We closed out our time in Costa Rica by travelling back to San Jose. In spite of a 1 hour delay due to construction, we had a beautiful drive up the mountains and stopped at Quetzal Park.
Having started the day in the warmth of the coast, we were dressed in shorts, T-shirts and flip-flops. When we stepped out it was freezing and we realized from the sign that we were back at 3000m elevation which explained the cold. Throwing on jackets, we took a pretty short hike this time. Unfortunately no quetzal sightings though Annika thought making an A with the tree across the path was pretty cool.
The World Vision Youth Ambassador from Julia’s year lives on the outskirts of San Jose and we got to spend the last day and a half with her and her family. Always a joy to connect again with YAs.
In the morning they took us to Irazu volcano which is just outside of San Jose. It was a beautiful drive through the countryside and cold and windy at the top! The clouds gave the volcano an eerie impression at times!
Trying to get the best view into the crater!
The view from the highest lookout and a perspective on the size of the appropriately named “umbrella” plants that grew at that altitude.
For lunch they took us part way back down into the valley to a lovely little restaurant that was on a little plantation. We got to enjoy an authentic Costa Rican lunch with them and then participate in a little coffee tour of the plantation.
The kids did most of the coffee bean picking, but the adults got in on the action partway through. The owner said I could come back any time since I could reach up to the top of most of the coffee bushes.
It is beautiful countryside.
The coffee process was basically the same as the cacao (hot chocolate): gather the fruit which contains a bean type seed, dry/ferment the fruit, crack and separate the chaff from the bean, roast, grind, and mix with hot water to produce a drink.
It was some of the best coffee I’ve had. Everyone, especially the farmer, tried to convince Julia to give it a try. Julia does NOT like coffee but being a good sport she gave it a go.
Not so sure about this.
Alright, I’ll try it.
What did I do?
And there’s the aftertaste. Yeah, no!
The process might be the same, but Julia’s vote is still for hot chocolate.
We ended the day back out our gracious host’s house for a relaxing evening together, discussing life, travels, and the YA stories.
The next day we had a flight to catch in the afternoon so we couldn’t do a whole day event with them. Instead they invited us to join them for their Christmas tree shopping. We knew in our heads the Christmas was getting closer but having missed the fall season it really didn’t feel like Christmas at all, even though Christmas decorations were up in most stores and in our hosts home. It was fun to try and find a tree together in a similar process to what we would do at home but definitely a much warmer environment. It definitely helped us start to feel like it was Christmas time.
We had a wonderful time in Costa Rica – enjoying the beauty and biodiversity, seeing family and meeting another YA family.