Yellow Wildlife
I think I'm being called Canada now. I was on the bus a few minutes after most everyone and as I made my way to the back I heard a few people say Canada is here. This should be interesting.
It's our first actual touring day. We've all become acquainted with the bus now. The one thing I find amusing is that they enforce seat rotation. For those of you who haven't done a bus tour the idea is that you move seats in an orderly fashion so that everyone gets a turn at the popular seats. Which are either the front seats and you get a view out front and to the side. Or if you have the back exit, then you can get off the bus quickly. We didn't have a back exit so it was a slow process getting off the bus most days. But every morning there was a chart with seat numbers telling you where you sat that day. The other tours I've been on have mentioned it but never enforced it. Aside from the first trip when our tour guide told the one gentleman that he could sit anywhere he likes except near her that day! He was a lot to deal with.
Today's agenda is a trip to the Poas volcano and a visit to a coffee plantation. Along the drive to the volcano our tour guide was sharing information about the country and the area we were in as well as a little bit about himself. He is a naturalist guide, which I discovered along the trip was a real advantage because he could spot animals everywhere and I never saw him stumped by a question. He just knew everything we could possibly ask.
Along the way we had our first animal spotting. We got to see a 2 toed sloth sleeping in the tree way above the bus. They're very similar to house cats. They sleep at least 20 hours a day and actually move so little and so slow they grow algae. Seriously. It does end up benefiting them in the end but if you look closely with binoculars they have a bit of a green tinge. It was funny to see them sleep, as they are curled up in a big fur ball at the very end of the tree branches.
We really lucked out with the volcano. Our tour book warned us that there is a 30% chance of seeing the volcano and the crater. Paul said that he hasn't seen it this clear in 2 months. I even heard a different tour guide telling her people that usually she just has them stand next to the picture at the top and has to convince them that the picture is actually what is behind all the clouds. It was a really interesting crater to see because it has a lagoon/pond in the bottom. It's highly acidic, around a pH of 0.5 to 1.5. Yikes. But it does mean that it's this mossy green color. There was also a lot of warning signs to limit your visit due to the sulphur fumes coming off the crater as well. It's still quite an active volcano but with being so close to San Jose and the suburbs it's highly monitored.
On the way back we went for a hike through the forest instead of just taking the road back. It was such a novelty to be hiking back through the tropical woods, filled with palms, and bromeliads growing on every possible surface. I was most amused by the elephant plants. When I first spotted them I thought, hey that's weird, it looks like they have rhubarb growing everywhere. Only to realize that these plants look like rhubarb but grow way bigger than that. And was amused when he said that it was also called poor man's umbrella. And I remember using rhubarb leaves as umbrellas when a sudden storm caught us out in the garden.
I also found the roads going up to the crater were very similar to the Mt. Vesuvius roads in Italy. Narrow little winding roads heading up to the top. Along with the same restaurants and junk stores along the way to the top.
After our volcano excitement we headed down to a coffee plantation for lunch and a tour. This seems to be the deal that they have for our lunches. Most of the afternoon excursions we had included lunch. So it was a fast stop for lunch and then off for more adventure.
As well, the coffee plantation had a butterfly garden for us to explore, filled with the blue morpho butterflies. It was a calm, and lush place to watch the butterflies. I was filled with a lot of envy at a lot of the plant varieties they have. I try to grow some of these at home in the summer and they don't get nearly as impressive.
It takes an incredibly amount of hand labour to get a quality bean. The best beans only grow in certain altitudes and they only grow arabica coffee. They can't compete with quantity with Brazil and Colombia so they succeed with quality.
And it's not really a lucrative way to go. The pickers are usually from Nicaragua and are paid by the basket. A top picker can do 15 baskets a day. At $2 a basket. I've picked berries before and it's hard work. (Don't be getting any ideas parents, I'm not picking a basket of berries for $2 for you!) The reality is that their dollar goes farther and the pickers do get free housing, electricity and water during the picking season. It's still not a lot of money for a lot of work.
It takes 4 years from planting the seed to get a coffee plant that will grow beans. And they are constantly replacing the plants because after a few seasons the beans aren't as high quality anymore. All of the processing is done in Costa Rica for the finished product aside from decaffeinated coffee. Once the coffee is ready to go they ship it to Germany to have the caffeine removed. The process is completely free aside from shipping the beans, because Germany keeps the caffeine and sells that to make up for the cost. Coke has to get the caffeine from somewhere! They don't export or sell nearly enough decaffeinated coffee to have the facilities in Costa Rica to process it. Many other coffee producing countries in the area do the same thing.
