Dec 31st Pictures

Our tour this morning is the Cafe Monteverde Coffee Tour. Since it starts at 8 AM, we get to sleep in for a change. We were picked up and taken to the coffee shop, which was across the street from Stella's bakery. On our tour was only one other gentleman from Quebec. Here's a little information about the tour from the website:

The tour begins by explaining the brief history of the region which is fascinating story of how the region evolved from a rugged frontier into a expansive community of settlers, farmers, scientists, conservationists and of course one of the highest quality coffee producing areas in the world.  You will visit a working farm and hear a first hand explanation of the coffee cultivation process from a member family of the cooperative, the story will be translated by your guide.  You walk through a coffee farm where you will explore a biodiversity of crops which includes coffee, banana, plantain, orange & lime crops.  You will see the large processing location where the Cooperative receives the beans from the farmers and prepares the coffee for export or roasting.  Along the way you will also visit a group of women in San Luis who are recycle paper products the old fashion way by breaking apart the paper, blending the pulp and press it into a variety of products such as bags, cards and notebooks.  Finally you will be brought back to the retail coffee shop where you will be invited to taste the variety of roasts and perhaps further support the cooperative by purchasing some of the roasted beans to bring back home for your friends and family.

At the shop, I got a few good pictures of a Toucanette.

Our first stop was a vista of the valley. Our guide told us about the Continental Divide,  the changing weather, and how the Pacific Ocean effects the climate and farming in the area.

At the bottom of the valley, we meet a local farmer named Don Francisco. He had 12 children and many grandchildren. Lisa really liked him. He told us about growing coffee and other things on his farm. Everything was done by hand. He also grew many fruits. Along the way, he showed Lisa how to pick coffee beans. This was probably one of the highlights of the trip - well worth the visit!

Next, we drove to the coffee processing plant. Here, we were shown how coffee is dried, processed, roasted, and packaged for transportation. All very interesting.

Once we returned to Monteverde, our van driver dropped us off in the center of the town. Lisa is having problems with her allergies. Inside the pharmacy, we were lucky the owner spoke some English. With our purchases in hand, we hailed a taxi to return to our hotel. We ate our empanada we purchased at the coffee shop. Not bad.

A short taxi ride and we are at the Monteverde Cheese Factory. The tour took us through the factory. It was pretty much like ever other cheese factory we have been at, but interesting, nonetheless. Our guide presented a slide show, which was well rehearsed. At the end, we did some cheese tasting. Lisa and I got a milk shake from the shop. It was great. They have all sorts of ice cream.

Here's a bit of information from the website:

The factory has always been an integral part of the Monteverde community, its history closely intertwined with the history of the area itself. In 1951 a group of Quaker families from Fairhope, Alabama, came to the area seeking a peaceful place to live in keeping with their pacifist religious beliefs. Costa Rica, which had recently abolished its army, was an ideal choice. They settled here on the mountain, naming their community Monteverde or Green Mountain, after the lush cloud forest vegetation covering its slopes.

These families began making their living by farming dairy cattle and in 1953 opened the Monteverde Cheese Factory. Initially the factory employed only two workers and produced around 10kg of cheese daily, using milk from the Quaker family farms. However, within two years the factory began receiving milk from other farms in the zone, creating an important cash economy for this rural area. The company – Productores de Monteverde SA. – now works with over 250 farms within the zone, employs around 160 local people and produces approximately 1550kg of cheese per day.

The first Monteverde cheese to be produced was a Gouda, this was actually the first pasteurised cheese to be made in Costa Rica. Over the years the range of cheeses produced has expanded to include 17 different varieties, among them a lower fat option, Monte Rico, as well as several European varieties; Emmental, Swiss, a smoked provolone, smoked with local coffee wood and even a parmesan. The factory also makes delicious ice creams using local natural flavourings such as coffee, coconut, mango and orange and pineapple.

With some free time before dinner, we got another taxi and went to The Frog Pond of Monteverde. It was a short ride. Our tour guide was a young girl name Elisa. Once again, it was just Lisa and myself on the tour. We saw about 10 different frog enclosures. It was a nice visit, but we had a challenge find the frogs sometimes. They like to hide. Also, if we had chose to do so, we could have come back at night to see the frogs. Be sure to bring your polarizing filter to cut down on the glare of the glass (I forgot mine.)

On our return to the hotel, Lisa took a nap and I took some pictures of flowers outside the hotel.

For New Year's Eve, we ate at the hotel restaurant and enjoyed a few drinks. Since we were in bed early, the fireworks and music woke us up around 11 PM. They had some nice fireworks.

Home

Next Day