Thursday, April 1, 2010

Birthday in Monteverde

Started today well with a tour of a coffee farm about 10 km from where I am staying.  The farmer who showed us around his farm is one of 42 farmers who joined together in the late 1970s to form a co-op to sell their coffee.  They are a fair trade organization which emphasizes organic processes for growing coffee.

The farmer led the tour with another guide translating for the other tourists who do not speak Spanish.  The tour was really interesting, hearing about how methods have changed over the years.  The farmer also grows lemons, mangos, bananas, plantains, and more fruits and vegetables along with his coffee plants.

I also tried a few different types of coffee, all of which were very good.  The co-op sells coffee in Costa Rica as well as in Texas and Montana.  The farmer explained the method his grandparents used with mortar and pestle and how that differed from the hand cranked machine he used to prepare the beans to be sold.

In a few minutes I am going to go out for lunch.  The weather is absolutely perfect here right now. I hope it continues.  Tonight I plan on going on a night hike to hopefully see somer animals.  I saw a sloth at the coffee farm, so I hope to see more animals.

1 comment:

  1. Happy Birthday, Peter. Glad to read that you had good weather and someplace interesting to go on your birthday. Catherine thinks it's very cool you saw a sloth.

    Your godmother, Maureen

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