Scott and I adore Costa Rica. This has to be one of the most beautiful places on Earth. We feel blessed to have been able to visit this gorgeous country, and would love to return for a longer visit. The country is beautiful and the people are genuine, kind, and welcoming.
Today, we rode a very nice bus 2.5 hours into the interior mountains of Costa Rica to visit a coffee and sugar plantation. We saw gorgeous scenery and a fascinating production facility. We enjoyed lunch at a beautiful hotel, and munched on fresh bananas on the way back to the port.
Thus far, Costa Rica is our favorite port of call.
Here's a picture of the port upon our arrival this morning.
This is the exterior and interior of our bus for the day.
Joanie! Look! It's a VERY cranky volcano. See the white smoke coming out? He's verrrrry mad right now!
Here is a bag of coffee produced by the plantation we visited.
It's always fun having your camera in the hands of random strangers. Right, Shelly?
These are coffee beans, still on the bush. They are ready to pick when the bean turns red. It's VERY bitter and yucky tasting at this point. The processing is what brings out the delicious flavor from the beans.
The little white flowers from the bushes are only in bloom for three days. At the base of each flower is the beginnings of a coffee fruit, from which a bean will be extracted. The black soot you see on the leaves is from the cranky volcano. I told you...he's reeeeeeeeeeeally mad.
This is where it all begins -- the receiving department, if you will. Beans are brought in from the fields in baskets filled by the picking crew. They only pick beans by hand in Costa Rica.
This is the initial sorting machine. This machine sorts by size only.
Here is where the beans are washed.
Next, you guessed it, they're dried.
These are what the beans look like after they've been washed and dried. The white skin must still be removed, and is done so in huge vats with scary-looking interiors.
Alternately, the superduperextragood beans can be handled by hand. This is where they are washed, dried in the sun, and de-hulled.
Then, the beans must be roasted.
This process smells deeeeeeeeeeelicious.
Then, the beans are ground and brewed in a really cool little cotton brewing bag. Mmmm.
The final step is tasting. The manager slurps brewed coffee in a really funky way, and then swishes it around his mouth and spits it out. I don't know why he spits, though, because the resulting coffee is positively fabulous.
All of the waste products are reused in the plantation. The solids are composted for use with new plantings.
This is the entrance to the Hacienda where we had lunch.
As you can see, they're big on sorting their trash for proper recycling. Two thumbs up.
Here are some pictures of the banana fields and a roadside fruit stand.
Mmmm...banana.
Mmmm...cocoa beans.
Mmmm...sugar cane.
This is a view of our ship from the pier.
Every day, upon our return from outings, we're greeted with a cool, wet towel and a glass of ice water.
Our room is in this picture. We are on the first "bent" level, second room from the left.
The rest of the pictures are just a sampling of the beautiful countryside that we experienced today.
