Pura vida is the most typical Costa Rican phrase. It literally means "pure life", but the meaning behind it is really "life is wonderful". I really came to prefer it as a response to "how are you?" It seemed to capture the laid back lifestyle of the Tico culture. I got to spend the next week after training enjoying the pura vida with my parents!
The day after training, we met up at the airport where we were picked up by the lovely family we would be staying with for the next four days. Our first destination was Monteverde, the home of the Cloud Forest. It's quite a windy, steep drive on a dirt road but the views are spectacular.
There were quite a few fruit stands along the side of the road. We spotted one that had some strange looking fruit that we had never seen before. Our driver was kind enough to pull over at the next stand and let us try these odd little things.
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They called in mamon chino
We later looked it up and found out it is also called rambutan |
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They look like they came right out of a
Dr. Seuss book |
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| The inside looks very similar to lychee |
After about 4 hours of rattling along the mountainous road, we arrived at Rancho Makena!
It's a family-owned ranch on the mountain above the little town of Santa Elena. They have little cabin rooms that you can rent with an amazing view overlooking the town and all the way out to the Pacific Ocean.
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| Cabin #1 |
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Shared space if other people are staying there, but we
had the place to ourselves! |
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| Big windows to get the view |
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Can you tell which way the wind is almost
always blowing? |
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| Yep, that was our view every day |
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| The milk barn |
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| The chicken house |
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| The reception area/restaurant/family living area |
Every morning we got to go to the restaurant where they would serve us breakfast. We woke up everything morning looking forward to it because it was that good!
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| So happy to start the day with Costa Rican coffee! |
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Remember the chickens a few pictures back? They laid
our eggs fresh every day. This picture doesn't do justice
for the rich color of the yolk. I had no idea eggs were supposed
to be that good! |
You might also be wondering what the brown sauce on my eggs is. It is my new favorite sauce that I became slightly obsessed with and ate on everything that I possibly could while in Costa Rica...
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| Muy bueno! |
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We always had fresh juice and fruit to go with our
toast and eggs |
The sun woke us up quite early, so before we even went to breakfast, we decided to venture around the ranch to see what there was to see.
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We couldn't resist touching this plant every time we walked
by one because it smelled so good - somewhat gingery |
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| In the forest just yards from our cabin |
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| All the plants just seem to be bigger and more beautiful |
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| If you look closely you can see the rainbow |
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| Hangin' out on a big vine |
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| Another shot of the rainbow |
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| We have to get back up there? |
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| Such towering trees! |
There was quite a lot to see just on the ranch, but we knew there was even more to discover down in the town, so we gladly took the offer for a ride into town. We had a few recommendations for things to see and a little map and off we went to explore Santa Elena. We were unsuccessful in locating the farmer's market (we were pretty sad about that), but we had already made it up a large hill, so we decided to keep going down the road toward the highly recommended cheese factory. We quickly realized that the map probably wasn't quite to scale as the road kept going and going. We had to think of it as more of a scenic hike to enjoy rather than a quick walk to the cheese factory. You do get to see a lot more when you're walking as opposed to riding in a car.
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| We came across this little shopping center along the way |
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| Not quite the Whole Foods we typically see in the states ;) |
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| We came across Stella's Bakery - another landmark to see |
And then finally came upon the Monteverde Cheese Factory!
The cows live right there and are milked to make cheese right on sight as well as another super delicious dairy treat...
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| ICE CREAM!!! |
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| We're happy it was worth the walk |
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| Yumm! |
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We didn't hang around for the tour, but it was still neat
to see the factory and some of the cheese being made
right in front of us |
As we began our walk back towards town, we found another little hiking trail full of beautiful sights.
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| Such colorful birds |
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Seeing bunches of bananas growing again
made me so happy! |
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| Rattlesnake Plant |
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| The always interesting banana flower |
During our stop at Stella's Bakery we met a very nice young man working there who had very good English and recommended a tour to us. It was a coffee, chocolate and sugar cane tour run by his cousin, or uncle, or some relative. You know, everyone is somehow related in small places like that. We took his advice and booked an El Trapiche tour for that afternoon.
That gave us just enough time to go grab some food, which is when we discovered our favorite little place in all of Santa Elena.
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| Not only does it have an eye-catching sign |
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| It also had delicious tacos and a refreshing mango mint smoothie! |
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| Fun little outdoor eating area |
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| Fun decor at night too |
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| And even a little piece of Texas to make us feel right at home |
We liked it so much that we ended up going there 4 times in 3 days. If you ever find yourself in Santa Elena, you have to eat at Taco Taco. Another highlight of eating there so many times was that I spotted and got to meet one of the Twinnies from the Amazing Race! Nadia was hanging out in the town with her friends and apparently liked Taco Taco as much as we did. Because of contracts with CBS I couldn't take a picture with her, but I was still excited just to get to talk to someone from my favorite show!
Ok, back to the afternoon plans...El Trapiche. They did a fantastic job of showing us the farm, teaching us about all the processes of coffee, coffee and sugar can, and made it fun all along the way.
