Tropical Jungle in Costa Rica

The Falls at Manual Antonio National Park, Costa Rica

We hired, Fernando, the driver that picked us up at the airport to take us to Manual Antonio National Park. It's supposed to take 3 hours, he did it in 2.5 with a 20 minute stop for refreshments and shopping. Go Fernando. He's the gentleman waiting patiently for us in the bottom pic.

At one point Fernando did show us some crocodiles basking along a riverbank, but he was driving too fast for me to take a pic.

The drive to Manual Antonio National Park was pretty, mainly lots of lush green mountainous terrain with the occasional wisp of fog. It's the rainy season now and we were lucky today with just humid cloudy skies and no rain.

 

 

OMG - this National Park is amazing. We were given the advice to hire a guide rather than just wing it on our own. Best advice ever. We would have missed a lot without Juan. It was really hard to pick which photos made the blog.

Zebra grasshoppers

Three toed sloth

Neo-tropical land crab (which only travels to the ocean once in its life to reproduce)

Purple crown fairy hummingbird

Squirrel monkeys - mom and baby eating mangos. (We saw three different types of monkeys: whiteface, squirrel and howlers). I have pictures of all of them too!

 

 

We took several hours to walk through the park. Juan had an amazing spotting telescope on a tripod. There was no way I would have seen the things he was able to spot with the naked eye. He was also really good at hearing, identifying and imitating the different wildlife sounds in the jungle.

We also learned a lot about different flora. He had me poke some baby ferns and watch how they instantly closed up as a defense mechanism to keep from being grazed by animals. He also showed us some ficus type plants that created it's own holes in their leaves to look like they had been chewed. Again a defense mechanism. Because they look partially chewed, animals think they are toxic and avoid them.

 

 

 

We eventually made it to a beach within the park and Juan gave us a choice to go back with him or stay in the park. We stayed. And swam. And played in the warm water.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We walked back into town, stopped for a snack, and then instead of taking a taxi or bus back to our hotel we decided to walk. We thought it was a lot closer than it was. And we had to walk over a HUGE hill. Like going up California St. in SF. The scariest part was there are no sidewalks. Made for an interesting walk home. Tomorrow we definitely take the tourist bus to the public beach!

 

 

 

 

 

The small hotel we are staying is amazing. Rather than having a magnificent view of the beach, we are on the jungle side and are butted up next to the National Park. This hotel, called The Falls at Manual Antonio has bungalows scattered throughout the tropical landscape. The bar, restaurant, sitting areas and pool are all open air and on different terraces. Our little bungalow comes with it's own hammock. When we arrived today we were greeted by Roberto, the iguana, on a walkabout.

This place is super chill. The pool is available 24 hours and we can hear all the jungle sounds around us. They have pretty good drinks too at happy hour.

 

Tonight we took a stroll around the town and decided upon a restaurant that was built AROUND a 1954 vintage bomber airplane. It has quite a history. It was part of the secret CIA deal that the US gave to the Sandistas during the Nicaraguan war. The secret deal was exposed (remember Oliver North, Papa Bush and the Iran-Contra scandal?) and the plane was abandoned. Some rich guy bought it for 3 grand and brought it here. It's now the bar in the middle of the restaurant.

Turns out the food was actually amazing. I had a whole fresh red snapper, Ned had shrimp with yellow curry sauce.

What an extraordinary day!

 

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Hacienda Azul Cacao Farm, Turrialba, Costa Rica

Hotel Boutique Jade, San Jose, Costa Rica

 

What a magical, incredible, amazing day. One that will stand out as a favorite memory for years to come.

Part of me just wants to post lots of photos so you can experience the beauty, color and food of Costa Rica and part of me wants to put the story down so you can be with us in this adventure too. How do I choose which pictures, how do I choose which stories??

 

Eric picked us up at 6:30 this morning to take us to the Peralta Cocoa Farm in Turrialba. The farm has now been renamed Hacienda Azul. Greg, one of the owners of Dandelion chocolate made up the foursome of our group. We've traveled with Greg before, who is one of the most fun, gregarious, smart and funny people we know. Eric is super sweet, knowledgeable about the area, and has such an interesting background. He's lived in Italy, Iran and several other places. Both these guys kept us entertained (and in stitches) for most of the day.

