Day 4

Today started with breakfast at 7:00am, then we boarded our van to visit the Doka coffee plantation. There, we got a tour of the plantation, learned how coffee is grown and produced, then had lunch on the property. Lots of coffee sampling along the way. It was definitely an educational day, and we'll remember this visit the next time we drink some coffee.

But before our tour, a visit to their on-site butterfly sactuary.

¡Hola, Crystal y Grace!

To start off our tour, a group photo.

Here, our tour guide is explaining the different parts of the coffee fruit and how the different sized coffee beans are sorted.

And then a visit to the drying patio.

Want to know how to dry coffee beans under the sun? Just ask Anna:

Madi ❤️s coffee! (Photo courtesy of Nicole and her really nice phone/camera.)

At the end of the tour, our guide explained the roasting process. In the room to the right are coffee beans being roasted, and they're being bagged behind the glass windows to the left.

After our tour, lunch on the complex grounds. We had a beautiful view of the surrounding mountains, the butterfly sanctuary, and coffee plants as far as the eye could see. This week in Costa Rica, we have yet to eat a meal in a room with windows, including here.

After our visit to the Doka coffee plantation, we returned to our hotel for some free time. Later in the afternoon, we had a cooking demonstration on the hotel grounds. A member of the hotel cooking staff prepared a typical tico dish called patacones for us. But it was up to us to do all the prep work.

We had a surprise visit today. To the left is Marián, our tour guide Cristián's 6-yr old daughter. She had fun playing with us, and we met a new tica friend.

How did the patacones turn out?

Patacones are prepared by frying plantains, then pressing them like tortillas. The fried & pressed patacones are then topped with beans and the fresh salsa that we prepared. Really similar to Mexican tostadas.

After our cooking demonstration, we had some free time to take a siesta (we've had long, busy days), have some pool time, or just hang out with each other on the hotel grounds.

Finally, we finished up with dinner together at our hotel.

The plan for tomorrow is to pack up our things as we head west to Monteverde, a region high up in the mountains to the northwest. Along the way, we'll stop through the artisan town of Sarchí. We'll be in Monteverde for the next 2 days.

¡Pura vida!