Fri., 1/10: Day 4

Today was the last full day of our family stay.  This morning we woke up to roosters, pigs and chickens (or course) but also lots of rain.  When rain hits a tin roof, you can really hear it!  It rained off and on most of the morning.  For breakfast this morning Bernarda served us toast with ham, cookies and fresh-squeezed orange juice.  Very good!

Then we headed back to the Tirimbina Reserve for a Cacao tour.  We hiked across the longest hanging bridge in Costa Rica to the cacao plantation, and then Manuel (the main guide) and Giovanni (his assistant) demonstrated the whole process of making chocolate.  They started with the cacao fruit growing on the tree and showed us step by step how we end up with chocolate like what we eat. 

Breaking open the cacao fruit "monkey style"

Steps to the fermentation process

Grinding the cacao beans on the traditional stone, the metate

Grinding cacao with a much more modern grinder

Mixing it with water to make the indigenous drink

We could add vanilla, nutmeg, black pepper or chile powder to enhance the flavor.

Mmm, chocolate . . . ¡qué rico!

Travis and Austin going back for thirds (or was that tenths?)

After the cacao tour we hiked through the many trails of the reserve, looking for wildlife and learning about the rain forest and the many plants and creatures that live there.  

Our group walking across the longest hanging bridge in Costa Rica

After lunch at the reserve (I was so excited to eat something other than rice and beans!) we headed back to our family stay for the afternoon.  Mrs. Petty and I sat around and chatted with everybody, but probably spent the most time talking with Bernarda and her daughter-in-law.  Natalia’s mom is here with Natalia’s baby brother, Mathías, also.  They’re visiting for a few days.  Mathías is a cutie!  Then Natalia and Jennifer wanted to play Pesca (Go Fish) with us.  I’m glad they’re enjoying that!  I feel like there’s always kind of a revolving door of people stopping by to visit, or just dropping in to say hi as they’re walking down the street.  Some are neighbors, some are relatives (and some are both, since many of their neighbors are relatives).  It’s a much slower-paced life that what we’re used to at home.

At 4:00 we played a soccer game with the kids of the host family.  The bus came by and picked us up and took us to the home of Austin F. & Travis B.’s host family.  They worked hard all day yesterday clearing the area of the field - mowing the grass and moving the grass off of the field.  It was very fun.  After that we walked to another host family (that of our guide and bus driver) to eat.  We had more typical Costa Rican food - arroz con pollo (chicken with rice) with some chopped veggies.

After the game and the supper we headed back to our own host families’ homes.  We watched tv with them for a little while and then Ademán asked if we wanted to play Rum.  After a few rounds of Rum we asked them if they wanted to learn how to play B.S. (which we called “mentira”, which means “lie”). :)  It was very fun.  Natalia picked up on it really quickly and is quite the sneaky little card player.  She’d giggle after she laid a card down to make us think that she lied when she was actually telling the truth.  Then she would say innocently, “But I don’t have a 6,” and we’d explain that she had to lay something else down even though it was lying, and it’d turn out that she had actually laid a 6.  She’s a smart little girl.

Julie and I took pictures with our family tonight, because we weren’t sure if there would be time in the morning.  We leave at 7:30 and Ademán and Daniela are often milking the cows at that time.  The family stay has, once again, been a great experience.  Our family really has very little, but they have a comfortable home and lots of time and love for others, and they are perfectly content.  

Tomorrow we say good-bye to our Costa Rican families and head to the Arenal area.  Arenal is a volcano in Central Costa Rica.  On the way there we’ll have many activities, one of which is the waterfall hike at “La Fortuna” - can’t wait!