The sound of torrential rain on the metal roof of our house woke everyone this morning, except Zoe. We’ve had some strong showers during our visit so far, but today was the most prolonged rain. It poured until about 10 am. Danny decided to take a run to El Salto and returned in yet another downpour. He said the river was raging. The rain finally trailed off around 1:30 pm and we headed to lunch. Darcy wanted to have the fish sticks at Restaurant Mi Casa again so we returned for “typical” food. Still yummy!
Around that time the clouds started to move away and we had our clearest view of the Arenal Volcano. Finally! We could also clearly see Cerro Chato, the sleeping indian, which is right next to the larger mountain.
We had gotten a papaya during our shopping trip the day before and so Danny made us papaya smoothies. The girls were not fans.
At 4 pm, Danny and I walked down the road to the Northfields Coffee and Chocolate Tour. While most of the coffee grown in Costa Rica is not from this region due to the moist climate, our guide, David, taught us about the process for both types of products. First, we saw both coffee and cacao plants, as well as other fruits like banana, plantain, guava, mango, orange and sweet lemon that are typically grown around the arabica coffee plants to try to influence the flavors.
Back across the road, David showed us how cacao seeds are fermented and then roasted. Danny helped to remove the husks with a mortar and pestle and I ground the seeds into a paste. Then we had a chance to sweeten the paste the way we wanted and to eat our specialized chocolate. Delicious!
With the coffee, we watched as Jorge roasted the coffee beans in a specially designed roaster, 10 minutes for medium and 12 minutes for dark roast. You don’t want to burn the beans! David explained how the best Costa Rican coffee beans are prepared and exported and the worst beans are ground and sold in the supermarkets in the country. It seemed pretty unfair that the people who grow and harvest the beans end up with the worst ones. After roasting, David ground our beans by hand and prepared both medium coffee and dark coffee in a traditional method using a chorreador, which involved a wooden stand and cloth bag. We then got to taste each type.
Danny usually drinks his coffee black and so he like the medium roast best. I typically drink a dark roast with lots of milk, sweetener and flavors. In this case, I added just a bit of milk and sugar to the dark roast and was able to drink the medium roast black. We had some arepas, or Costa Rican pancakes typically enjoyed with coffee. We bought some beans to take home and a chocolate bar for the girls.
After dinner at home (omelets with black beans and cheese), Darcy and Zoe had a night swim. Darcy had to keep up her streak of swimming every day.
Costa Rica Adventures 
Late night swimming is such a treat.
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