After a night’s ‘sleep’ in the ropey hotel (an intermittent scream from the dodgy pipework providing a night-long lullaby), we went for a short walking tour of San Jose, a city of 1m people, in a country of only 5.5m. Being a Sunday, much of the city was closed, although the main street was being barricaded off for an impromptu parade to celebrate Costa Rica winning a match in the World Cup. The permit required for this appeared to be two lengths of rope.
San Jose felt very small, despite being 3x the size of our Edinburgh home. We didn’t have time to see much of it, but like other towns in southern America, it has lots of European influence in its architecture. The town square is a big underground museum, dedicated to gold and full of artefacts that the conquistadors failed to steal. The mining of gold is now illegal in Costa Rica, in further efforts to preserve the rainforests.
Leaving San Jose, we hopped in our small bus and headed up into the mountains to visit a family-run coffee plantation. Minor, Lucinda and little 3 yr old Ruth run this delightful farm at 1400m elevation. A number of years ago, Minor met a Canadian professor who was researching organic agriculture. With his help (and a 3-month trip to Canada for Lucinda to learn English and the essentials of tourism), they decided to convert from chemical pesiticides and fertiliser to organic farming. Using microbes from the forest floor, Minor seeds the brewing of natural fertiliser in large drums, adding various organic materials, until a rich soup is ready for watering the crops. They grow almost all their own food, and open their little farm up to tourists like us. We ate a wonderful fresh lunch of rice, beans, tacos, chicken and salad, along with an amazing salsa.
After lunch we toured around their little farm, picking lettuce for the locals (to whom they donate food), chewing on sugar beat, and learning how they harvest their coffee beans. We then roasted some dried beans, before grinding and then brewing our own coffee in their traditional apparatus. Shona, not liking coffee, picked a blend of aromatic herbs and made a lovely herbal tea – nicer than any I’ve tasted. Along with some freshly baked muffins, bread and baked bananas, we had an afternoon feast. The coffee was absolutely delicious.
From the farm, we headed further into the mountains and stayed at Copey de Dota, a tiny mountain village where we spent the night in basic lodges. Shona and I asked if we could go anywhere for a run, and Arlet directed us to a route behind the village. She neglected to point out that the route averaged a 13% gradient. 5km later and a sweaty couple dragged themselves into their cold showers.
Travels with Sklaroffs 