June 29

We woke up to this! I needed to really scout out a trail I had seen and kind of wanted to explore, but I was a little intimidated by the snakes, spiders and somewhat sketchy trail. Instead Bella and I went down to the pool for our coffee and listened to strange instrumental jazz. This was an improvement over the depressing 40 year old woman music we listened to the night before. For some reason this resort felt strongly that we all needed a strong dose of female empowerment. We had some Alanis, some Dido, and others in that vein. I'm down for some heart-throbbing sad music, but maybe not on vacation in Costa Rica?

Isn't she beautiful?

Beyond weird jazz, we planned a full day of chocolate and coffee plantation tours. We found   a peacock and his mate wandering our resort grounds. We super duper excited and maybe scared them away as we tried to photograph them.

I was also greeted with strange headache. I chalked it up to too much time in the hot springs the day before and not enough water. BUT when I showed up to the bus to realize that John, Jenny, and Patrick(That's his name),were all pretty sick with the same thing Carmen had.

My headache and churning stomach started to make terrible sense. But I refused to succumb. Instead, I went to the chocolate tour. 

It was hot, humid, and not great conditions from someone with a sad tummy.

When talking about chocolate, you also have to talk about bananas. Chocolate flowers are pollinated by mosquitos. Mosquitos like bananas, as a result many cocoa growers have banana trees growing alongside the cocoa trees. When the banana tree dies, they cut up the trunk and leave it alongside the cocoa tree. For this reason, one should wear a lot of mosquito repellant when visiting the cocoa tree. The cocoa plantation is also a bit messy with the banana leaves and bark around on the ground.

Did you know that bananas have a blossom? They do! This is the end of the banana blossom.

A cocoa tree looks like this:

Cocoa blossoms

Cocoa fruit

More cocoa fruit.

When you crack open the cocoa seed there is a soft fruit inside covered in sweet slime. We each tasted the fruit and bit into the seed. The slime is the fat that creates the cocoa butter in chocolate. Our guide, Axel, did a great job of communicating how chocolate is made as the bean are roasted and peeled and processed. We even got to make our own chocolate bars. We ground the cocoa nibs to make a cocoa cream. We each took our portion and seasoned and sweetened it as we chose for our very own chocolate bar.

I helped!

While I was grinding up Cocoa Nibs the bald man announced that chocolate making is for women. It is 'Women's work' and he could not do it. Fortunately for him my hands were occupied with grinding cocoa nibs. Bella's were busy taking pictures of me, because I am pretty sure his life was in danger in that moment. Fortunately John, also feeling poorly, jumped in and ground his fair share as a male representative - as well as Ron, and even Jeff.

And then we made our chocolate bar! It was fun - even while I was pretty sure I was going to pass out from the GI virus taking hold of my body. Bella was plotting the death and demise of the bald man. Thankfully, they gave us sugar.

Mosquitos are the friend of chocolate, so one should wear bug spray and keep distanced from bitches with stomach flu.

Word to the wise.

In case you are wondering: Candace does not like slimy cocoa shells. She was upset that there were mosquitos, and a lot of walking. She pulled Juan Carlos aside to let him know that in the future he should not plan so many activities. Instead we she have more time on the beach sitting there drinking. She is tired and hot and wishes he would remember that. Jeff does not like coffee. Bald man is sure he knows more about chocolate and coffee than a person who has grown up on the coffee plantation. He also informed Axel that his name is problematic and wanted to know what was wrong with his parents. His wife is still not allowed to speak but she does like flowers a lot and she smiles. She is also from Thailand. I think I like her. I want to give her pamphlets on how to escape domestic violence or human traffic or an asshat. I know a thing or two about that. RG will eat anything and everything. He ate the whole cocoa fruit and a lot of chocolate and drank all of the hot chocolate. Sharika is still the cutest ever. She is regularly trying to adopt all of the dogs along the path. Ron is still awesome. He likes to drink wine out his water bottle just like me. Osha and Paul are doing well. Osha's foot is hurting, but she felt that the hot springs really helped. She prefers tea to coffee, but was a good sport about it all. 

The mosquitos really love this swampy type of land. They also love humans. Candace will tell you all about it.

We learned that coffee was traditionally shelled by this machine in Costa Rica. Coffee bean pickers get $3 for each box of beans they pick. Axel's coffee picking record was 4 boxes in 8 hours. Some coffee pickers do much better than this. But not all. When we drove past the coffee plantations, they grow on steep hillsides. The coffee beans are picked by hand, where the coffee pickers pick only the ripe berries. It is a tough job. 

Here are all of the different types of roasts for coffee beans. We learned that coffee beans are similar to the cocoa beans. They also have a slimy coating around the beans. If you dry the bean with the slime on it, it becomes honey coffee which is fabulous. You should try it!

These carts can be seen all across the La Fortuna area.

After our tour, Bella and I had a delicious lunch, which I did not eat much of because my tummy was becoming progressively more and more sad.

Bella powered on!

We scoped out the stores in the town.

I bought one of these funky fruits. We have not eaten it yet because I have not been able to eat much.

I also bought one of these huge avocados.

Rather than stay home and rest, we went to the volcano at Arenal and walked the hanging bridges.

It was incredible.

Mayan gods guard the entrance.

We left 'The Family' for this tour and joined another group. It was not as awesome as Juan Carlos. But the experience was still pretty amazing.

See? There could not be more than 15 people on the bridge at a time. They were wobbly, but they felt safe.

These are stingless wasps who pollinate the forest.

Termites!

As we crossed this bridge a monkey threw a branch down on the bridge. They then jumped on to the bridge and swung around. It was a little shocking and amazing to see these monkeys up close. The guides repeatedly told us to be careful and not get too close to the monkeys. Bella and I were sure to listen. 

See? Monkey on the bridge!

Lots of monkey pictures.

After our monkey adventure and hanging bridges, we went to dinner with Juan Carlos and the rest of the family. Juan Carlos and Bella had a long chat about what it means to be an American. It was a meaningful conversation for her, I think. He talked to her about being Costa Rican and how important it is to know your history and understand where you come from, even if it is complicated. We also learned Juan Carlos is happily married with kids about the same age as Bella. Bella was pretty worried he lived a lonely life without anyone to look after him. We are now much happier and less concerned about his wellbeing.

We took pictures of our dinner and RG's for Gabe. RG eats like Gabe, so I thought that his food choices would help Gabe have a better idea of what he might eat if he were here compared to my choices - see above.

I crashed into bed feeling poorly and Bella also realized she was not feeling well either

They may call it Montezuma's Revenge, but I call it Candace's Sabotage.

Thanks a lot Candace.