Picture 1- Jason playing Guitar at the La Iguana Chocolate
.
Picture 2- Our ride in the Ketchup truck
.
Picture 3- Two hour hike to Waterfall.
.
Picture 4- The Valleys of Costa Rica
.
Picture 5- Relaxing in the Hammocks
.
Picture 6- Our Tree House Room
.
Picture 7- Our Open Air Room Looking onto Ronalds Farm
.
Picture 8- Tree House
.
Picture 9- Chocolates we made from scratc
.
Picture 10- Shelling Cocao beans, and then grinding them
.
Picture 11- The Waterfall in Bagaces
.
Picture 12 - Disc Golf in Bagaces
.
Picture 13- Mastatal Waterfall
Our cab arrived at 4 AM and we arrived to the bus station is Quepos around 4:20, which was lucky because the 5 AM bus ended up being a 4:30 AM bus. The four hour trip between Quepos and Puriscal ended up being along a mountain ridge with crazy views of the valley below and mountains around. We arrived in Puriscal around 8:30. Puriscal is about 1 hour past Mastatal but because it is the closest community we had to go there first and then back track. As the next bus out of Puriscal was not until 3 PM we decided to splurge the $40 taxi ride. The ride was bumpy, up and down mountain ridges, and very long and well worth the $40 as it would have taken at least 2 hours in the bus. We drove through the one bar, one convenient store, one internet cafe town Mastetal and about 2 km outside it was the family run cocoa farm “La Iguana Chocolate farm”. When we got there, we were greeted by the oldest son and only English speaking family member Jorge. (In Jorge’s family he has his mother – Lidia, father – Juan Louise, Middle brother – Vinny, Youngest brother – Roy and an older sister that lives and works in another community). He showed us to our rooms which were in the tree house. The tree house was two rooms reached by a ladder on a high platform. The front door opened to a three walled room with the back forth wall being completely open facing the cow field behind. It had a double bed facing the open wall with a mosquito net draping over it. It was very cool. We were introduced to three volunteers, two Americans, Kailey, and Brian and a Canadian Erin. There were also three young Swedish girls there who had arrived the day before. Today was apparently chocolate making day and so they were all hard at work making chocolate. As we had a long day of travel we all relaxed in the hammocks to read. Soon after Jason approached me and said “Where have you taken me? The boonies, what can we do here?” I said we can hike as we were next to a National Park, make chocolate, learn Spanish or learn to weave baskets as this was a class they had. Jason laughed and I said I guess you should have looked at the web site when I showed it to you huh. He said he was going for a walk into town for a beer. That afternoon Tanya, Scott and I took the chocolate tour run by Jorge who explained to us the process of taking a cocoa bean and turning it into chocolate. The pods containing the beans are first picked and fermented in wooden box for a week and then roasted in a metal cauldron over a fire and let to cool. We then shelled the beans, ground the beans and then made some chocolate. Jason came back and said that he had run into Erin in town and that they both had hung out at the bar. That evening we all ended up heading into town with is about a 10 minute dark walk through a field and then about another 10 minute walk up the gravel road. At the bar there was a Costa Rican soccer game playing on the TV, which had everyone drawn in. On the walk home we saw a baby coral snake crossing the road. Cailey said that we had to watch out for snakes as they had found a poisonous snake in the kitchen a couple days previous.
