Water From Above, Water From Below

Last week, we took a day trip out to La Fortuna, Costa Rica. That is a town in the shadow of Arenal Volcano. But there were many stops on the way there, and fewer but some on the way home. Throughout the trip, we got to see fabulous flora, fascinating fauna, and wonders of water.

That's La Paz Waterfall in the background. (And Alrica and Erich in the foreground.)

We stopped at a coffee plantation. Coffee was introduced to Costa Rica in 1779. They grow Arabica coffee which was imported directly from Ethiopia. (That's where coffee plants are indigenous.) Over the 19th century, coffee farming grew and became a major industry of Costa Rica. Even though Costa Rica is small, it provides 1% of the world's coffee.

Did you know that's where your coffee comes from?

The thing about coffee is that you can't grow it just anywhere. You have to be high above sea level, but not too high above sea level. You have to have plenty of rain, but hopefully not too early or too late. You have to have various soil conditions. Parts of Costa Rica are ideal for this. So when you travel out of the valleys and up the mountains, you hit an elevation where the majority of the land is being used to grow coffee. And as you continue ascending, you hit an elevation where that stops.

This is not harvest time. The beans turn red when they are ready for harvest.

Apparently coffee plants can grow very tall but in Costa Rica, they keep them at about 2 meters or less. That's because the harvest is done by hand, so they don't want the plants so tall that no one can reach the beans.

Trunk of a Rainbow Eucalyptus Tree

Surrounding the plantation was a row of these gorgeous trees with multi-colored trunks called rainbow eucalyptus. But the coffee farmers don't plant them because of their colors. Instead, the trees provide nutrients to the soil, like nitrogen and phosphorus, that are beneficial for coffee growing. You also find the occasional banana palm in the middle of the coffee plants. These provide potassium to the soil. (And they provide bananas.)

The tall plant is a banana palm

In addition to the trees and coffee, there were many varieties of gorgeous flowers on the plantation grounds.

It's like a ladder for lizards

From the plantation we ascended out of the coffee growing region and into the cloud rain forest. Our first stop was at La Paz waterfall which is right along the side of the road. This gurgling fall runs all year round, but in the rainy season is even more vigorous than when we saw it. It's been a very rainy May, but apparently not compared to the midst of rainy season.

La Paz and it's pool (would that be La Pool de La Paz?)

Next we made a stop at the village of Cinchona. We had fresh juice. I had mora (which is blackberry) and Alrica had sandia (which is watermelon). There was a lovely balcony from which one could see the San Francisco waterfall. But the big thing to see was the birds. There were hummingbirds, song birds, and even the occasional bird of prey around.

Hummingbird

We had a lovely lunch in La Fortuna. We had casados. Casado is a very traditional meal which we had also tried in San Jose. It's great, you get white rice, black beans (though each place has its own way of seasoning the beans), fried plantains, salad, and then some choice of meat. I tried beef in that particular casado and Alrica had chicken. Both were great. Plus they served maracuya (passion fruit) juice which is so good.

I don't know what the yellow bird is called

After lunch was the main destination of our day trip: Paradise Hot Springs. I don't have any pictures, because I wasn't carrying my phone around to the pools. But this is a set of pools, all at different temperatures. Arenal Volcano is still active. While it isn't erupting lava, it does steam frequently. But the geological activity also heats the water. So the pools were using geothermally heated water mixed with cooler water to provide the various temperatures.

Not sure what this is called either, but he has a don't mess with me look.

Often, I am not a fan of such places. I get overly warm quickly when I am in hot water. I can do it for a few minutes, but then I am sweating and uncomfortable. Alrica, on the other hand, could probably bathe in molten lava and ask the volcano if it could turn up the heat. (Yes, I am exaggerating. She wouldn't really talk to a volcano.) But Paradise Hot Springs was great for me. Among its many pools, there were some cool pools. So when I got too warm, I could slip into a cool pool and chill out, literally. The recommendation was to spend 20 minutes or so in a hot pool and then five minutes of so in a cool pool. Repeat. I, more or less, reversed that, but it was nice to have the variety. There was one pool that was so hot I stepped in and got water up to my ankles and then said "Nope!" I saw no reason to become a major ingredient in soup. But aside from that one, I enjoyed the others for as long as I could take them and then cooled off nicely.

A two-toed sloth, though it's tough to know that's what it is

Coming back to San Jose, we stopped for dinner and had Chifrijo. That's a traditional bar food. Think of something vaguely like nachoes without the cheese. (Okay, I admit, the cheese is sort of the essence of nachos. But what if it wasn't?) It's a bowl with rice, beans, tortillas, avocado, and pico de gallo, served with pieces of pork. Traditionally it's with pork, but you had choices of other meats if you preferred.

Strict speed limits

So we were well fed, well washed, and for those foolish enough to go in the extremely hot pool, well cooked, when we got back to San Jose. It was great to get out of the city and see how much beauty there is in this country.