Costa Rica
This man took us on a tour of his coffee farm. He told us a really cool story about the farm (you'll get the story in a few more pictures) and he told us about his kids... since he looks like he might be in his 30's or very early 40's, I thought his kids must be in middle school... nope! He's about 60-years-old. Enlarge this picture... it's very impressive how healthy people were in Monteverde. Some of the naturalists at the Ecolodge told me this farmer likes to run and play soccer, and he tends to run wherever he goes. Apparently, one time when a naturalist was in a taxi that was having a hard time getting up the mountain roads, this farmer passed the taxi -- running, on foot -- and made it up the mountain before the car. Reminder: he's 60.
Raw, cleaned, and dried coffee.
My Spanish book (didn't use it ever) and a fruit I bought at the Women's Co-Op. It has mostly air inside, a little placenta-sack-thing, and it's filled with little berry-like-things with about the consistency of fish eggs. It tasted about like bananas and grapes? It was good, I swear, but very unlike anything we have here.
He told us all about his process for growing, picking, and drying the coffee. They fertilize the soil with the skins of the previous harvest's coffee berries. A coffee berry has a sweet, honey-like juice between it's grape-like skin and the two coffee seed/beans inside.
Coffee seedlings.
Coffee berry.
More seedlings.
His banana trees. The purple flower is a banana flower.
He crushed some sugarcane for us. The juice tasted like sweetened green tea.
And chewing on sugar cane was like chewing on sweet celery -- I liked it a lot. Monkeys like it, too.
He uses this field to teach his kids how to grow various edible plants. He doesn't have anything on it right now, but it had some cool wildflowers.
His chickens.
He gave us bananas from his trees at the end.
The cows take themselves on walks. They know where to go and where is home. Often, farmers leave their gates open and let the cows do their thing.
A toucan as seen through a monocular.
Walking to cooking lessons.
View of the Pacific.
Here's Geoff with a cane toad.
And a leaf bug.
Christmas Coke! Coke tasted different in CR because it's made with real sugar... much better.
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