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| Our entertaining tour guide showing us the arracache plant |
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I learned that the little nobs are what can
be cut off to grow a new sugar cane stalk |
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| In the sugar cane fields |
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| Quite the view looking out from the farm |
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| Another rainbow! |
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| The beginnings of coffee plants |
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Mature coffee plant producing that famous
Costa Rican brew |
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| We got to see every step of the process for the coffee beans |
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I even got to demonstrate what the coffee bean
pickers wear in the fields |
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The thought of filling that basket with 35 lbs of coffee beans
and only getting a few dollars per basket gave me a lot of empathy |
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| The clouds were rolling in as usual |
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| Heading to the next stage of the coffee bean process |
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They had very interesting machines made
in-house just for their use |
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Bean sorter because different sizes need different amounts
of roasting - smart! |
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| Can you tell she's loving all the coffee? |
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| The painter had just finished this beautiful work of art |
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| From there we got to ride in an oxcart to the chocolate barn |
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| Trying the raw cacao bean - it's a little slimy |
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| It takes quite a bit of work by hand to break down the bean |
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After it is fermented and dried, it can be turned into this
pure chocolate powder - the purest I'm sure I've had |
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| Pretty bitter at this point |
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| But oh so delicious when you add a little milk and sugar |
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| Mmm...can we have another spoonful? |
The next stop was to try the very high proof concoction that is made from their cane juice.
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| I was most excited that we got to have a banana! |
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| Pura vida! |
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Meanwhile the oxen were at work squeezing the juice out
of the sugar cane so that we could make... |
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| candy! |
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| Everybody got a turn stirring |
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But Dad was the one who really knew what
he was doing |
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and he made us our very own block of
sugary goodness! |
That concluded the tour of the farm, but they then took us back to the family house and served us one final treat.
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A traditional dish made from the arracache root,
a glass of lemonade made with their very one sugar cane,
and a cup of coffee from the beans grown on the farm |
The tour was so well done, and we were so glad we had gone with the recommendation.
The next day was Sunday, which meant that the family wasn't working on the ranch. It was their day for fun. So at breakfast that morning, Carlos asked me if I rode horses. I said that I had, and he offered to let me ride his horse around the ranch. I won't pass on that offer! It took a little longer than planned for the horses to show up, but in the mean time, they let us entertain ourselves on the ATVs. The perks of staying on a family farm with such a generous and kind family!
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| Mikaela & Carlos Roberto having fun! |
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| Mikaela was showing me how it's done |
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| And then she let me take control |
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| Carlos Roberto, Carlos, and Roseanna on a family ride |
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| Taking Mom for a spin |
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| We made it back with both of us still on and all smiles |
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| Dad needed a turn too of course |
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| Then the horses arrived! |
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| Off we go through the ranch |
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| We got to pick avocados right off the tree |
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| Good horse :) |
After horse riding, we decided to make the walk into town. It was the day of the Costa Rica vs. Greece World Cup game. That was excitement we did not want to miss! Everyone told us that Bar Amigos was the place to go to watch the game.
When it got a little too crowded, we decided to look for a different location. We thought the game was going to be shown on the big screen out on the street, but no one could ever figure out how to get it to work. We ended up watching it with Christopher from the tourism office. He set up his laptop on the front porch and we watched the whole game together. Definitely not what we had in mind for watching the game, but I personally thought it was far better than anything we could have planned. It turns out that Christopher will be coming to Texas soon to study at the University of Texas. We got to share about Texas while cheering on the Ticos to victory!
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| Proudly waving his flag |
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| It gave us the chance to eat Taco Taco again too! |
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| People were crowded around the TV at the supermarket |
The game was quite the nail-biter. They ended up going all the way to penalty kicks. Luckily even when our internet would freeze, we could still know what was going on by the cheers and sighs of the restaurant next door and the crowd across the street. And we certainly knew when the Ticos had won and were going to the final 8!!!
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| Costa Rica wins! |
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| And the Ticos go wild! |
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A little too wild for comfort sometimes; yes, they're driving
around like that |
And the craziness just kept going...
and going...
We finally realized that the party was not going to end any time soon. We were so thankful that we had gotten a guy's personal business card to give us a ride back to the ranch because the taxis certainly weren't going to do it. They were part of the parade, by golly! But first...
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this celebration calls for one more trip to
Taco Taco |
Our final big adventure in Monteverde was ziplining in the Cloud Forest Reserve! This was my mom and dad's first time, and what a place to do it! That day it was definitely a rain forest, but we didn't let that stop us from having fun.
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| We got all geared up |
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| Ready to zip |
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Of course they have someone to take
pictures along the way |
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| We're having a blast getting covered in mud! |
One added optional thrill was the tarzan swing. Me and my dad decided to go for it and it was quite a stomach-dropping thrill.
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| Here we go! |
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| 1 - 2 - 3 fall! |
After a 1 kilometer zipline to finish it off, we came to this
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| Are they trying to say I have something on my face?! |
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| The speckled mud look |
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We gave her a hard time the whole time
because her helmet just wouldn't seem
to stay on her head |
Also part of the trip was getting to walk on the hanging bridges, which take you through and over the Cloud Forest.
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| We could certainly see why it got its name |
The whole area is just amazing - teeming with life, so green and lush. Even though it was a really rainy, cloudy day we got to see a monkey rustling his way through the trees.
To finish off the first part of our trip and our time in Monteverde, it only seemed fitting to go have a cup of coffee in a tree.
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| In the Tree House |
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| An added green glow effect |
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| The restaurant is just build right around the tree |
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| Costa Rica loves coffee |
So long Monteverde, on to another region...
(to be continued)
