Blog Number 5

Blog Number 5

Hola!    

                YAY! ITS FINALLY HERE! Today we are leaving San Jose to see a volcano, a coffee plantation, and travel to our first homestay!  This was the part of the trip I was really looking forward to!  It was a lot of driving, but ABSOLUTELY worth it.  The volcano was crazy to look at!  The top of it look green almost.  It smelled very strongly of sulfur and was smoking like crazy.  We were told that it erupted 18 times the day before! Buttttt it didn’t erupt for us L  We also walked to a lagoon that had a GORGEOUS view and some really beautiful birds (which Javier spotted of course) and then we walked back and bought some souvenirs and food at the store near the volcano. 

                The coffee plantation was amazing!  They let us sample some of their coffee upon arrival, and then we started the tour.  I thought the process of how they made coffee was very interesting, but a little outdated compared to the systems in the US.  It works for them, though, and that’s what matters.  The most interesting part of the tour to me was the explanation of the peaberry.  The peaberry is the best coffee bean of all.  It is grown inside of a cherry and then the cherry is peeled away after they are picked. It is a whole bean as opposed to a half bean like the others, and that is why it is considered to be the best!  The pickers get paid by the bucket and can only make up to 24 dollars a day.  A lot of them travel from Nicaragua and live on the plantation until the picking season is over.  The plantation houses them during their stay so they don’t have to pay for lodging.  I would still LOVE to go and pick for a summer despite what everyone says about me never doing it!!!!! haha

                The drive to the homestay was about 3 or 4 hours.  We got there after dark and the dirt road that we took to get there was like 30 miles long! What a butt massage!   We arrived very late and went right to sleep after settling in!