Activities in Monteverde, remember we decided to do the coffee plantation which also includes a look at chocolate production and sugar cane growing. We are also going night walking in the forest and finally a hike in the National Park cloud forest.
We are off to Don Juan's coffee tour so we get picked up by minibus at our doorstep and get driven to the farm above Monteverde, picking up other people on the way. I'm not sure what makes more money, farming coffee or tourists. However the tour is very well organised and delivered. There is a interesting comparison with labour problems here and in South Holland. Costa Rica has been described as like Switzerland, mountainous and expensive. The coffee picking season lasts three months and pickers can earn around 2/3 thousand dollars in that time. This is not enough to sustain a Costa Rican family for a year, however it will keep a Nicaraguan afloat. Consequently the families from Nicaragua move in for the duration and they all pick, men, women and children before returning home for the rest of the year.
Danny, our guide is in the centre and two of our group are wearing the picking baskets. It is piecework paid and quality control is strictly controlled.
The outer skins and sweet mucus is removed in a centrifuge then the beans are sun dried in a glasshouse. They need turning regularly so Helen was asked to do this for the rest of the day.
The beans are then roasted, we saw it done in a frying pan, to the darkness required. The roasting affects the flavour but not the caffeine content. We then enjoyed some very fresh coffee. As this is billed as 3 tours in one, we next crushed some sugarcane in a kind of mangle to produce a sweet drink and moved on to see how chocolate is made. Shades of Bournville, but this was made Mayan style. I'm not actually sure that cocoa is grown on the farm, however it was a fun experience.
This old oxcart was used to give some of us a wee ride to the inevitable souvenir centre where we had some more free coffee and bought some of the farm's premium product. Some of you might be lucky enough to taste it.
We met the owner Don Juan who was a very pleasant and modest old chap. In fact he got a lift back to town with us on the backseat of the bus.
So the next adventure is to be the guided night walk in the cloud forest. Again we were collected from our hotel and driven up to where these walks are organised. We were allocated an English speaking guide and arranged into a group of about eight and issued with flashlights, although I had brought my own. Our first wildlife encounter was with sleeping birds (to be honest they could have been stuffed).
The sleeping birds did not make very impressive photographs. Neither, you may say does this cricket but they are the chaps who provide the authentic jungle acoustic
The next creature to wander across our trail was an eight banded armadillo which I failed to photograph, as you might also say about the racoon below.
No doubting that this is a snake. Don't touch it because it is has a deadly poisonous bite. It is the green vine snake.
This creature in the small cave is an orange kneed tarantula, who does not have a poisonous bite.
You can just see the next tarantula at the entrance to this hole that is its home. I'm afraid that I can't remember its name. Some time after we were rushed to a place where a sloth had been spotted. These are quite rare and difficult spots. Despite the name they can move pretty quickly. This one was climbing up a high tree. No picture as we were so keen just to get a view of it. The guide said that they see them about 2 or 3 times a week.
My favourite picture partly because it was my spot. It is the iconic red eyed tree frog. It was also the last picture of what was an excellent evening.
Our main activity for the final day is to be a hike in the cloud forest. This is a unique and precious environment that many are fighting hard to conserve. The fact that all the roads into Monteverde are very rough and unpaved is deliberate. This fact alone helps to reduce tourist numbers. There are inevitably tensions between commercial gain and conservation. The altitude of the tropical rainforest at between 2000 and 3000 ms means it's almost always bathed in cloud which condenses in the forest resulting in the cloud forest.
It costs $15 a head to enter and you have to follow one of several waymarked trails. It was quite an experience, quiet in its way. We heard birds but didn't see many. Nor did we see any animals. But the teeming plant life, each one struggling for success against intense opposition. Plants on plants on plants. Have look at some photographs and see if you can get the same impression.
People are always excited about seeing animals in the wild especially big cats, but for me these botanical biggies are just as awe inspiring.
