Saturday, March 19th, 2011

It wouldn't be right if I didn't start of today's journal post with anything other than a picture of the scenery for the day.  We packed up our bags and headed off to Volcano Lodge, but not without an exciting stop along the way.  I woke up incredible excited for my regular cup o' joe, because today-- we were headed to Doka Estates, a coffee plantation!

Along the way things turned "green" in a different way than they were yesterday on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica.  There were many gardens, shrubs, and deep green colors in this part of the country. 

The entrance to Doka Estates on a sunny Saturday. 

Me at the sign when we first walked in. 

There were many things to see at Doka Estates.  There were acres and acres of coffee plants, buildings showing the process of making coffee beans into coffee, the history of coffee making, gift shops, gardens, a butterfly exhibit, samples, and a restaurant!  I could have spent a lot longer than we had exploring this place, but I am so glad we got the chance to see what we got to see.   We got a professional tour of the coffee plant and coffee bean to coffee drink process. 

Giant hydrangeas. 

The sprawling coffee fields. 

Our tour guide explaining to us how contract workers get paid $1 per basket they bring in of coffee beans.  A good worker can do ~30 of these a day. 

An old-fashioned coffee-bean wagon. 

The coffee-bean process. 

A coffee bean without it's shell before anything is done to it. 

Coffee beans are laid out and raked over and over every half hour for a handful of days in order to properly dry.  We got to have a photo op with some already dried beans. 

Delicious samples of chocolate covered coffee beans!

The spread of food at the Doka Estates restaurant. 

My "leaf" plate and delicious meal. 

The butterfly exhibit. 

Outside the bonsai tree exhibit. 

One of my favorite purchases of the entire trip: chocolate covered coffee beans. 

We spent the remainder of the day traveling.  Before I winded down enough to take a snooze, I was able to snap some shots of little villages, gardens, and scenery along the way.

One of the first of many "bridges" we successfully crossed.   We were unsure of some of these at the time... but we made it over and I lived to write about it. 

Destination Two:  Volcano Lodge.


Tomorrow... hanging bridges.  Goodnight!~