UN TOUR DE LA CIUDAD

This morning I awoke to an eager mother ready to get her baby back. At least an hour before we needed to leave to pick her up, mom was saying, "it's time to go, it's time to go!" When the time had come for real we headed through San Jose traffic to the Best Western. We heard a combination of stories that took place throughout her trip from Mr. Tucker, Mrs. Tucker, Joey, and her friends. It sounded like an amazing trip that you'll have to ask her about when we return.

Not allowing Jo much time to settle in with the rest of us at the hotel, a tour picked us up. Today we went on a coffee tour, to an all metal church imported from Belgium, and to an ox cart factory. We traveled about an hour from our hotel where we met up with another member of our tour group, Christa. She was very nice, and we loved getting to know her as the day progressed. She is from Canada, is visiting Costa Rica for two weeks, volunteering in a school, and staying with a host family. We took a short break at a shop with some amazing strawberries. I remember my host mom on my last trip made the best juice out of strawberries. The juice we had at this shop didn't top that, but it was pretty good.

When arriving at the coffee tour location we ate lunch and then got ready to learn about the coffee. At lunch I tried some of the coffee they had made, and, despite not liking coffee, I actually thought it was pretty good. Towards the end of lunch it began to pour rain, so we had to rearrange the order of the tour slightly. We went through a harvesting area where our tour guide explained to us the process of making coffee and showed us some different beans. He then went on to show us the final product and the differences in blends. It turns out the coffee with darker color has less caffeine because it sat in the roaster longer. When the rain lightened up a little our guide showed us the plants themselves. Banana trees are planted between the coffee plants because during the dry season the banana tree is able to water the coffee plants from the water that has built up in the trunk during the rainy season.

While driving through the city past schools we learned about the education program in Costa Rica. All children are required to know how to read and write. Students begin in kindergarten and then go through six years of primary school. After that they proceed to five years of secondary school and then on to Universities. Similar to the United States, students get three months off of school during the harvesting season, but harvest in Costa Rica falls between the months of November and February. Our guide also explained to us that Costa Rica doesn't have an army, they rely on bigger countries for protection, so money that would go to an army goes to things such as education and healthcare instead.

Next stop on the tour was the all metal church. The church that had previously stood there burned down twice, so a new one was built that couldn't burn. It was very unique and quite beautiful. Most of Costa Rica is catholic and the church has services at 6 am and 6 pm Monday thru Saturday and every hour on Sunday. While we were there only one or two people occupied the church, but our guide said that during Sunday services it filled up almost entirely.

The final stop was an ox cart factory. On the way there we stopped to look at the largest ox cart in the world. It was beautifully painted and huge would be an understatement. I'm not sure an ox exists that could pull it. At the factory we saw many more beautifully painted items, and got to see how the wheel of the cart is made. Mom even got to turn on the water wheel which made everything work in the factory, and got to give her painting skills a try on one of the artist's paintings.

Back at the hotel we gave in to a more relaxing evening: staying at the hotel for dinner and reading the night away. Nana and Papa got in tonight and everyone is so excited to begin our adventures as an entire group tomorrow.

Just a Heads Up: For anyone actually following the blog we wanted to let you know that the wifi the next couple of nights may be a little shaky. If a blog is not posted it isn't because we got washed away in the rain, but rather the wifi is too faulty.