Coffee, Chocolate and Sugar Cane

Day 2--Wednesday, February 12

This was our first morning to eat breakfast in the Lodge. First came the coffee (decaf for me), then a platter of various fruits (melon, papaya, pineapple, watermelon) followed by a platter of “toasts” (two lightly toasted slices) with a pat of butter and a small bowl of fruit marmalade. The marmalade was so delicious that I asked if it could be bought in local stores, but our hostess, Jessica, told us that it was made only at the Lodge. When I returned home, I found in my email a pdf  Recipe Book that the Lodge had sent. It contained some of the most popular Lodge recipes. While it did not contain a recipe for the fruit marmalade, it did contain a recipe for the cauliflower-mint soup that I loved. More about that later.

On the way back to the room we stopped at the Lodge’s glass butterfly garden. Here I took the photos below and we marveled at the  emerging and nectar-gathering butterflies. Most were Blue Morphos, Red Postman, and Tiger Longwings. The Red Postman is so named because it goes to the same flowers in the same order each morning. The Postman was the most difficult to photograph because it flitted quickly from place to place. The Morphos have large yellow-ringed spots on their underwings. There was also a Julia, and the one on the paper towels below, with its wings closed just after emerging from its pupa, may be a Laparus Heliconian but it wouldn't open its wings so I am just guessing.

Top R Tigert Longwing, L. Morpho with its wings folded, you can just see a bit of the blue upperwing; 2nd row, emerging Morphos and a ragged Morphos that must have emerged much earlier; 3rd row Tiger Longwings; 4th row Malachite Butterfly and passion flower vine and buds; Bott row: another Red Postman and a closeup of the stunning passionflower

After the Lodge butterfly garden, we returned to the room and I briefly fell into a self-pitying crying jag. For the past two weeks, I have been plagued with a very painful mysterious ailment in my neck, and particularly my right shoulder and arm and hand. Two days prior to our trip, I had stopped a course of steroids that seemed to solve the problem, but as soon as I stopped the steroids, the pain returned. I was frustrated because of my shoulder pain. Then I remembered that I had packed a second course of steroids. I took a tablet and also some Ibuprofen, the pain slid to the background and I was ready to go. I continued the steroids for the week we were in Costa Rica and all was well . . . until I stopped the steroids on returning home. But that's another story.

It was a windy day that turned quite close but for much of the day at our fog forest elevation, wet fog sifted thinly off the clouds. We walked some of the trails around the lodge, passed the lovely solar-heated swimming pool, and found ourselves at a yoga and meditation lookout point (mats at the front desk) where we saw—fleetingly—a pair of pale-billed woodpeckers but no other birds. They are about the size of our pileated woodpeckers.

Internet photo; female below and male above. Unlike the male, the female has a black streak at the front of her red head.

There were several trails: a Compost Trail, Orchid Trail, a Sloth Trail winding down to the stream below, and several other shorter garden walks. There were also hammocks and benches for catching one’s breath and observing the flowers and wildlife.



The gardens had some truly special plants such as tree ferns, Imperial Bromeliads and anthuriums. There were also many species of orchids, white and purple agapanthus, hydrangeas, lilies, and more, each lifting its head to soak up the sifting, foggy mist. 

After a few trail walks and tours in the cloud forest, I began to see that many of the cloud forest flowers were vibrant red, standing out sharply against all the green. Also, many of the young plants, such as ferns, start out pink or red because they don't have the sunlight and chlorophyll necessary for photosynthesis. All of the plants in the forest, including the trees, of course, compete for sunlight, many of them designed to entwine, vine and climb nearby trees and plants to reach up to the sunlit canopy. There is even one, the Walking Palm (Socratea exorrhiza), that slowly 'walks' from shade to sunlight by growing new roots toward the light and allowing the old roots  to die.

We saw many of our tropical houseplants--philodendron, elephant ears, etc. but in their huge, wild forms.

Rebecca before two Imperial Bromeliads at the Lodge entrance

After our grounds tour, we walked downtown—less than a kilometer away. On the spur of the moment, we toured an Orchid Garden. Another eye-opener for me. Again I had no idea that most orchids, other than the cultivated ones we see in the super market, are tiny. I wondered why they had given each of us a magnifying glass on entry. We were shown many orchids, some very small which we did, indeed, need the magnifying glass to see. Our guide, who slid easily from Spanish to English, taught us the typical orchid structure: three outer sepals with two at the top, the dorsal sepal at the bottom, and an inner whorl with three petals. The octopus or fried bacon orchid (below) was our favorite.

Octopus or Fried Bacon orchids; close up they really do look like fried bacon

After the orchid garden, we ate lunch at Soda Coati. I had grilled tilapia, potato quarters, and mixed diced vegetables. Rebecca had fish in mushroom sauce, salad, and rice. Each of our meals cost only  2,500 colones. The exchange rate during our visit was about 489 colones to the dollar. So our lunch cost about $5.50 or a little less. It was hard to give up the beautiful Costa Rican paper currency. 

Interestingly, this soda contained mugs from the various Canadian provinces and all sorts of things Canadian, including small Canadian flags. It was only later, when we met many Canadians on our tours and continued to see Canadian flags etc. in restaurants and stores, that we discovered that Costa Rica is the winter playground for our northern neighbors. I think it was here that Rebecca and I had our picture taken with our diminutive Costa Rican waitperson who was wearing a Canada shirt. We, and particularly I--slouching posture, bulging fanny pack and raincoat around waist-- look gigantic by comparison.

