DAY 7 Friday 6 April 2018

Today we explored the Monteverde Cloud Forest from the bottom and the top -- well sort of -- but read on and you'll see what I mean.  After breakfast, we went to the Reserva Biologica Bosque Nuboso for an amazing walk through the rainforest.  This reserve atop the Continental Divide, which is more than 26,000 acres, is one of the most biologically diverse areas in the world.  They claim over 3,000 known species of plants including over 750 tree species and over 500 known orchid species.  There are 100 species of mammals, 400 bird species and 120 reptile and amphibian species.  6 ecological zones are represented in the area.  The foliage was thick and lush in this forest with many thick hanging vines we were tempted to swing on, moss covering many trees, plants thriving on fallen logs and tangles of stems and vines climbing up trees while ferns circled the bottom.  Here are just a few pictures I took but they certainly don't begin to show what an amazing place it is.

I think the red plants are bromeliads.  Many critters drink the water that gets trapped in the petals of these plants.

In the Reserva Biologica Bosque Nuboso, we saw a coatimundi, a red kneed tarantula, a sloth and many birds, including hummingbirds.  In fact, at the bottom of the trails of the reserve, there is the El Colibri Cafeteria, which is a coffee shop that has hummingbird feeders on the patio. Colibri is hummingbird in Spanish, by the way.   We got to see many different varieties of hummers, some looked like the ones we have in Arizona but others were very different than any I've seen before.  Here are a few of the better pictures -- not great but gives you some idea of their beauty.

Too bad this pic isn't better because this guy was beautiful.   He is a brilliant blue violet in the sunlight with a white tail and is much bigger than ours.

So that was the bottom of the cloud forest and next we headed to the top or more accurately, over the top of the forest on the Sky Walk.  This is a series of 6 suspensions bridges at canopy level, that allowed us a bird's eye view of the places we had just walked.

On the right there is length and height info on each of the 6 bridges we crossed

Joan and I met this dapper dude at the Sky Walk

He was very cute, but not a great conversationalist!

One of the first things Victor showed us along the trail was this ginormous leaf that is referred to as the poor man's umbrella.  I don't know the name of the plant, but the leaves are very thick and rough, almost like sandpaper, and it's certainly big enough to use as an umbrella in a pinch.

Victor standing under the poor man's umbrella leaf

As we got to each of the suspension bridges, there was a sign with the name of the bridge, which came from a plant that might be seen along the way, statistics about the bridge and info on the plant.  As with the suspension bridges we crossed earlier in the week, only 10 people were allowed on the bridge at one time.  Below are a couple of the signs.

Had to include this one for our friend Maria -- one of the longer bridges we crossed

Saw these plants on the walk and they are referred to as rattlesnake plants.  Look at the flowers below and you will see how they got that name.

Inga or ice cream beans, fruit of the Pacay tree

When we were at the palm plantation, we sampled guaba or pacay, which is also know as the ice cream bean or Inga.  It is actually a legume, but the pulp is sweet, so it's used more for snacking and desserts.  The pods are about a foot long and not very thick.  When you crack one open, there is this white cottony pulp, sort of divided into segments and each segment contains a black seed.  You take one of the segments, eat the pulp and spit out the seed.  The seeds are often used in the jewelry you see around Costa Rica.  We also had guaba juice in several locations during the week.

Butch on one of the bridges

Joan crossing one of the suspension bridges

Even up at canopy level, the foliage was wild and crazy!

Foliage at canopy level as seen from one of the bridges

So after a bottom and top view of the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, we headed back to the hotel for a break before afternoon activities, which were optional.  Butch, Joan and I walked to a Mexican restaurant Victor had recommended.  We had a great lunch and the staff was very friendly, just like all Costa Ricans we've met.

Great spot for lunch in Monteverde

Passed this art gallery after lunch but didn't have time to stop -- darn!

As I mentioned the afternoon activities were optional.  Zip lining was one of the options and we were tempted but chose a tour of the El Trapiche Coffee Plantation, which is a family owned and operated plantation.  The tour started with how cacoa beans are processed to produce chocolate.  We felt like we were "experts" on the subject after being at Sibu earlier in the week (I know, right?), so this part was a repeat.  We did see an interesting way that cacao beans used to be ground on this plantation that would be great exercise, as well!

Yes, that is a bicycle powered grinder!

