El Trapiche

Sunday morning, we were heading to Monteverde. We had breakfast at the Rain Forest Café again and asked them to make a “teddy bear” in the café con leche. I don’t know if the foam made a difference, but it seemed to taste better!

Sandy couldn’t find Bert again this morning, though. After breakfast, we checked out of the hotel and got picked up to head to Lake Arenal. At the dam, near where we had paddleboarded the day before, we boarded a boat to cruise across the lake. It was very cloudy again, so we couldn’t see the volcano, but the cruise across the lake was very scenic.

At the other side of the lake near where Río Chiquito flows into the lake, we boarded another bus and began driving along the gravel roads towards Monteverde.

Although the roads were bumpy and steep in places, they really weren’t too different from the gravel forest roads in the mountains that we drive back home. The drive was quite scenic as shortly after leaving the Lake Arenal area, the clouds cleared and we began to have nice views. Shortly before reaching Monteverde, we made a stop at El Trapiche plantation. We were taking a tour of this plantation that grows sugar cane, cacao, and coffee. There were many beautiful flowers growing around the farm house and shop.

Before the tour, we had a traditional Costa Rican lunch and afterwards, started the tour. The tour guide led us around the plantation where we saw the various crops growing.

We saw rows of sugar cane growing high above the other plants.

They also had some bananas growing here as well.

The views here were quite scenic, with the Pacific Ocean and Nicoya Peninsula visible in the distance.

We learned all about how these crops are grown in Costa Rica. The Costa Rican government only allows Arabica coffee to be grown. Most of the labor for picking coffee comes from Nicaraguan immigrants; the pay is low and most Costa Ricans prefer to be tour guides. The coffee fruit can produce from 1 to 3 beans.

A fruit with a single bean produces the best coffee – peaberry. Two beans are acceptable, but three beans are not to be sold. After touring around the grounds, we headed to a building where coffee processing occurs.

As the guide was talking, an oxcart arrived and we rode in the cart to the next building were the guide described cacao processing.

There are three ingredients to making chocolate – cacao, milk, and sugar. We first tried raw cacao, which is not sweet and difficult to eat. But once sugar and powdered milk was mixed in, it started to taste like chocolate.

We then headed to the final building where sugar cane is processed and distilled to make candy. The guide gave us a sample of sugar cane liquor produced at the still. Then, we headed into the next room where the sugar cane is heated to produce the candy. The processing equipment was powered by the oxen.

We were broken up into small groups and each given a warm batch of processed sugar cane to beat until it solidified. This was our last stop on the tour. Before leaving, we headed to the gift shop and picked up some coffee to bring home as gifts (and to keep for ourselves). We then boarded the bus again and finished the drive to Monteverde. Our hotel was Atardecer, which had lovely gardens around the hotel with beautiful hibiscus and other flowers growing.

After checking into our room, I went up to the second floor to get some pictures of the sunset over the Pacific Ocean.

Then Sandy and I left to go on a guided night hike. Our guide first took us right outside of the building to a small hole in the ground. There was a tarantula in there, but she was hard to see in her current position, so the guide suggested we come back at the end. From here, we turned on our headlamps and started hiking down some trails and gravel roads on their property. We saw a sloth high up in the trees undulating back and forth, to remove ticks and other insects from him. Unfortunately, he was high up in the trees and it was hard to get a good view. We continued hiking and the guide pointed out some birds that were sleeping in the trees. We saw an Emerald Toucanet. They sleep with their heads under their wings, so he basically looked like a green blob.  The tour guide shined his light and told us to look for the “big avocado”. Further on, we saw a motmot, a really beautiful bird with unusual tail feathers shaped like a racket.

Besides the birds, we also saw two very poisonous pit vipers resting in the trees just off the trail. Good thing to have a guide to point out these critters.

We also saw an interesting leaf-mimic katydid. It was half green leaf and half dead leaf.

After hiking around for a couple hours, we headed back to the start. The tarantula had come further out of her hole so we could see her much better.

Then the bus took us back to the hotel. Once back, we got with Ro and everybody joined to go for dinner at a nearby pizza place. Definitely not typical Costa Rican fare, but it was good pizza. After dinner, we went to bed. Unfortunately, the walls and ceiling were very thin so we could hear every movement from adjacent rooms and didn’t get a great night’s sleep.