12/2/2012: After breakfast we left with Davis as our driver and said goodbye to
Meghan, Ryan, William, Emilie, and Jeannet. They had all contributed to our
enjoyable stay at Chilamate Rainforest Eco Retreat. 
Along the way to San Jose we
stopped for a tour of a coffee co-op. 140 small coffee farmers banded together
to maintain the last coffee production facility in this region of Costa Rica.
The coffee is shade-grown and fertilized with compost from the coffee bean hulls.  |
| Coffee bean hulls turned into compost with the help of worms. |
The overlook onto the Sarapiqui
river (600 feet below us), could have been incredible. Unfortunately, we were
just barely able to make out the sight of the river because the cloud forest is
frequently hidden in the clouds, imagine that. The advantage of being in the
cloud forest during the rainy season were the waterfalls, including a
spectacular one adjacent to our hiking trail.
Susan: After our
tour, we enjoyed a great lunch at the coffee co-op, featuring tilapia farmed at
the co-op (delicious!), gallo pinto (of course) and great fresh fruit juice.
Unfortunately, I’m not a coffee drinker, but Dan thoroughly enjoyed the co-op’s
great coffee, and bought a few packs to take home.
Then we drove up and over the
mountains, past the Poás Volcano (too cloudy to see it, of course). A powerful earthquake (6.1) struck in this area
in 2009, destroying the village of Cinchona, and causing landslides that took
the lives of 34 people and injured hundreds.
The road through this area had
been a main route to the Sarapiqui area from the airport outside San José,
and when the earthquake caused the road to be closed for over 2 years, it
severely affected tourism near Poás. The road is open now, but there is
still a section that is marginally navigable at best!
Davis wove his
way through the slalom course that is the pot-holed muddy road, and we enjoyed the
beautiful views and waterfalls along the way.
We stopped to see a band of
white-nosed coatis that were unfortunately being fed fruit by the passengers of
another stopped car. Coatis acclimate to humans readily, and it was clear that
tourists bought strawberries in the area just to feed to them. Davis told
the driver of the vehicle that it wasn’t good to feed the wild animals, but
they didn’t think it was a problem. At least it was fruit and not donuts!
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We drove past the village of
Varablanca, where there were large fields and greenhouses of flowers being
grown for the commercial florist trade. As we drove closer to San José, we
began seeing the signs of a large metropolitan area, but one that is surrounded
in every direction by majestic mountains. If you had to live in a city, this
would be a beautiful one to live in!
We spent our last night at a bed
and breakfast in Alajuela, not far from the airport. Although the garden and
grounds were lovely and the rooms were reasonably clean, the owner (a U.S.
expatriate) seemed high most of the time, and had a hard time finding toilet
paper for our bathroom. He eventually produced a half roll after much
searching. He also forgot to order us a pizza for dinner as promised, so we ate
quite late that evening. After the wonderful hospitality we had received at
Chilamate, this place was a let-down. But it added to the adventure, I suppose.
The ride to the airport in the morning was also an adventure: many drivers in Costa Rica are scary! Once we arrived at the airport, we found our flight had been
cancelled (thanks, American Airlines!). We spent the day in the airport waiting for an afternoon flight to
Houston, Texas, and we flew from there the next morning to St. Louis. Thank
heavens that happened on the way HOME and not on the way there.
All in all, it was a fabulous trip
filled with great adventures. We gained a huge appreciation for the vast
natural beauty and biodiversity of Costa Rica and the friendliness of its
people. There is so much more for us to see: we will return!
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