Tomorrow is bus ferry bus to Montezuma and about eight hours travelling in total. What's more our first bus leaves town at 6am so it's an early rise for us.
We are off to Don Juan's coffee tour so we get picked up by minibus at our doorstep and get driven to the farm above Monteverde, picking up other people on the way. I'm not sure what makes more money, farming coffee or tourists. However the tour is very well organised and delivered. There is a interesting comparison with labour problems here and in South Holland. Costa Rica has been described as like Switzerland, mountainous and expensive. The coffee picking season lasts three months and pickers can earn around 2/3 thousand dollars in that time. This is not enough to sustain a Costa Rican family for a year, however it will keep a Nicaraguan afloat. Consequently the families from Nicaragua move in for the duration and they all pick, men, women and children before returning home for the rest of the year.
Danny, our guide is in the centre and two of our group are wearing the picking baskets. It is piecework paid and quality control is strictly controlled.
The outer skins and sweet mucus is removed in a centrifuge then the beans are sun dried in a glasshouse. They need turning regularly so Helen was asked to do this for the rest of the day.
The beans are then roasted, we saw it done in a frying pan, to the darkness required. The roasting affects the flavour but not the caffeine content. We then enjoyed some very fresh coffee. As this is billed as 3 tours in one, we next crushed some sugarcane in a kind of mangle to produce a sweet drink and moved on to see how chocolate is made. Shades of Bournville, but this was made Mayan style. I'm not actually sure that cocoa is grown on the farm, however it was a fun experience.
This old oxcart was used to give some of us a wee ride to the inevitable souvenir centre where we had some more free coffee and bought some of the farm's premium product. Some of you might be lucky enough to taste it.
We met the owner Don Juan who was a very pleasant and modest old chap. In fact he got a lift back to town with us on the backseat of the bus.
So the next adventure is to be the guided night walk in the cloud forest. Again we were collected from our hotel and driven up to where these walks are organised. We were allocated an English speaking guide and arranged into a group of about eight and issued with flashlights, although I had brought my own. Our first wildlife encounter was with sleeping birds (to be honest they could have been stuffed).
The sleeping birds did not make very impressive photographs. Neither, you may say does this cricket but they are the chaps who provide the authentic jungle acoustic
The next creature to wander across our trail was an eight banded armadillo which I failed to photograph, as you might also say about the racoon below.
This creature in the small cave is an orange kneed tarantula, who does not have a poisonous bite.
You can just see the next tarantula at the entrance to this hole that is its home. I'm afraid that I can't remember its name. Some time after we were rushed to a place where a sloth had been spotted. These are quite rare and difficult spots. Despite the name they can move pretty quickly. This one was climbing up a high tree. No picture as we were so keen just to get a view of it. The guide said that they see them about 2 or 3 times a week.
My favourite picture partly because it was my spot. It is the iconic red eyed tree frog. It was also the last picture of what was an excellent evening.
Our main activity for the final day is to be a hike in the cloud forest. This is a unique and precious environment that many are fighting hard to conserve. The fact that all the roads into Monteverde are very rough and unpaved is deliberate. This fact alone helps to reduce tourist numbers. There are inevitably tensions between commercial gain and conservation. The altitude of the tropical rainforest at between 2000 and 3000 ms means it's almost always bathed in cloud which condenses in the forest resulting in the cloud forest.
It costs $15 a head to enter and you have to follow one of several waymarked trails. It was quite an experience, quiet in its way. We heard birds but didn't see many. Nor did we see any animals. But the teeming plant life, each one struggling for success against intense opposition. Plants on plants on plants. Have look at some photographs and see if you can get the same impression.
People are always excited about seeing animals in the wild especially big cats, but for me these botanical biggies are just as awe inspiring.
Tomorrow is bus ferry bus to Montezuma and about eight hours travelling in total. What's more our first bus leaves town at 6am so it's an early rise for us.
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