Small World in San José

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Two-Day Reunion
Robert, left, and Jenny and myself are flanked by our musical entourage. Fantastico!This morning we went off for the Café Britt coffee tour, in the nearby Heredia area. Initially, we were skeptical about how good of a tour it could be with its (essentially) inner-city location compared to the tours offered in Monteverde. These skepticisms were quickly put to rest, as the tour guides proved enlightening and rather comical. They pointed out the organic procedures and growing arrangements, with other plant life around to enhance sustainability, what with bananas and mangos and more in the growing arrangement.

After being schooled on the process of creating mature coffee plants, they led us to the factory where they roast coffee and continued to educate us on that part of the process. Here they handed out free samples of ground coffee, and I ended up with about four of these samples. Excellent. From then on out, we were ushered into the theatre where we were given a PowerPoint presentation and then a theatre-style play riddled with history and jokes. Very informative, if a little basic (especially if you've seen the indy film 'Black Gold'). Next was a presentation on cupping, for which I eagerly volunteered and was accepted. Here they enumerated the process by which
All organic, shade grown in volcanic soil.
Semi-mature coffee on the tree. Coffee is a fruit, for those not in the know.coffee should be properly prepared and ingested. Our host was impressed with the vigour for which I cupped the coffee (soup slurping, essentially) for maximum flavour. For my troubles I received a cheesy sun hat that Jenny was excited about; now she has a hat for the beach or hiking with her parents.

From there it was into the buffet lunch and wow, was that ever good. We haven't yet had such good plantains, and everything else was so good it would be tough to single one thing out. I liked the green tomatoe and passion fruit soup with handmade croutons.

From there it was into the gift shop where we went all out on our 'factory direct pricing' (about US $4.50/lb... well 14 oz) and picked up some of the hot chocolate we enjoyed at the theatre the day before to complement the chocolate treats. No more buying coffee to take home. 2.5 kilos ought to be plenty, even for me.

When I found out that my double-shot latte was free, I had to have a double-shot cappucino as well. It was great.

On the whole, the tour was well worth the 16,000-ish colones each
Coffee, the Play (way off Broadway)
The tour guides put on a play with dramatic flair only acceptable because of their genuine enthusiasm.without the buffet lunch (which at home would have cost at least $16-$18 alone) and that was just a great extra. Not to mention getting out of the San José core and seeing more of the surrounding areas which would have been a $20 taxi ride if not more. On the way we saw a really cool castle that was someone's house, a manequin store displaying nude models in various poses, and a Herbie the Love Bug replica.

Once we got home, we decided to walk off the caffeine-jitters and dairy indegestion with a forray into the mercado central and avendia central area once more. Not that we made it there. Once coming across the old fort style history museum, we stopped for a gander and then decided not to go in because of the late hour only leaving us about an hour to see it all. So we walked along and ran into a streetside artisan market, which begged to be looked at.

Good move. Not only did we find some amazing handmade gifts for family but we ran into a friend we met at Entre Dos Aguas back in Samara. Which was excellent, because we parted
Herbie the Love Bug... replica
What a sight, an old school Pizza Hut!

Oh, and the car too.ways rather abruptly at the Coca-Cola terminal (where he ran into our taxi driver's scamming cohort, but eventually got to where he wanted). So we browsed and then decided to have a drink and some eats nearby, partly to escape the rain, but also because Jenny and I were getting hungry. At dinner some locals were making rounds serenading the tables with music, which was a nice touch even if -- as Rob put it -- the singing was a 3 on a scale of 10.

What an unexpected bonus to an already wonderful day, as the conversation was scintillating and informative. Not surprising, as Robert is a pilot for an American airline and has been basically everywhere. I had spent the entire bus ride from Samara to San José pumping him for travel info and such, and still had questions to ask; so it was suprising that when we parted ways after dinner, I left full of new questions. In addition to being an interesting chap, he is just a great guy (Thanks for everything, Rob!).

Some of his favourites:
- New Zealand as a place to go.
- Greenland to fly over.
- Singapore to land.
- Fresh Guinness to drink.
- Seeing a Spanish-speaking Chinese person's reaction to his ordering something not on the menu, in Mandrin.

It was funny when I asked him which air-traffic controllers speak the worst English. "The Scottish, and French," he said, whereupon he affected a thick Scott accent and mangled some avionic directions which cracked us both up to no end.

Tomorrow we get to see the Caribbean for the first time, and we are certainly excited. Though we have been forewarned by multiple sources that it isn´t the white beaches and crystal blue water of the movies (go north for that, to Belize or such, son) we can't wait. After investigating our options for the Tortugero area, we decided to abort that tour; it's low season for turtles and would require another night in San José if we booked through a tour company, or many busses to go from Tortugero area to Cahuita if we didn't want to add a day. Next time.

All in all, a wonderful cap to our major San José experience. It's best to end on a good note (made great by a chance encounter with a new friend). So I guess it isn't so bad after all.

Ciao!

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Photos

Two-Day Reunion
Robert, left, and Jenny and myself are flanked by our musical entourage. Fantastico!

All organic, shade grown in volcanic soil.
Semi-mature coffee on the tree. Coffee is a fruit, for those not in the know.

Coffee, the Play (way off Broadway)
The tour guides put on a play with dramatic flair only acceptable because of their genuine enthusiasm.

Herbie the Love Bug... replica
What a sight, an old school Pizza Hut!
Oh, and the car too.

Comments

[Mom (Laurel)]

Hi Kids! I check the blog everyday, and apparently some are only recently posted - decided to print them all off and study a map so that I have some grasp of where you are in your travels! Glad you're having such a great time. Love the pictures! xoxo Mom