Coffee!

We haven't been updating our blog as much as we would like, but that only indicates that we've been moving around and having a good time...We've spent one night in San Jose, one night in La Fortuna, one night in El Castillo and one night in Santa Elena. Right now, I don't have time for a full recap, but....

This afternoon we went on a 4 hour 'coffee tour' which was easily the highlight of our trip so far (for me, at least). The tour started in a rickity (sp?) four wheel drive van on windy, bumpy, steep road to the San Luis valley. Our tour guide told us we'd start at a coffee farm, but we had no idea what was in store. As we stepped out of this van, an old sun-dried farmer walked towards us. He lead the tour through his beautiful farm as our tour guide translated. The farm had coffee growing in the shade of many different species of fruit tree. We also got to drink sugar cane juice and chew the raw cane! Oh yeah, and we learned a lot about how coffee is grown. The tour of the farm ended with a visit with the farmer's wife. She had coffee and homemade bread with preserves waiting for us when we arrived! The coffee tour also included a trip to the coffee mill where the beans are sorted, dried and roasted. The tour concluded with a coffee tasting.

Being on the farm was a great opportunity to step away from the touristy side of things (not that its been horrible in Monteverde) and experience how some of the local Ticos live and work. It could easily end up being the most memorable part of our trip.

(We'll fill in more details about today and the rest of our trip later)