After about an hour or so we stopped in a small little village called Santa Teresa for breakfast. It was a gorgeous open air hacienda style restaurant, where they were making cheese tortillas and corn tortillas on a wood stove.

 

 

Eric encouraged us to get the cheese tortillas which can be topped with just about anything you want. (Sour cream, eggs, fruit, meat...). We also had fried cheese on corn tortillas, fried plantains baked in cheese, scrambled eggs and blackberry juice. I think there was a bunch of other things too, but I was just concentrating on this amazing cheese tortilla. When you order coffee here it comes with a steaming hot pot of milk. Dang, wish they served our milk in the States in steaming hot pots. Note to self - make this a habit at home.

The drive was simply breathtaking. We had to drive over a mountain, and because a bridge was out, around a volcano. The roads were in pretty good shape, but occasionally we had to drive through a creek. I'm glad Eric was driving!

We were high in the mountains and I enjoyed watching the clouds hug the hillside and drift in and out of the villages that we went through. This is also dairy country and we passed lots of cows, sheep and goats.

 

 

 

 

 

This is the 6th cocoa farm we've visited, and out of all the countries this farm is the most beautiful. It's a working farm, but could easily be a park. There were ponds, geese, horses, roosters and beautiful flora. Just breathtaking.

 

 

 

We did a walkabout with Wilfred, the owner,and I was impressed with how neat, pruned and healthy all the cacao trees looked. They were planted under a canopy of Spanish Cedar. Wilfred said this wood is used in making cigar humidors.

There were a lot of Indian relics that remained on the property. Here's Ned holding the broken leg of a huge metate, which would be used to grind either corn or cacao.

Wilfred wants to use his creek to power new mechanical dryers with a pelton wheel. We enjoyed sharing with him the we live in the town where Lester Pelton manufactured them. Small world indeed.

 

 

Usually when we visit a farm there is only one activity going on. Today we saw it all! Cracking the pods, putting the juicy seeds in the fermentation boxes and seeing the drying beds. Love the brilliant colors of the pods. They also taste amazing. It's so delicious to take a freshly cracked pod and suck on the juicy, sweet baba that surrounds the seeds. It's hard to describe the taste, but it's definitely tropical - like a citrus, banana, mango flavor. And to think this is where chocolate originates. It never ceases to amaze me.

 

The thing I enjoy most about our little business is making the connection with the people that grow, harvest and prepare the beans. We really enjoy sharing our chocolate with the people that work so hard to bring these beans to market. I have a lot of respect for the hard labor and work they do.

Here's Eric (the cocoa broker), Wilfred (owner of the farm), the foreman of the farm, and the lead worker. Sweet guys all of them.

 

When someone is good at it, cracking the pod is a mesmerizing process to watch. These workers do it more efficiently than anyone I've seen.

The two guys sitting on the mound of cacao pods have a simple block of wood with an angle iron embedded in it. They whack a pod with each hand, then toss it onto the table. The other workers open it up, scoop out the wet beans and toss the empty shell into a nearby bin. The guys in the line of fire end up with juice and pulp from the seeds splattered all over them. Everyone is laughing, having a good time, but working quickly and hard!

 

Towards the end of the day we went to the hacienda on the property, broke out Dandelion's and our Costa Rica chocolate. It was interesting to taste the differences in the bars, mainly due to the roast variations. I loved sharing our chocolate with everyone and amazed that it survived the road trip. It's been through quite a few temperature changes these past several weeks.

 

 

On the way home we stopped at the open air restaurant and had hot chocolate and coconut flan. Yum!

 

 

We got back to the hotel in the early evening, took showers, freshened up and agreed to all meet at a seafood restaurant within walking distance. After the incredible meals we ate today hard to believe I could still eat anything. Nevertheless she persisted:).

Eric and his wife Pia took all of us out. As usual, Greg kept us in stitches with his stories.

I had fresh shrimp with a chimichurra sauce over sautéed veggies and Ned had a whole octopus that was flame broiled served with roasted veggies and mixed greens. There were too many appetizer to describe, all were made with fresh fish. Again, one of the best meals ever.

Tomorrow we head to Manual Antonia National Park. Can't wait!

 

 

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