Costa Rica - Day Nine/Ten

Combining day 9 and 10 since 10 was just a travel day.

Our last real day in Costa Rica was day 9 - like I said before, this is really an 8-day tour with 2 days of travel. Since the hotel was so large, we were supposed to get our bags outside our doors an hour and a half earlier than departure time, but since our room was so close to the front door, my bf and I opted to bring our bags out ourselves. Sergio told us it was ok as long as we made special care to make sure our bags ended up in the right pile, since two different Caravan groups were loading simultaneously. This gave us a bit more time to pack, which was nice. After breakfast, we finished packing, took our bags directly to our driver, who was in the process of loading the bags, and went wandering around the property for our typical morning-of-departure-photo-opportunity. One place we hadn't visited on the hotel property yet was the pier they had that extended out into the gulf, and gave a nice view of the area. Apparently, the day before, a lot of the tour people could be found there around sunset, enjoying cocktails (there was a bar out there) and sitting and watching the water. The pier also gave a good view of the resort itself. After snapping some photos out there, and snapping photos of the restaurant, bar, and pool area, we were about ready to go.

The actual distance between Dona Ana beach and San Jose is smaller than the distance travelled on our previous travel days, so we had more, and longer stops. First stop was in Sarchi, a village which is apparently well-known in particular for the ox-carts, or carretas, that are still in use in some areas. We first drove around the central square, which featured a pretty church on one end, and a giant ox-cart on display in the middle. We then went onto the ox cart factory where we watched a couple of artists at work painting ox carts (they have intricate, detailed, hand-painted designs all over them). The actual ox cart construction wasn't visible anywhere, just the painting. The main attraction here was a large tourist store, with all sorts of souvenirs - lots of various items made out of wood, ox carts, etc. The prices here, except for the postcards, seemed to me to be on the high side so I refrained from buying anything. There were two more stores obvious across the street - one was a souvenir shop with lower prices, and one was a furniture shop. At this point, my bf had pretty well convinced me that we wouldn't do anything with any of the wood products so we didn't buy anything. What I didn't realize until I just read the Lonely Planet entry on Sarchi two minutes ago, is that Sarchi is apparently a crafts center, with over 200 workshops in the area, and a ton of artists, with lots of different crafts and wood products available for sale and to just look at. We didn't have that much time here - maybe 40 minutes to browse the stores (much of which was spent looking for postcards for me) - so I never got the chance to look beyond the little region of street we were on. Oh well.

Lunch was at the restaurant Las Carretas, right next to (I think probably associated with) the tourist shop and oxcart factory. It was another of the buffet style meals set up in a normal restaurant. Pretty good food, as I recall. Soon after, it was time to load back on our bus and take off to our next destination. We drove through a number of small towns but ended up at Grecia, the "cleanest town in Latin America," famous for its metal church. We originally weren't supposed to be able to stop there, but both our bus and the other Caravan group made a 15 minute stop for us to get out, look around the pretty square in front of the church, and gawk at the Catedral de la Mercedes. This cathedral was made completely of metal, and painted red, presenting a surprisingly pretty sight at a distance, and a pretty unique one closeup where you could see the rivets and joints. Apparently the cathedral was special-ordered from Belgium and shipped in pieces to Costa Rica, where they eventually decided to place it in Grecia, transporting the pieces in carretas all the way through the countryside to its current site. It's a fairly impressive sight - not a Notre Dame cathedral by any means, but far larger than most of the countryside churches we'd seen, with a beautiful altar inside.

