Last Wednesday, we had the pleasure of going to a hydro-electric plant near Turrialba. Renewable energy, especially those from hydro-electric plants, supply 90 percent of Costa Rica's energy! They have enough to sell to other countries as well! It's crazy to think that the average Costa Rican home uses 100 kw per month while the average U.S. home uses over 10,000 kw per month...Something doesn't seem right. Only 8 percent of the U.S. energy is renewable. So there's a little something to chew over.
The next day, Christmas in July to be exact, we had the most wonderful day! We first stopped by a small organic farm owned by Edwardo and Flori! They grow coffee, bananas, and have goats, and vegetables/fruits that they sell at the local farmers market in town.
Coffee beans before they're ripe.
Me and Hannah, who likes bananas.
Once the coffee bean is peeled, it looks more like what we know coffee to be!
Ripe coffee beans.
THE cutest goats in the world!
Guys. This is wild cilantro! Ya'll know how much I love cilantro!
Putting the dried beans into the roaster. As you can imagine, it smelled amazing!
After that fun adventure, we drove about 45 minutes to Carla's parent's house for lunch and another wonderful adventure! Her father owns a dairy farm where they make Turrialba cheese for the country. This is a fresh cheese, with the texture similar to mozzarella, and the flavor a bit saltier and closer to cottage cheese. It's really good ya'll!
We have some photogenic bacas up in here!
He wouldn't fit into my suitcase...
This one probably would have eaten my suitcase.
The Get-in-my-bucket-list #45: Milking a cow!
After her farm, we visited Carla's aunt's house for some lessons on homemade tortillas and bizcochos. They are made from a corn flour, milk, turrialba cheese, and salt! Seriously, these were amazing! No pics to show though.
So. my favorite part. After the lesson, we were tricked by Eric and Joanna to think we were going on a nature night hike. In the rain. Luckily that WASN'T the case, and we went to their house instead! Homemade pizza and a Guaro Sour lesson from the prof himself! Then. The best part happened. Some guys showed up and MADE. US. CHOCOLATE. Like what?!
So here's the process: you getcho self a cocoa fruit and ferment and dry the beans. Then you wash them off and roast them to this beautiful cocoa color. Then, you put them into this churner and BAM. It's chocolate. You may want to add some condensed milk for sweetness, but seriously. What is this.
The best chocolate I've ever tasted. Ever. Like, why is there even any other "chocolate" junk even out there?
I'm really happy about this, as you can see.
So as you can obviously tell, that was the best Christmas in July a person could ever really have. The next morning, (Friday) we caught a taxi for our 5:30 bus ride to Manuel Antonio on the Pacific Coast. Remember, when no one in your group knows Spanish, things can get a wee bit stressful. After a stressful day of travel, we just crashed in our hotel room for the day. On Saturday, we caught a bus to the beach for some awesome bronzing action.
Yep. This was our view. Pretty spoiled, I know.
That night, we all got fancied up and went out for happy hour and dinner in Manuel Antonio.
We went to El Avion, a restaurant made out of an old fighter jet. There was a bar inside, and the restaurant surrounded it.
Got my picture in the cockpit!
This past week has been kind of crazy with essays and a group project, but it's been so much fun! Yesterday, we left Turrialba at 5:30 and drove to one of the largest Volcano's in Costa Rica! Luckily, we packed pants and fleeces because it was cold and rainy up there!
And then, this was our view. We didn't get to see the crater, but at least we got to see the edge of the world!
What the crater is supposed to look like.
Me and Caity were sad we didn't get to see the volcano.
We were realllly high up! You could definitely tell the air was thinner up there!
On a path up to a different crater. It was straight out of Wizard of Oz. Still wondering where the flying monkeys were.
Here is Sandy, the friendliest squirrel you will ever meet. He jumped up on people's laps and stuffed rocks into his mouth. I think the altitude got to his cute little head.
So here you have it peeps. Last part of my Costa Rican adventure! There are so many things I learned through my class and time here, and I cannot wait to share that with you! Be on the lookout for a new blog post hopefully soon! And now, I await the flight that will bring me back home!
No comments:
Post a Comment