DAY 2 Sunday 1 April 2018

The adventure begins! We met our awesome bus driver, Julio, this morning and boarded our sturdy luxury coach.

Joan and Julio

MB and our coach

Because we are traveling part of today and the next several days on boats with weight restrictions and limited storage capacity, we could only take carry-on items that were less than 25 lbs. The bigger luggage was going to catch up with us once we were back to traveling on land.

Today is Easter and also happens to be the Costa Rican Presidential Election. It is a run off from an election in February in which there wasn't a clear winner, so the two top candidates were in this run off, which is always held on the 1st Sunday of April. It turns out that the current party's candidate won the election.

We drove by the active Irazú Volcano, which is the highest volcano in the country. There are 6 active volcanoes in Costa Rica and they result in very rich, fertile soil. The Irazú Volcano erupted in 1963 two days before JFK came to Costa Rica. Because of the ash etc. his security people whisked him out of the country.

The top 3 industries in the Costa Rican economy are: 1) Services 2) Medical devices and pharmaceuticals 3) Agriculture with the top 3 crops being 1) Pineapple 2)Bananas 3) Coffee

We passed by Earth University which according to Wikipedia is for people who are passionate about sustainability and ethical entrepreneurship. It is a private, non-profit university that offers 2 programs of study: an undergraduate degree in agricultural sciences and a master's degree in agribusiness innovation. Students are mainly from Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa. Victor said Kellogg's is a big supporter of this university. It is in Limon Province, Mercedes, Costa Rica.

Next we stopped at Sibú Chocolate in San Isidro, Heredia, Costa Rica. We learned the history of chocolate and how they produce it at Sibú from the two master chocolatiers, Julio Fernandez Amon and George Soriano, who own the company. Central America is the cradle of chocolate but exports most of its cacao beans to other countries where fine chocolates are made. George and Julio decided it was time move up from just being the cacoa bean producer to also become a fine chocolate producer. Their hope was to create a model for other entrepreneurs to do something similar with other commodities that come from the rainforest. So they set off on the journey of reading, learning and traveling the world to study fine chocolate and its production and eventually started producing their own. One thing that really impressed me is that they spent 5 months trying to develop packaging that had no plastic and used only recycled materials. As a result, the boxes in which they package their chocolates are made of cacao husks and fiber that normally are discarded in the process of chocolate production. They let us sample chocolate in various stages and it was amazing!! I have a whole new appreciation for fine chocolate, how it is made and how it should be savored and enjoyed. Their's is expensive but they are committed to quality, fresh organic ingredients, obtaining the materials locally with the least impact on the environment and supporting the local economy. So it's worth it and it is so yummy. A link to their website for more information about their story and their products is:

Sibu Chocolate

George and Julio sharing their story

Tasting tray

Cacao Fruit

In addition to the chocolate factory, there was a restaurant that looked like a really good place to eat and beautiful gardens surrounding it all. Here are several shots of us in the gardens.

After the leaving the amazing Sibú chocolate, we headed to Guapiles, which is still in Limon province and had lunch at Selva Tropical restaurant. In the back of the restaurant was a butterfly garden. Victor announced a contest for the best picture of the blue morpho butterfly and the prize was a Snicker's bar - kind of a letdown after the great Sibú chocolate! One of the ladies got an amazing photo of a blue morpho and won the contest. All we managed to get were the blue morphos eating with their wings up so you couldn't see the beautiful blue color inside and a picture of Susan with some of the beautiful flowers in the butterfly garden.

Blue Morphos snacking on bananas

Susan in the butterfly garden

After lunch we continued aboard the bus and passed through several towns. One of the interesting things we saw was a cemetery.

Victor explained that there were several reasons that the graves were above ground. First, because of the hurricanes and floods, which would disturb graves underground and secondly, to save room. The above ground box like structures were of various sizes to accommodate all members of a family.

When we arrived in the town of Carmen, Limon Province, we bid adieu to Julio and boarded a covered boat for the journey to Tortuguero.

Traveling to Tortuguero Laguna Lodge where we were spending two nights, we saw spider monkeys, a black and white piano bird, a tiger heron not to mention some amazing scenery. The Tortuguero Laguna Lodge sits between the Tortuguero lagoon, which is fresh water, and the Caribbean Ocean. We walked a short distance behind our rooms to the ocean and walked along the beach. Then we headed back to the lagoon water front bar and restaurant and had Pina coladas, then a good dinner and then to bed.