Second Day in Arenal

Before I start on today’s activities, here is a picture of my Costa Rican breakfast. It consists of rice, eggs, papaya and plantains. I’ve actually had it every day that I’ve been here so far.

Today’s single activity consisted of visiting a family run farm. This farm is only 8 acres. They practice sustainable farming. Many people in this area have developed Eco tourism as a way of making a living. This is one good example of this. Other examples that we have already experienced are the chocolate farm and our cooking adventure. Our activities at this farm included a tour of what they grow, a demonstration of folk dancing, learning about sugar production, making tortillas and finally eating lunch.The first set of pictures are just of some flowers on the farm. Costa Rica is so incredibly lush with an amazing variety of plants.

The next set of pictures are of the actual produce that is raised on the farm. We got to taste most of the plants. Some were medicinal. Unfortunately I don’t have pictures of all the plants.

Inside of a coffee bean before it is dried and roasted.
Coffee beans on the plant
Peppercorns. The inside is white. After it ferments, it turns black. I actually got to bite into one. Very spicy.
Peppercorn plant
Stevia which is a low plant. It has a nice sweet taste.
The little red fruit on the top has more vitamin C than an orange.
Better idea of the size of this fruit.
Sour Guaba
The inside of the sour guaba
Star fruit

The next set of pictures are of cacao, unripe fruit, the flowers which are pollinated by mosquitoes, baby fruit and a ripe fruit.

Unripe fruit
The flower
Baby cacao fruit
Almost ripe fruit
Sour sap. We didn’t try this fruit.
Nightshade which is poisonous. Digitalis is made from this fruit.
Yucca root
Gourd fruit not particularly edible.
Flower of banana tree which is really not a tree but an herb.
Sugar cane
Zoe found a friend.

Our next activity was watching some folk dancing. The dancers actually mimic the activities of local people.

Collecting coffee beans
Washing clothes in the river
Looking for a husband
Fishing with a net
Our guide, Chito, joining in. He is so personable.

The next adventure was learning about making sugar from sugarcane. We got to taste the juice made from crushing the sugar cane. We also got to try some moonshine made from the sugar cane. What impresses me about all these activities, not only at this place but at the other places we have been at, is how they are able to include our group in the activities.

A display of the fruits we had been tasting and learning about.
A gourd that has been painted
Beating the cane to soften it up for extracting the juice.
Pressing the cane to get the juice. It is hard work.
Sugar cane juice. It starts as white but quickly turns brown. It really wasn’t super sweet.
Making a corn tortilla
Our group’s stack
Cooking the tortillas over an actual wood stove.
The buffet
My plate going clockwise consists of salad with wonderful tomatoes, chicken, pork, fried cassava root, rice and beans, and a tortilla.

We had the afternoon free. After resting for awhile in the room, we went down to the swimming pool area. There is the main pool with about seven hot pools. The hot pools are fed by a thermal creek. The higher up the hill you go, the hotter the pool. I actually went to the highest before the temperature was nicely hot. Here are pictures from the pool area.

Wherever you are, there are beautiful birds.
The wet bar
The main pool
One of the lower hot pools
Selfie of me in a hot pool
Stream going down to the next pool
Stream coming into the pool

Here are two pictures I took on the way to dinner. It had just rained and I found the coloring interesting.

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