Advertisement
Published: September 17th 2017
Edit Blog Post
Geo: 10.3041, -84.798
Richard offered last night to walk us around the property today, but he lost interest by morning. So we ended up following some trails he pointed out around the property. One led to a large stream with some good waterfall action. Another took us to an open field that had a plantain tree in the middle of it. We were also able to identify Guyaba trees and some little plants that retract their leaves when they are touched by animals or wind. They are very sensitive and we enjoyed playing around with them. The next trail took us onto either a small farm or a large garden, depending on your perspective. We walked through, around and out and found ourselves back on the road where we had met the small dancing dog two days earlier. He came out to greet us and we met his owner. Apparently the dog's name is Tequila. When we walked away he followed us, quickly taking the lead. We passed by a small wildlife sanctuary that acts as a rest stop for thousands of migratory birds. Tequila walked under the barbed wire fence to check it out. We stayed on the road and read
the sign. The area was established, in part, with help from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. We started walking again and Tequila once more took the lead. Eventually we came to a couple forks in the road where we had to choose a path. With nothing else to go on, we decided just to take the "Tequila Tour" and follow wherever he went. We went up a footpath and found what looks to be a small picnic area along another stream, we walked through part of Don Juan's coffee plantation (they offer paid tours via ox cart) and by some sugar cane fields. Eventually Tequila walked into someone's yard and he was done. Kate wanted to walk in and introduce ourselves, but we kept walking out to the road. When we got there we saw a big sign advertising the Don Juan tour. Someone noticed that the picture of Don Juan had a dog sitting at his feet. It was Tequila! No wonder he seemed so familiar with the whole area; he was showing us around his plantation lands. We then looked closer at Don Juan's picture. It was the guy we met earlier who told us Tequila's name.
Down by the stream
Dad and a tree with incredibly long roots. We met local celebrity and agritourism and coffee entrepreneur Don Juan and took his dog for a walk.
We chilled at home for a while. Mom looked through the Lonely Planet book for a little while and we decided to take a taxi to the Monteverde cheese factory for a tour during the afternoon. We got their early, bought some ice cream and found some free wifi sitting on a forest trail next to a yoga studio while we waited for the tour to start. Unfortunately, after we waited for 90 minutes, the tour leader let us know that they weren't actually making cheese that day, so the tour would last 45 minutes, but we would not see anything. So that was a bust, but at least we bought cheese and ate ice cream. We rode a taxi back through town to pick up supplies and hit the bank. Alex purchased a 5-lb bag of generic frosted flakes. Dad grabbed a rogue, unlicensed taxi for the drive home. It was cheaper than the regular taxis and had the added bonus of being an old fashioned hybrid: whenever the car stopped, the engine automatically turned off. When we got to the house
we paid up and said goodbye. A minute later there was a knock at the door. Our driver had written down his home number and name so we could call him if we ever needed a ride again. I asked him what we should say to tell him where we were. He said that we are in the house on the left near Don Juan (our coffee friend).
Advertisement
Tot: 0.057s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 6; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0375s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb