Friday, March 13, 2020
Around San Jose, Costa Rica: Touring the Towns of Grecia and Sarchia, Doka Coffee Estate, And a Butterfly Garden
For a first day in a new country, I have to say that we packed a pretty hard punch. After Llew and I awoke and showered, we descended into the lobby restaurant for breakfast—a huge buffet affair with varied stations: breads, salads, fruit, cereal, coffee or tea or machines making custom drinks including hot chocolate, stations offering brunch-like items such as noodles, tamales, etc plus a station offering pancakes with maple syrup, sausages, fish and an egg station where you could get your eggs made to order. I made myself a granola bowl with maple syrup, nuts and fruit plus ordered a Western style omelette which I ate with sausages. There was only instant decaf coffee available and I decided right after breakfast to enjoy the regular coffee here (and then take a sleeping pill in case it keeps me awake) as I happen to be in a country which grows some of the best coffee in the world. It was a hearty breakfast indeed and we pigged out.
On the Bus and Off to Explore:
At breakfast, we met a few people who were on our tour and for the rest of the day, we would continue making friends with them. We set off with Bernal at the mic and with his constant commentary, we learned a lot about the places through which we passed. When we went through the town of Grecia, Bernal told us that it was very popular with North Americans as it was very close to the airport and is one of the cleanest and most affluent towns in Costa Rica. We passed by a church that was unique in that it was made entirely of prefabricated steel sidings that were then painted a rust color. The church had lovely metal filigree decoration on the roof line and windows.
As we continued further, we came to another town—Sarchia—which is famed for the making of the traditional ox-carts that used to be used in the coffee plantations. They are purely decorative now, but once-upon-a-time, they were the mainstay of the Costa Rican economy. We stopped outside another church, a green painted, twin-spired church outside whose square there was a massive pained ox-cart which Bernal told us was the largest one in the world.
The tour of the ox-cart factory followed. It was pretty interesting to note that no electricity or artificial power of any kind was used to make the carts—the entire factory was powered by water power through the use of a river that ran through the property that, in turn, powered a waterwheel. We saw traditional artisans sitting at work and painting a variety of objects in the stylized, colorful designs of curves and curlicues, flowers and geometrics. At the end of the tour, given by Anna, who explained the manner in which 16 triangles of mahogany wood are placed to form a wheel held together by a metal hub, we were treated to trays of fresh fruit and a fruit punch and led into the shop where a variety of souvenirs were available. We bought a post card and a magnet and then returned to the coach for the next bit of our tour. Indeed, it was very educational.
Lunch and a Coffee Estate:
Costa Rica is famous for its coffee and makes some of the finest coffee in the world—much of which is exported all over the world. We were taken to a place called the Doka Coffee Estate where we started off with lunch. This was a cafeteria-style lunch with samples of coffee available for the tasting. We had salad with a choice of chicken or fish (breaded and fried), vegetables in the form of squash and chick peas plus mixed vegetables and rice. For dessert, there was a sweet made of coconut and condensed milk that tasted very similar to the Goa Coconut Toffee that is made at Christmas. We made friends with Carol and her husband Rick who sat with us at lunch so that we got to know each other a little.
After lunch, we were free to stroll around a butterfly garden which was a vast enclosed space filled with vegetation and plants that are meant to attract butterflies. There is a path in tiers on which you walk surrounded by butterflies—loads of them. There were only three types: vivid large turquoise-blue ones, smaller golden and black striped ones, large orange monarch ones and softer, smaller lime green and yellow ones. They were very pretty and we found out how difficult they are to photograph (as they do not stay still) and we found out how they are fed (on over-ripe bananas—of which there are many ‘stations’ all over the garden). After spending about twenty minutes, walking around the garden and taking pictures, plus enjoying the superb vegetation and incredible flowers, we made our way back to the restaurant for the start of our coffee estate tour.
A Tour of the Coffee Factory:
As in the case of the ox-cart factory, this place was very enlightening as we realized exactly what a long drawn-out and laborious process it is to make coffee. We had a guide called Mauricio who spoke very good English and took us, step-by-step, from the coffee plantation itself where we saw the bushes on which the coffee beans grow to the factory. Once again, we were educated about good quality beans and not so good ones and were introduced to the siphon system used to separate them into grades. We were taken to a vast ground where the beans are placed after washing to dry thoroughly. They are then husked by raking with wooden rakes and separated by machines. The husk, known as parchment, is left in little mounds to be used as compost.
The beans are the graded and roasted into light, medium and dark roast (depending on how long they stay in the roaster) with peaberry (the single berry) used to make chocolate-covered coffee beans. The good ones are ground and packaged and exported around the world. At the end of the tour, we were taken into a gift shop where we had the chance to taste more coffee (really good), buy some as well as look at typical souvenirs.
Overall, this was a deeply educational tour as it taught us a great deal about the manner in which coffee is made and enjoyed. When we were done, we piled back into the bus to start our return journey of about an hour to the hotel.
Enjoying the Barcelo Hotel:
It was about 3.00pm when we returned to our hotel—which left us time to really enjoy it. It is a beautiful building set in grand tropical gardens, bursting with colorful vegetation. I was keen to enjoy the pool as we are in a part of the world where the weather is perfect for an afternoon dip. Llew and I changed into our swim suits and after finding out were the pool was, made our way to it, only to find that most of the members of our tour group were there already. We got a lounge chair and dangled our legs in the water as the temperature was a tad too cold or us to go fully in.
After an hour, at 5.00 pm, when the pool closed, I went up to my room and got dressed again for the gym. I was determined to work off all the extra calories I am consuming in these three gigantic meals a day. Llew decided to stay in our room, but I went downstairs and used to elliptical machine and the spinner and after 45 minutes, did a few stretches and returned to my room to freshen up for dinner.
Not too long after, we went down to dinner where we found a section of the restaurant reserved for us. We joined our new friends John and Maria (a Filipina) from Brooklyn and feasted on cream of vegetable soup, a plateful of colorful, really fresh salads (I loved the one that uses hearts of palm, a very Central American ingredient) and just a small touch of Beef Stroganoff which was excellent (the beef so succulent and tender with a bit of sliced pickles in the sauce), and Tilapia in a cream sauce. It was a splendid dinner. I really ought not to have had dessert but my sweet tooth cannot restrict a good bit of Tres Leches Cake (one of my favorite desserts) and I did indulge.
After dinner, as Llew and I had not used up our vouchers for two alcoholic Welcome Drinks, I joined a group of new lady friend-participants (Liz and Tanya from Toronto, Carol and Rick) and had a mango daiquiri and a guava daiquiri as we listened to a pianist tickle the ivories most beautifully in the hotel lobby and play the most soothing music. I thought I would do some blogging but discovered that my Ipad keyboard had not charged as I thought it had done—so I could not get any typing done. Instead, I sent a photograph by WhatsApp to a bunch of friends around the world and received really lovely messages back from them.
At about 10.00 pm, I returned to our room to find Llew already in bed and prepared to call it a night. I did some reading and then finding that all those coffee samples (not decaf) were doing a number on my sleeping patterns, decided to take a mild sleeping pill to go to sleep. That did the trick and I was off after a first fully eventful day.
Hasta Manana!
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