As an aside, I've noticed that many of my tour group like to take random shots of the group. I'm a little terrified by the amount of terrible Nicole shots that are out there now... And I've also noticed that this is the first bus tour for a large portion of the group. But it was a good price for the tour so the seniors on a budget could probably fit this in. Bill from Portland told me that he researched the hotel prices and if you add them all up it is more money than we paid for the trip!
Also, we've spotted our first yellow poui trees. What are these you ask? Bright yellow trees. They stand out for miles! And they are all over the entire country. You could spot them easily. Only we kept forgetting what their names were and Paul had to remind us all the time. One smart ass started calling it the amarillo tree, amarillo is yellow in Spanish. We all knew what the yellow tree was!
Tomorrow we are heading north to La Fortuna and the Arenal area to see our second volcano of the trip. Here's hoping the weather holds up for viewing tomorrow.
I've learned that the other volcano eruption is probably the cause of the clear skies. It is a little cooler here than I expected but still very comfortable and far superior to the snow and general brownness at home.
It's our first actual touring day. We've all become acquainted with the bus now. The one thing I find amusing is that they enforce seat rotation. For those of you who haven't done a bus tour the idea is that you move seats in an orderly fashion so that everyone gets a turn at the popular seats. Which are either the front seats and you get a view out front and to the side. Or if you have the back exit, then you can get off the bus quickly. We didn't have a back exit so it was a slow process getting off the bus most days. But every morning there was a chart with seat numbers telling you where you sat that day. The other tours I've been on have mentioned it but never enforced it. Aside from the first trip when our tour guide told the one gentleman that he could sit anywhere he likes except near her that day! He was a lot to deal with.
Today's agenda is a trip to the Poas volcano and a visit to a coffee plantation. Along the drive to the volcano our tour guide was sharing information about the country and the area we were in as well as a little bit about himself. He is a naturalist guide, which I discovered along the trip was a real advantage because he could spot animals everywhere and I never saw him stumped by a question. He just knew everything we could possibly ask.
 |
| 2 toed sloth, the furry bit in the middle |
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| Poas crater, the pond looked more green in real life |
 |
| me and the umbrella tree |
I also found the roads going up to the crater were very similar to the Mt. Vesuvius roads in Italy. Narrow little winding roads heading up to the top. Along with the same restaurants and junk stores along the way to the top.
After our volcano excitement we headed down to a coffee plantation for lunch and a tour. This seems to be the deal that they have for our lunches. Most of the afternoon excursions we had included lunch. So it was a fast stop for lunch and then off for more adventure.
As well, the coffee plantation had a butterfly garden for us to explore, filled with the blue morpho butterflies. It was a calm, and lush place to watch the butterflies. I was filled with a lot of envy at a lot of the plant varieties they have. I try to grow some of these at home in the summer and they don't get nearly as impressive.
It takes an incredibly amount of hand labour to get a quality bean. The best beans only grow in certain altitudes and they only grow arabica coffee. They can't compete with quantity with Brazil and Colombia so they succeed with quality.
And it's not really a lucrative way to go. The pickers are usually from Nicaragua and are paid by the basket. A top picker can do 15 baskets a day. At $2 a basket. I've picked berries before and it's hard work. (Don't be getting any ideas parents, I'm not picking a basket of berries for $2 for you!) The reality is that their dollar goes farther and the pickers do get free housing, electricity and water during the picking season. It's still not a lot of money for a lot of work.
 |
| coffee plantations in the hills |
As an aside, I've noticed that many of my tour group like to take random shots of the group. I'm a little terrified by the amount of terrible Nicole shots that are out there now... And I've also noticed that this is the first bus tour for a large portion of the group. But it was a good price for the tour so the seniors on a budget could probably fit this in. Bill from Portland told me that he researched the hotel prices and if you add them all up it is more money than we paid for the trip!
 |
| yellow poui tree |
Tomorrow we are heading north to La Fortuna and the Arenal area to see our second volcano of the trip. Here's hoping the weather holds up for viewing tomorrow.
I've learned that the other volcano eruption is probably the cause of the clear skies. It is a little cooler here than I expected but still very comfortable and far superior to the snow and general brownness at home.
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