Back in the bus again, we wound through the picturesque countryside some more until we reached Cafe Britt, in Barva in Heredia. This coffee plantation had its products all over Costa Rica - every tourist shop we stopped in had Cafe Britt chocolate-covered fruits and Cafe Britt coffee. Apparently, they also have shops all over Latin American in airports, etc. We were here for the coffee tour, but for some reason they had us shop in the store before going on the tour, which meant that we were quite limited in our shopping time and hadn't had a chance to actually see anything before buying their products. Didn't stop us from going crazy on the shopping though. We were greeted as we walked in with small cups of an iced coffee drink that was quite delicious, even though I don't like coffee (tells you how much sugar/cream was in there). In the middle of the store was a large stand with shelves and shelves of Cafe Britt's various varieties of coffee (some from specific regions, like Volcan Poas or Tres Rios) and insulated containers of the brewed coffee in the corners for people to sample. On two sides of this stand there were also bags of various chocolate products, with samples in bowls underneath. On the side were samples of their coffee liqueur. Not surpisingly, there were throngs of people gathered to try the samples. Cafe Britt had specials for buying multiple products as well - each bag was something like $4.50 individually, but if you bought 8, you'd get some discount, and if you bought 20, you got an even larger discount that made each bag come out to something like $4 or $3.50. As a result, my parents were stocking up on coffee and chocolate, my sister was stocking up on coffee and chocolate, and my bf and I both had our small collections of coffee and chocolate to give coworkers or friends. We ended up pooling all our purchases together into one large purchase (along with another couple's stuff) in order to maximize the discounts, but then were so rushed we had a hard time getting them to bag them correctly, and I'm not sure we got the full discounts we should have had due us. Oh well. We rushed to load our purchases on the bus, and then went to gather for the coffee tour.

The coffee tour at Cafe Britt was the most unique such tour I've ever been on. Rather than a dry recitation of facts, delivered by an employee, they seem to have either hired three actors, or gotten three of their most charismatic employees, to conduct this tour. This wasn't clear at first - at first we thought we were just getting a normal general manager guy who led off the tour by telling us about coffee growing, and how some coffee grows really well on volcanos, and then indicating in which direction Poas and Arenal (I think) were. Another "worker" stepped up to tell him he was all wrong, and when the manager went to look up the volcanoes, he told the worker to take over the tour. The worker was all "oh boy, do I get a raise too?" They acted like it was a temporary thing, and it was the worker's first time giving the tour, but this turned out to be very not true. The tour started like a normal tour - we were led into what seemed to be an area of the plantation, filled with coffee plants. We were shown the beans growing on a tree, and then came to a stop in front of a platform where a woman stood waiting for us. Both the woman and the "worker" acted as if English was difficult and they'd try their best, but both were super-fluent. The woman and the worker talked about the process of growing the plants and how they need to be harvested - how one 25lb basket only resulted in something like 3lbs of coffee (or 4 of the vacuum sealed bags they sell). As they talked, the two traded practiced and humorous banter, making fun of each other and themselves as they dropped facts on us. The woman claimed the two of them had been dating for 10 years (the guy: "they don't care, honey"), etc etc. Then we moved on to the next station, where a genial man was waiting - he claimed to be a manager of sorts, and they went through with demonstration pieces telling us how the coffee bean/fruits we saw growing on the plants around us were reduced, layer by layer, into the coffee beans sold into coffee. Also how there are two varieties of coffee - robusto and arrabaciata (??), and how arrabaciata was the best, and the only kind allowed to be grown in Costa Rica (b/c they're no dummies - there was more money to be made off of that). We then moved onto into an auditorium to learn more about the history of coffee, including an opportunity for two audience members to go up and learn how to taste coffee like the quality control coffee tasters did. Then we were to learn more about the history of coffee, which turned out to be an amusing mix of video and stage acting by the three of them, who quickly flipped in and out of silly costumes to go through an array of characters who may or may not have been involved in the development and spread of coffee through the ages. This culminated somehow in the man and woman getting married, with help from audience volunteers, and us leaving the auditorium as if we were leaving the wedding. I can't explain it well at all, but it was highly entertaining, made us laugh out loud several times, and was an enjoyable way to learn about something I never drink myself.

