I have been looking forward to today because we got to leave San Jose for the beautiful country side, and more importantly, a volcano! I have never seen a volcano before even from a distance so being up close with a crater of the Poás Volcano is really exciting. We had to leave our hotel early in the morning to ensure that the weather was nice during our visit, but that did not really bother the girls. For some reason we have been waking up between 5 and 6 without even using an alarm. I suppose this is because we haven't adjusted to Costa Rican time, but it has definitely made the trip more enjoyable.
Almost three times as high as Appalachian State University's campus, I could really feel the altitude as we walked to the crater and to the lagoon. Breathing was much more difficult, and of course the sulfur in the air did not help. Poás is an active volcano that was steaming a ton. It was supposed to have about 18 small eruptions the day we visited, but we did not get to see any. Javier (our tour guide) said that they would only last about 10-15 seconds and we may not even see it so we did not spend much time waiting for one. I found it hard to believe that we were allowed to go stand where we were if small eruptions were happening. How sure are the volcanologists that a bigger one will not occur? It is amazing how far science has come, and what it allows us to do.
After a little while watching the volcano steam got to be a little boring, so we hiked what was supposed to be a 30 minute hike in 15-20 minutes to the Botos Lagoon. This lake was really pretty, with a greenish blue color I've never seen before. We did not see much wildlife at either place, just a few pretty birds. We did not ask much about the lagoon because there was no ranger there to really tell us about it, but I wonder what the temperature of it is. I would think it was pretty warm because it is next to a volcano, but you never know. Walking back we took time to notice how pretty the landscape was and how dense the forest was. It was not like anything you would see in the U.S. that's for sure.
On the way down the mountain there were some beautiful views and plenty of farming land to see. It is amazing how much of this country is covered by different crops. Certain parts of the U.S. are mostly farmland, but not where we live. We stopped at a souvenir shop on the way down; it was amazing how much more expensive things were here than at that market we saw yesterday. Next stop was the Doka Coffee Plantation. This might be the most anticipated visit of the whole trip for our group (U.S.A. coffee addicts).
Learning about how difficult it is to pick coffee beans and how little they get paid was really depressing. The workers are out in the hot sun all day and only make about $1.50 per basket they fill up, which is about 20 pounds of beans. However this does add up to a fairly decent salary for Costa Ricans. Our guide told us that many of the workers come down from Nicaragua because working and life in Costa Rica is so much better than what they would have at home. It was still amazing to think how many of those baskets were filled each day and how much time must be spent grabbing cherries off of the thousands of coffee plants every day.
Some of the interesting things we learned about coffee are that the good beans float, and the bad ones sink. This process of sorting the beans makes so much more sense now. They also showed us several turning tables that sort the beans from large to small which also helps determine the quality of the beans. I could not believe that the whole process runs on hydraulic power. Massive bands turn the sorting wheels and the pumps all day long. We also learned about the different types of coffee bean and their different sizes and shapes.
Not being a coffee drinker, I had no idea that coffee beans were split into two halves. It makes a lot of sense that coffee beans which are whole (peabody) are the best because all of the plants nutrients focus on this one bean. Normal coffee is made from plants with split coffee beans, but a few even have beans split into three different pieces. Lastly, they showed us where the beans dry out. A large area covered by concrete is where workers spread out the beans and turn them over about once every 30 minutes. A great question someone asked is what the workers do when it rains since the whole thing was outside. Our guide was very praising of the original owners and creators of the plantation saying that they thought of everything, even to make the concrete area slope slightly to one side. The workers simply push all of the beans to the top of the hill and cover them in plastic so that all of the water drains away from them.
After buying lots of Doka coffee that would make everything smell over the next week, we drove a long way to San Marcos de Cutris. This was one of the worst drives I have taken in a while because instead of just having roads go straight through valleys, they hugged the mountains. Several people were feeling the pain of this trip, and advil was a common theme. Johnny (our driver) was great though, he was passing people every chance he got. When we arrived at San Marcos everyone was really excited, but it drained little by little as we drove on a gravel road for 30 minutes. Part of the experience was simply getting to the town, but once we got there it was a pleasant surprise to have all of the girls staying together in one house. We didn't have to worry about translating things, and could relax after a long day.
Dinner was delicious, I wish I had gotten her recipes. We gave her our gifts, and basically went straight to bed. Everyone was exhausted and it was dark outside so there wasn't much we could do anyways. Luckily, we all had a mosquito net around our beds to help prevent the mosquitoes from getting to us. They were everywhere; I hope we can avoid them during the day. We also found out that the boys are staying in a home where a lady runs a pulperia (general store). She said that when someone wants something, they just call her and she opens the store. It is a great way for her to make a little money and catch up with community members.
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