Costa Rica Unplugged: Day 7

The seventh day in beautiful Costa Rica was "transitional." Our visit to rainy Arenal, home of the volcano, had come to an end and we were en route to our two-night stay in Monteverde, or Green Mountain. I executed this travel day as they are all meant to be, mellow and low-key. It's the one time you don't need an excuse for dressing down in your Converse, loose jeans, and zip-up hoodie as well as only applying concealer and mascara for the sake of others and putting your hair up in a bun since it'll be under the hood of your sweater anyway. Without disappointing, I boarded our shuttle as described only to be escorted off a few minutes later. But not because I didn't meet the dress requirements.

The trip to Monteverde required a one-hour boat ride before tackling the treacherous mountain road for another sixty minutes. This was the shorter route instead of going around the large body of water. From the highway, we marched like ants down a stone path on the hillside to the lake where a watercraft awaited us. Our guide explained that we were crossing a hydroelectric fresh water lake with spectacular views that added another layer of laziness to my already relaxed self. I soaked up the background in the lullaby of the boat.

It'd been days since we had seen the sky.

It sprinkled during half our travel time in the water but by the looks of the ground where we landed, precipitation had come down a little harder inland. We carefully maneuvered across the mud, hopping from rock to rock, until we reached two small buses. Those vehicles were equipped to handle the rugged terrain we were about to encounter while our shuttle took the long way home. 

The bus swayed from side to side, jumped up and down, and slid left and right. It proved to manage the latter as soon as we hit the road. The left-hand side of the path was muddy and I thought we were going to be stuck when I saw our driver head straight towards it. The driver lost some control as his vehicle skidded towards the mountain wall but we never got stranded. The coach stopped short of an accident and it was then that I trusted the driver to get us to our next destination. But then we encountered foggy bends that kept me awake and very much alert for the rest of the way.

After sixty minutes of bouncing around, we arrived to Monteverde. We stretched, waited for our room keys, hauled our luggage up three flights of stairs, and went on a food hunt before our shuttle took us on another adventure. Our new accommodations had a pool and Jacuzzi, and along with the new found sun, a few of the girls opted out of the coffee tour to soak and relax instead. This was a vacation after all.

I had mixed feelings about the coffee tour since I'm not a drinker. The director of my MFA program told me I wouldn't have been accepted had he known this fact before hand; he might have added that question or requirement to the application since. But I was in Costa Rica and this was my second chance at getting a once in a lifetime taste.

Upon entry, we were introduced to more ox and even offered a ride. I waited until the last second but got the last spot in the cart. The other girls and I sat on the box wall, a thing with zero cushion or comfort. The wheels and rocky terrain made for a bumpy and painful three-minute ride.

Afraid of getting my semi-new Converse dirty, I changed into my pleather boots in Monteverde. Mud was easier to wipe off of these. 

After our short trip, we followed the coffee connoisseur through beanstalks into a green house. He had trays of coffee beans that resembled a plant cycle lesson I'd done with my students. 

Coffee berries.

There is only one thing I remember from this tour, and this information put me in the top 2% of coffee experts. Here it is: the lighter the bean, the more caffeine it contains. The darker the bean, the less. Just don't ask me why this is because I don't recall. It's something we can all research and keep in our filing cabinet in our brains to use when conversations go mum. 

Drying coffee beans.

Up close. 

Demonstrating how beans were ground in the past.

From strongest to weakest.

Strainer. 

My taste!

Coffee farm.

After fulfilling my coffee objective for the trip, we returned to the hotel and found this little guy ahead of us in the hallway. After the first warm shower in days, we dressed up for an Italian dinner. I ordered a pizza that was not very tasty because it lacked marinara sauce but managed to devour anyway. Most of us had a much needed glass of wine to close out the mellow day. We had the option to stay out later but I went back to the room since Jackie stayed behind with a few others. My introvert self needed a dose of TLC that hadn't been tended to since taking off to Central America. Besides, Day 8 had activities scheduled from sunup to sunset and I wanted a good night's sleep.

Fancy (looking) Italian dinner. 

Technology has created monsters out of all of us!