tonight we meet the travel group but we have talked to a few already. So today we "walked the grounds" and also walked at a HUGE mall down the road a bit and got 7000 steps. First stop a huge "mercada" aka grocery store and I love to see the stuff in a different country. Met our tour guide Ivan last night and when we saw him today he called us out by name - how do they do that????? I asked him if he was part robot and he said yes😍. Most exciting for me the coffee fanatic is we get to visit a coffee plantation - and Ivan says we can buy coffee beans!
And on we go...
Costa Rica and Panama are connected by a border but they get along and neither have a military - no Army, Navy or other.
Today from the little bus I saw this bunch of wires probably bringing power to the apartments.
Friday February 17 - Big tour day - San Jose, Costa Rica and visit to La Paz Waterfall Gardens, Wildlife Rescue Sanctuary, Dako Coffee Plantation family owned for 3 generations. So being the coffee fanatic that I am I HAD to buy some more coffee beans and Costa Rica has some of the best coffee beans in the world. So since it is a Rain Forest and then high up a cloud forest of course there is a little rain and that is why Costa Rica is beautifully green and beautiful!!! Elevation about 4400 feet so no problem and lots of stairs and walking but heck ya we can do it!!! We have the greatest tour directors once again and local guides and we get divided into small groups. Since I now have 3 bags of coffee beans in my suitcase my clothes will smell like coffee - woohooo - I'll take that!
And yes I did buy 2 bags of excellent coffee beans so my dirty clothes in my suitcase will smell very very good! The beans are dried in the sun during the day but since it is in a rain forest area they move them from a fully spread out position to two of these and cover each with a tarp at night and remove again the next morning and spread them out again. It usually takes 3 days to dry them correctly.
Processing plant for the beans!
The Doka coffee plantation is now in its 3rd generation running it still family owned and bean collecting done by hand into this "high tech" basket. The workers (lots of Nicaraguans) get paid $3 for each full basket and it weighs about 25# when full and they fill about 10 a day. So figure $30 a day. The average wage here is $700-1200 per month - yes per month.The coffee estate has been in business since 1940 and the coffee is sold as Tres Generaciones aka Three Generations brand. It is sold all over the world. In a few years instead of just hand picking they got machinery to process the beans and divide them into good, better, best as they said.
So on our drive on the road we came to a cow crossing and the herd was crossing the road to eat lunch in the field so yes the cows have priority at the crossing.
My Grandma Schultz had a sewing machine like this and I was always fascinated with it. This was on our visit to the replica of a typical farmhouse back in the day.
And yes we did have a water well on our farm and we did have a bucket like this. All my life I have been amazed at what I am getting to see in the world considering the little farm and country roots where I came from!
The wildlife sanctuary naturalist explained all the rescued creatures - jaguars, ocelots, birds, snakes and they grow butterflies.
These are the workers sorting through the chrysalis they import which are really "butterfly eggs" and the butterflies hatch from them and they are absolutely beautiful.
These plant leaves are all over and they grow 8 feet wide and they are used as umbrellas as they are free!
This was quite the restroom for sure. The little brown knob on the right had to be turned to get the water to come down the tunnel into the bowl and it worked just great and how fun would grandkids have with that in your house?????
The road close to our hotel and we walked to the Multiplaza Mall which is a block or so away from the hotel.
The mall was bigger than Mall of America and I'm telling the truth. I have never ever been in such a huge mall with so many stores and we did get in 7000 steps.
And of course I love foreign country grocery stores and Ross was investigating the scotch and the prices.
While I am staring at the coffee and taking a long time to decide which beans to get.
There is beautiful woodwork here and this is across the ground in the hotel and carved from wood but I must say it doesn't look all that comfortable.
The Blue Pool and no Ross is NOT using it as a Man Pee place as it is right in the middle of everything at the hotel.
I think these are mangos and they do have a lot of mangoes here and also bananas are grown here - as we know Chiquita Bananas - remember the ad?
We got a huge room and it's hard to believe and I wonder if we got it by accident???
Last night in the hotel and then we get on the little river cruise boat that has 98 cabins and hold a total of 184 passengers and I think it will have 156 people or so they say. Bedtime here and a new adventure tomorrow.
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