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Our sky walk high above the cloud forest brought us along many suspended bridges. Our guide Lara showed us lots of cloudforest plants, vines, epiphytes and birds. Flowers that look like lips on the cover of the Stones album. The bridges were suspended by cable and the longest of the bunch was about half a kilometer. After an hour or so exploring the cloudforest from above, our big day’s adventure began.
A cable car ferried us to the top of the mountain where it was noticeably cooler … we could see the Arenal volcano in the distance and the Pacific Ocean far away.
We then survived ten zip lines that screamed down a total distance of over 4 kilometers down the mountain. The longest was three quarters of a kilometer long and they all were about 100-150 meters above the cloudforest floor.
None of us had ever ziplined before and it was every little bit as exhilarating as you could imagine. To be honest, I think it went a looooooong way to curing Will’s and my fear of heights. The scariest part was climbing the first tower on the mountain top to have our harnesses clipped to the
cable. Then jumping off into thin mountain air and zipping along above the cloudforest. Marika and Will each had a turn with one of the experienced guides = Marika going backwards and Will partly upside down at the end. One elderly francophone had a bit of difficulty finishing one zip line and Marika translated between him and the English speaking Spanish guide at the landing pad.
Later that afternoon we went to a mixed coffee, sugar cane and cacao plantation. We picked coffee cherries from the trees, tasted the sweet and slimy beans from inside the cherries, pounded dried beans with a huge mortar and pestle, watched the roasting and packing. We now plan to oversee operations at Bridgehead’s new roaster near Preston Street.
Our guide cut some fresh sugar cane stalks with his machete and we squeezed all of the juice out with a hand presser and tasted the fresh sugar cane juice.
Then we were handed cacao pods and our guide, who grew up on a cacao farm broke one open. Inside looks like monkey brains and we put the large slimy (again) cacao beans in our mouth. We then crushed dried pods and Marika
and Will ground up the roasted cacao pods to produce the first stage of pure chocolate. Then they mixed the pure fresh chocolate with some sugar, cinnamon, fresh Costa Rican vanilla and pepper to make chocolate. We tasted the chocolate at each stage and then drizzled some melted chocolate on bananas and canteloupe from their plantation.
It was an amazing opportunity to learn first (literally) hand how coffee, sugar and chocolate go from growing in the ground in Costa Rica to become wonderful food we enjoy at home in Ottawa. I think the kids will never forget this cool and educational, not to mention delicious part of the tour.
From all of our travels we have never been anywhere where everyone we meet from all walks of life is so easy going and friendly – echoing what we had heard before we left - very low crime rate, no army, dislike any form of public confrontation. We met a couple from Halifax who are here with their two kids for 6 months and they explained how they found a really good school for the kids. Hmmmmmmm?????
Tomorrow we bid adieu to the cloudforest and head by van
and then boat across Costa Rica's largest lake to the Arernal Volcano for two nights.
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Laurie
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Zippy
We are really enjoying keeping up with your reports!