After lunch we trudged back up the hill to the dirt road to the lodge. Rebecca uses a cane and I a walking stick so for us it was a pretty strenuous walk because of the hills in the area. On the way up, I stopped to rest and took a photo of a sloth painted on the back of one of the stores in a little shopping area. We have not seen a sloth yet. Only the two-toed sloths are in our area we have learned.This, of course is a painting of a three-toed sloth.

Back at the lodge, we scheduled a tour of the El Trapiche Coffee, Chocolate and Sugar Cane Plantation, a family-owned local enterprise. The tour included wonderful views, a ride in an ox cart, and a great tour guide who took us through the coffee making process from bean to brew and the chocolate making process from bean to bar—well, not really, more like bean to tasty teaspoonful. We also had the opportunity to make our own brown sugar. I brought home for Jeff’s cooking efforts a little bag of very molasses-y brown sugar that Rebecca and I made. No problem at customs. We also got to sample the local rum . . . which neither of us were in love with. The two-hour tour ended with a cup of El Trapiche coffee and a small tortilla laden with some sort of potato-like plant root, and, of course, the chance to browse the gift shop for coffee, sugar and some touristy gifts. I bought $4.00 pair of motmot earrings (above left) which I wore to dinner over the rest of our stay.

View over the coffee trees in the plantation

Oxen and oxcart next to a sugar cane field; these oxen had enormous bellies. In in the next pic I think I am trying to emulate them.

Me posing with oxen Cappichino and Cafe au lait just before I hitch a short ride in the gaily colored oxcart they are pulling

Dark and light cocoa fruit

Our guide showing the cocoa beans inside the cocoa fruit

Our guide showing us the difference in color and size of the coffee beans

Sorting, roasting and storing the coffee beans

Coffee beans (the coffee cherry) must be hand picked and it is an arduous job. Only the deep red beans are ready to be picked, so if the picker mixes in some of the greener ones, these are discarded and the picker’s pay, which is based how much he or she picks, is decreased. One of our guides told us that when young children need discipline, they are sent to pick coffee for a week or so, a very unpleasant punishment, according to him.

Sugar cane on the floor and a waterwheel-powered cane grinding machine. The water was piped in from a well or creek to power the wheel and was turned on and off. After the cane was crushed/extracted, heated, and molassas cooked, we got to make brown sugar below.

On the tour with us was a Danish family—I immediately recognized the daughters’ Scandinavian Fjällräven backpacks—an Asian girl; a voluble but pleasant Canadian guy; a couple from Switzerland; and a handful of Americans. Fjällräven, BTW, means “Arctic Fox” and is a Swedish company that makes backpacks and other outdoor gear. Their gear is popular in Norway and we returned home with several Fjällräven products after Jeff's Norwegian Fulbright year in 1988/89.

This evening we dressed for and ate dinner in the Lodge dining room. The waitstaff were very good—formal without being stuffy, casual without being inattentive or sloppy. One, a tiny woman named Jessica, we saw and spoke with most often. At the end of our stay, Rebecca left Jessica an individual tip. The rest of the time tips are left at the end of the stay in a tip box in the dining room or on the front desk. The tips in the dining room tip box are divided equally among the dining staff; the tips in the front desk box are divided equally among all of the maids, maintenance, and front desk staff.

Aside: When I dressed for dinner I always donned my “Costa Rica Shirt,” a gauzy black shirt imprinted with tropical flowers and butterflies. I had bought it shortly after I learned that I was finally going to Costa Rica, a destination I had longed for but had never been able put together. I planned to wear my Costa Rica Shirt in the Lodge's butterfly house to see how many butterflies visited it, but never pulled that off, the butterflies generally sleeping when I had the shirt on. In the photo left I am wearing the shirt in California to "try it out." Standing next to me is my sister Sarah. The photo was taken not too long after my January 2019 left hip replacement, thus I am walking with a cane.

Manuel, our server (who looked a little like a taller, smoother Pete Buttigieg), remembered from my breakfast that I was lactose intolerant, so came out of the kitchen to ask me if the tiny bit of butter they used in my fish entre would be okay. But(ter) of course.

I started the meal with a bowl of cauliflower-mint soup with a dab of caramelized onion in the center (yum!). My main course was a mahi-mahi, spinach, carrot, potato dish in a very stylized tower. It was delicious. I had raspberry sorbet with a chocolate decoration for desert—really the only non-milk/cream/cheese dessert on the menu.

Our second floor balcony was our window to the forest. Below it ran a little artificial stream/water garden that was turned off at night. Here we saw our first White-nosed Coatimundi. It came down a tree near the garden pool below our balcony and drank its fill (see pic below). We would see many more coatis. These cute, raccoon-like animals seem to have no fear of humans. One raided the recycle bins outside the Lodge front entrance each morning. 

Aerial view of Monte Verde Lodge and Gardens (Internet) 

Our little balcony

The view from our balcony

A white-nosed coatimundi in the water feature below our balcony

From our balcony we also heard, and then Rebecca saw two Rufous-and-White Wrens. We heard them frequently but rarely spotted them in the dense greenery though we did see them on our cloud forest tours. 

Internet photo

On the back of our room door was the sign to the left.

Wikipedia tells me that four species of monkey are native to the forests of Costa Rica: the Central American squirrel monkey (Saimiri oerstedii), the Panamanian white-faced capuchin (Cebus imitator), the mantled howler (Alouatta palliata) and Geoffroy's spider monkey (Ateles geoffroyi). All four species are classified scientifically as New World Monkeys. 

We distantly heard the howlers one morning but saw only White-faced Capuchins and Spider Monkeys during our exploration of the fog forest. 

Spider monkey and babe, top; white-faced capuchin and babe, bottom.