The next day Jason went for another walk in the other direction to the other town about 30 minutes away all uphill called San Miguel, while we all relaxed reading, taking naps, doing yoga, or practicing our Spanish. He came back in time for and epic game of hoss and pepper where he and I whooped Tanya and Scott. After that we had lunch. All our meals here were included and consisted of typical Costa Rican food. All meals include a white rice and Pinto bean mix. At breakfast this is mixed together with spices and is called Gallo Pinto. Breakfast usually has eggs and fried plantains. Lunch has the rice and pinto beans with salad, and either a meat or vegetable mix... supper is very similar. That afternoon Brian, Lisan (one of the Swedish girls), Jorge, Jason, Tanya, Scott and I all decided to hike to the far waterfall. The hike was a good hour and a half. About half of it was by road and all up hill, the second half was through fields and forests and was very steep and all downhill. We then had a short hike alongside the river. We were all very sweaty by the time we reached the waterfall. It was a very high waterfall with plants growing off the side as the water flow was not that heavy. As it had rained the water looked a chocolate milk colour. We were all so hot that we jumped in immediately. It took Jason a little convincing to get in but soon we were all in watching the lizards climb the rock walls. We stayed a short 45 minutes as we had to get going to clear the forest and field before it got dark. By the time we got to the road it was dark. After walking a short distance a pickup truck stopped and offered us a ride. We all go in the back where there were several steel barrels. I could smell vinegar and asked Jorge what was in the barrels he laughed and said ketchup. I knew he wasn’t kidding as I could see a smashed tomato on the ground. The truck stopped about half way in the town San Miguel where we all got off for a pop. We then started heading back again when the same pick up “Ketchup” truck picked us up again. It really was our lucky day. We were starving when we got back and were so appreciative when we saw that Jorge’s mother had supper ready and waiting. After supper Jason has discovered that one of the Swedish girls Kelly had brought a guitar. He borrowed the guitar and we started a camp fire. Jorge had went to town and brought back a few beers. We sat around the fire, had a few drinks and talked as Jason and then Kelly played guitar. The next morning Jason and Tanya had to take the 5:30 AM bus back to San Jose as they had an 8 AM flight the next morning. We said our goodbye’s and gave our hugs. We were really sad to see them go. It was so nice to have them during our travels for the last three weeks. I was also worried about them taking the two buses needed to get back to San Jose and jokingly said I would send them with a sign attached to their back indicating that they were our babies and needed to get to Canada.
That day Scott and I decided that we would sign up to work from 7 AM -12 today and the next. If you worked then you got your room and board at a discount. That morning Scott ground beans all morning with Brian into Cocoa powder. I worked in the garden planting lettuce seeds and making signs for the plants. That day a new person had arrived Rachel. She had met the family about 4 years ago and continues to come back periodically to visit them. She had brought a banjo and would play it and sing and was very good. That afternoon I shelled pinto beans with her and Jorge’s father and Ronald the neighbour and uncle. From our room the open wall looked onto Ronald’s field with his house in the distance. Each day Ronald would speak to us in Spanish and we would nod our heads as if to completely understand him but we only knew a few words.
The following day was chocolate making day. I was so excited. We took the cocoa powder from the previous day added sugar and various flavours, vanilla, pistachios, cinnamon and rum, coffee, and coconut. We then pressed them into the moulds took them out and let them harden. These chocolates were pretty much 95% cocoa, not milk chocolate. They were delicious. We finished making chocolates in the afternoon at which time Brian, Rachel and Scott and I decided to head to another smaller waterfall about 30 minutes hike away. Scott wanted to go to the internet cafe and so I left him arrows in the dirt to find his way. He said good thing I did because at times there were two trail options. The waterfall was small but very clean and pretty. Brian daringly jumped from the top and I say daringly not because it was really high but because the swimming hole was very small and so you had to jump into an exact spot. That night the Swedish girls had returned from meeting one of their friends at the bus stop about 1 hour away. We ate supper and then decided to play a mix of Swedish, Canadian and American rules for the card game asshole. It was and international game with lots of debate and laughter. That night Scott and I said our goodbyes exchanged emails and were off to bed. The next morning we were up at 5:00 am to catch the 5:30 but. We said goodbye to the family again and were given chocolate and cookies for our travel. I was really sad to go, as I felt so relaxed and happy at the farm.
Our 5:30 am bus took us to back to Puriscal where we had originally came from 5 days previous. We then grabbed the next bus to San Jose and then another bus to Bagaces. In Bagaces Scott convinced me to find a disc golf course which had found pictures of on line. We spoke to a local who indicated that the course was there, but was no longer open and operating. Scott asked the cab driver to take us there anyways to check it out. When we got there Scott spoke to two American guys who apparently worked for another American who owned a chilli farm. The owner had allowed the guys to build a 9 hole disc course. They said the course was definitely open to play and that they would be over to play with us. Scott and I played for about 45 minutes. Scott was in heaven. We then had to head out as we didn’t want to miss the next bus. Just as we were leaving the guys showed up. They apologized for taking so long and said that although we didn’t have time to play that maybe we wanted to buy some discs that they had made up with the park logo on it. Scott was super interested and bought 3. They guys called us a taxi. When the taxi arrived we asked him to take us to the waterfall just outside of Bagaces and to wait for us for about 30 minutes and then drive us to Liberia. The waterfall was the widest I’ve seen and you could walk behind the whole thing quite easily. We had just enough time for a quick swim, walk behind the falls, and a quick coca cola (which they make with sugar and not corn syrup in central America). We arrived in Liberia just in time to quickly eat supper and catch the last bus to Tamarindo Beach. After four buses and one taxi we arrived in Tamarindo around 9:30 and were exhausted.
