Days 38, 39 and 41 - San Jose, Costa Rica

February 17, Day 38: Belen (San Jose), Costa Rica
Today was a tour day. We caught the bus at 8 and went to downtown San Jose. First stop was the National Theater. The theater was started in 1890 and completed in 1897. Initially funded by coffee plantation families, final funding was by the government. It is very ornate with marble statues and stairways, parquet floors, and gold gilt trim throughout. There are paintings on the ceilings many done by Italian artists. It is one of 3 theaters that has a main floor that can be raised and lowered, and in order to light the many lights within, the theater caused San Jose to be the third city in the world to have electricity (after New York and Paris).
Our next stop was the Museum. We toured only the sections that displayed the pre-colombian aspects of Costa Rican history, showing the burial, pottery, and lifestyles of those early peoples. Many gold artifacts were on display as well as several of the granite balls that have been found, but never well explained.
We drove east out of the city and followed the main highway through the rain forest park. At the other side is located a private park that has gondola rides, zip line rides, walking trails, and the expected gift shop and restaurant. We had a buffet lunch and then boarded the gondolas for a ride. The ride lasted an hour and 20 minutes. The first half followed a “low” route and the return trip followed a “high” route. A guide went with each gondola to tell about the flora and fauna seen. This was a rain forest ride in the true sense as it was pouring rain the entire time and no one escaped without getting seriously wet. A few adventurous souls took a walk in the pouring rain after the ride.
To head back, you normally take small buses back to the highway where our tour bus awaited. However, with all of the heavy rain, the road was now overrun by a stream. This required us to ride a minibus to the stream and then get out and follow a trail to a suspension bridge over the stream and then on to an awaiting minibus on the opposite stream side. It was still raining, of course, so we got wetter, if that was possible.
We drove back to camp, stopping at a Pali’ store for a grocery run along the way, and arrived back around 6.
Mike & Pat, Rig 4


Day 39 Costa Rica “Highlights Tour”, Rig #5

Today is hump day – this the halfway mark of the tour! Can you believe it!

Another day of ups and downs, twists and turns, bumps and grinds as we traveled up the mountain (like the three billy goats) to the Doka Coffee Plantation, Poas National Park, Poas Volcano and the Lapaz Waterfall Gardens. It’s been a tough three days for those with queasy travel tummies. Kudos to those folks! Also kudos to tour driver, Manuel, who has delivered us home safely each day in spite of the challenging road conditions and wet weather. Today was the first time I got to go to the back of the bus – and what a steep climb that was!

The aroma of roasted coffee and a taste of ice coffee drew us into the coffee plantation where we were told the story of the coffee bean, from seedling to the fragrant roasted coffee on the store shelf. I appreciate my coffee more now that I know it takes four years before a coffee plant blooms and produces a coffee red bean, but then it is a long producer, producing for some 100 years. All beans are hand picked by mostly migrant workers from Nicaragua. A good picker can pick twenty, twenty-five pound baskets daily receiving $1.50 for each basket. Once picked the beans are sorted in a vat of water where the good quality beans sink while the poor quality beans float. After sorting the beans are peeled by squeezing the beans through a cylinder. Finally the beans are air dried outside for a week on the concrete where workers continually rake the beans into rows ever watchful of the weather so the precious beans don’t get wet. Then they are dried inside for another week before bagging. The beans are shipped and exported without roasting. Starbuck buys 60% of Doka coffee and Jean Pierre feels Starbuck’s charges far too much for this Costa Rican coffee. Following the tour we enjoyed the beautiful gardens with hydrangeas, trumpet flowers among others and a sample of the coffee.

Unfortunately as we climbed the mountain we also climbed into the clouds obstructing our view, but fortunately Jean Pierre was there to remind us to simply enjoy the cloud forest so we took more photos of the poor man’s umbrellas. Unfortunately we were unable to see the Paos Volcano, fortunately that meant some could shop in the souvenir shop for toucan planters. Unfortunately our driver Manuel had a difficult time maneuvering the bus around a hairpin turn, fortunately we were there to pile into the back of the bus to redistribute the weight and away we go. Unfortunately the rain continued with no sun in sight, fortunately we had a delicious buffet including the pizza Ed has been craving for days. Unfortunately we couldn’t walk to the falls and see the butterflies, cats, snakes and frogs too. Fortunately we split up, each took a camera and shared our pictures later. Unfortunately we had to leave before we had seen all we wanted to see. Fortunately we saw a complete rainbow, which Luann says is a good omen. What a way to start a new adventure tomorrow.


Day 41 (February 20) – Free Day in Belen, Costa Rica

Another free day. A welcome change from traveling. From my motorhome window I watch the activity. Gail is hanging up her wash. Joan is loading the washing machine. Someone's sitting at the table already busy at their computer. Duncan is wandering around. Bob and Brian are studying a map. Wendy's off with her loaded backpack. Pete's already working on his rig. What a busy bunch.

A group went to town for shopping and sightseeing. Some walked to the local store and mall. Six of us are at the Arenal Volcano. We're waiting for them to come back and tell us about their adventures.

It's a wonderful to have a day to just relax, catch up on everything we need to do and get ready for tomorrow's journey, DEATH HILL.


Rig # 7, Miriam and Dan