After Cafe Britt, it was time to head towards San Jose to go to the Barcelo Palacio for our final dinner. On the way, I managed to give myself a headache while trying to distribute the coffee back to the right people, and got quite cranky in the process. I do remember that somewhere in the drive that day, Sergio was telling us how the principal industries in Costa Rica were technology, tourism, and agriculture, and how they used to be in the opposite order. Later, we drove by I think Intel's offices where they manufactured microchips. At any rate, we eventually found ourselves back in San Jose, back at the familiar Barcelo Palacio. I ended up taking a nap (we had a 6th floor room this time, which was actually one of the "special" floors with its own lounge and staff and food) because of my headache, while I guess my bf went to hang out with my family. After my nap, we got ready for dinner.

The last dinner was our one "formal" (ie, no shorts, no sandals) dinner, in the nicer restaurant at the Palacio. We all gathered to take group photos before going in, and then were seated in various tables around the restaurant. Our table was my family, my bf, myself, and the other family my parents had befriended, whose son had been hanging out with us for most of the latter part of the trip. We were eventually joined by Sergio, who got peppered with questions by us. We asked him about his history as a tour director (apparently he's been doing this for like 15 years, and fell into it by mistake), his past travels, his views on Costa Rica and the region, etc etc. He's very much enthusiastic about his country and loves to share it with people, and it's very apparent. He also would like countries like the US to invest more in Costa Rica and its conservation efforts, rather than things like war efforts. It was an interesting conversation, though I do think we didn't let him eat very much b/c he had to talk so much. The food was pretty good - we were able to pick from filet mignon, fish, chicken, or pasta. Most of us went with the filet. It wasn't the very best filet I've ever had (my bf has spoiled me with his cooking of the Costco choice tenderloin pieces) but it was quite good and a nice change from the more homestyle food we'd been getting all trip. After dinner, everyone was running around taking photos of each other and sharing contact info. We got the cards of a few people, and got our photos taken with a few people, including Sergio. Finally, it was time to disperse since many of us had a very early morning shuttle to the airport.

The next morning, for an 8-8:15ish flight, Caravan had arranged us a 5:30AM shuttle to the airport. The Barcelo opened the restaurant especially for us, so we did get a breakfast before departing, and Sergio got up to see us off, but it was a rather sleepy two bus-fuls of passengers who departed the hotel that morning. A lot of people were on the same two flights to either LA or Miami, since those were typical stopovers going to Costa Rica. We all had to get in line at the airport for the exit tax - $26 USD per person - and then we got in line to check in. It turned out to be a bit confusing because American had actually created two separate checkin lines for the LA vs Miami flights, but we didn't realize it, and got in the wrong line at first. After a long wait, we were able to check in, where we learned that the LA flight was overbooked, and they were looking for like 8 volunteers to take a later flight to LA, spend the night, and then get booked to their next destination. American would pay an $800 voucher, pay for hotel, transportation, and food. It was a really good deal, but initially we weren't tempted because it seemed we wouldn't be able to get in until the next night, and would thus miss a day of work. As they kept asking for volunteers later, we actually thought maybe we'd try it - you can't make $800 in a day and it was a good deal, but by the time we asked about it, they'd found almost all the volunteers they needed. Oh well. Those vouchers would have been really useful.

There was a bit more drama since the flight from San Jose didn't leave on time, and then when we got to LA, the customs line took forever, they didn't have a carousel for our luggage, and the line out of customs to go through and recheck your baggage was huge. By the time we were able to get through all that, a few of our fellow tour members were convinced they'd missed their connecting flight to SF, since it was supposed to be at 2 and it was 2:10 when we picked up our luggage. As it turned out, their flight was delayed until 3:30 so I think they ended up being ok. After a meal at Chili's Too, and a bit of a wait at the gate, my bf and I were finally on our flight home to SF. I really don't advise flying through LA for international flights. The only amusing part about going through LA was that they had these new 24 color LED displays as you waited in line for customs, and they were playing with them to display random stuff. The one that really amused me was a "Don't Drink and Drive" display - a little martini glass, and then a car comes along and runs into it. Smash! The car sits with its front end all dented, and two stick figures come flying out of the car to land on the pavement - one on its head, with its legs waving in the air. Serious message, but a seriously funny way of delivering it.

A long travel day to end what turned out to be quite a fun and interesting trip. Yay Costa Rica!