After the chocolate portion of the tour, we moved on to see how sugar cane is processed.  They don't produce it for exportation, but they do sell their sugar locally.  They have big vats where it is heated until it turns sort of caramel color -- probably there's a particular temperature that it reaches, but I'm not sure what that is.  Then it gets poured into wooden molds to solidify.  The blocks that are formed are sold in local stores and this sugar is used for everything that needs sugar.  You just shave off as much as you need for cooking etc.

Here is a block of brown sugar next to the molds used to form it

We also made our own candy from hot sugar cane syrup that we stirred with a wooden spoon to aerate.  Then it was allowed to cool and was ready for eating.  Obviously it was very sweet, but we really liked it.  We took the leftovers back to the hotel for Victor and he loved it.  Glad I'm not having my Hgb A1C tested anytime soon!

Joan is stirring the candy and it's almost ready!

Another use for sugar cane is production of the Costa Rican national liquor, guaro. It is a clear liquid with a rum like taste that is distilled from sugar cane juices.  Before it was legal to manufacture and sell it, it was Costa Rica's moonshine and was being made in homemade distilleries. The government got involved for two reasons -- first to be able to tax it and secondly for safety concerns over the bootlegged versions.  The National Liquor Factory currently produces the only legal brand, Cacique Guaro.  El Trapiche distills their own guaro (moonshine) just for tastings during tours.  Nazareth, our guide at El Trapiche, provided samples of their guaro and of Cacique Guaro for those that wanted to try them.

Here is our guide, Nazareth, discussing the history of moonshine production of guaro while holding a bottle of the legal stuff, Cacique

This is the still that is used at El Trapiche for making guaro 

After chocolate and sugar, we moved on to the main attraction, coffee, which is a product El Trapiche produces and sell lots of.  Coffee plants have fruit with a seed inside very much like a cherry with a pit inside.  The seed is referred to as the coffee bean, just because it resembles a bean.  When the coffee cherry turns red it is ripe and and ready for hand picking.  Then Nazareth took us through the rest of the process from peeling to drying then separating and finally roasting.  They have some amazing machinery that sorts and separates the beans based on various characteristics like density, weight, size etc.  When we were in San Ramon and went shopping after lunch, they were selling different brands of Costa Rican coffee.  I noticed that some bags were labeled "Peaberry" at the top and I had no idea what that meant.  I learned today that normally a coffee cherry will contain two seeds but 10-15% of the cherries will have only 1 seed and supposedly the coffee made from those seeds has more flavor and is therefore more expensive.  The sorter that Nazareth showed us separated out the peaberries into their own bucket.

Here is one of the coffee sorting machines

And the buckets of separated beans that are ready for roasting

Roasting was another discussion and the finer points escape me now.  However, I saw this poster on the wall which tells you something about what are acceptable roasts.

It looks like roasts that are too light or too dark aren't acceptable

So once we had completed the coffee tour, we were invited into the family home for some snacks and drinks -- obviously coffee was on the menu and was very good.  They also have a shop where there were more coffee samples available and various products from the plantation were available for purchase.  It was a really great tour and I learned a ton.  Coffee is a really big production and I can understand why good coffee is really expensive.

One other thing I really liked about the El Trapiche plantation were the murals that were painted on the various buildings on the site.  Below is one of them on the coffee building -- beautiful and so colorful.

Tonight was a very nice Farewell Dinner at our hotel.  Rather than the main dining room on level 1 of the hotel, it was held in the Laggus Restaurant on level 5, which is the same level as our rooms.  The meal was excellent.  We pre-ordered either chicken, fish or beef and these were accompanied by wine, beer or sodas.  Victor gave us all an 8 x 10 of the group photo taken earlier in the week in La Fortuna.  He talked a bit about what a great week it had been and what a compatible group of people were on the tour.  It was really true -- everyone was congenial and easy to get along with.  I was especially impressed with the 6 kids that were on the trip.  I'm not exactly sure of their ages, but I think they ranged from 11 to 15.  They were really fun to be around and they all got along with each other and hung out together.

On the first night at the Welcome Reception in San Jose, Victor said that by the end of the week we would be thinking of each other as family.  Other than Butch and Joan who really are my family, I wasn't sure how that would happen in a week's time, but it did and I found it hard to say goodbye and have this wonderful experience come to an end.  Consequently, it was hard to leave the restaurant after dinner and many people lingered and chatted long after the meal was finished.  We finally broke away and went to bed as tomorrow is another bus ride to San Jose.