VOLCÁN POÁS (Part 2 of our 3-part tour)

After leaving the coffee plantation, we drove a good half hour to our second destination of the three part tour: Volcán Poás National Park. Volcán Poás is an active volcano that had its last huge eruption in 1953, resulting in the crater that we see today. 

We made it to the park around 10am, just like the tour guide, Milton, had hoped we would. He said that if we would have gotten there too much later, the crowd would have been coming in and the clouds would have been starting to cover up the incredible view of the crater. It was the perfect day and the perfect time to go. It wasn’t super hot and there was still shade on the path during our 15 minute walk up the hill to the overlook. It wasn’t a steep hill to climb, by any means, but it made the walk really enjoyable.

When we reached the overlook, we wiggled our way to the railing and let our mouths hit the floor with how beautiful it was. According to Lonely Planet’s book, the crater measures 1.3 kilometers (4,265 feet) wide and 300 meters (984 feet) deep. We felt so tiny standing there looking at the miles of the volcanic landscape, so foreign to us.

                                   

Since 1953, the volcano’s crater has filled with light-milky-blue water and gives off steam because of the hot air building up underneath it. They say that because of the water that filled the crater, when it erupts now, at least with the mini eruptions, it isn’t a lava spewing machine like you would normally think. Instead, it sends a geyser into the air, shooting as far as a mile high. I believe the last geyser was in 2011 but don't quote me on that.

 

After spending our allotted 20 minutes there, we walked along another path towards the lagoon. The path was covered in an enchanting archway of trees. This walk should last about 25 minutes, but we were taking in the view of the trees and decided to slow down our naturally fast-paced walk instead.

When the trees cleared, we say the people huddled up against the rail and couldn’t actually see Laguna Botos until we got closer. The water in the crater was milky-blue but the water in the lagoon was like a sapphire-blue I had never seen before. My new favorite color? (okay, purple is still my favorite but this made me second-guess it for a minute).

P.S.
There is no filter applied to these photos. See what I mean about that blue?!

 

Alas, it was time to meet the group back at the bus. Brett and I took one last look and headed back down the beautiful trail of trees. Half way down, we started to smell something that we hadn’t noticed before.

                                     

The active volcano was a little more awake than it was earlier. I was glad to be leaving – sulfur isn’t as smelly as the garbage on the road in San Jose, but it wasn’t overly pleasant, either.

Back at the van, we loaded up and were ready for our third and final part of the tour: La Paz Waterfall Gardens.

P.S.S.
I didn’t take this last picture, but I wanted to share it anyways. This is an Ariel View of the Volcán Poás and Laguna Botos.

                           

http://costa-rica-guide.com/nature/national-parks/poas-volcano/

DOKA COFFEE PLANTATION (Part 1 of our 3-part tour)

Before school started on January 13^th, and before we had an apartment,  we thought it might be a good idea to do something over the weekend before things got really busy. Andrés, the one man behind the desk at Gaudy’s, set us up for a tour that he recommended. It was a one day trip that stopped at three different locations AND included breakfast and lunch. First thing that Saturday morning, January 9^th, our tour guide, Milton, picked us up right at the front door of Gaudy’s and took us off to stop number one: Doka Coffee Plantation.

Brett, myself, three girls around our age from Mexico, and two older men jumped out of the tour van to be led to a delicious breakfast buffet right at the plantation. They had three different blends of coffee there for us to drink with the traditional gallo pinto and fried plantain meal. Brett tasted all three coffee blends. I had a sip of his, but I’m not a big coffee fan so that was enough of an experience for me.

I am a very slow eater, I always have been. Brett finishes his plate and it doesn’t phase me that I still have ½ of my plate to go. When this happened at our breakfast buffet, I was quickly reminded just how slow I eat when Milton came over to me and said, “ I’m sorry you eat slow, but we need to start the tour now.” Brett laughed and I took one last bite before walking out to the coffee fields.

Milton started the tour by showing us what coffee beans actually look like when they are picked. To our surprise, they have a light green shell and then turn a beautiful red color when they are ready to be picked.

Milton also explained to us what a “peaberry” bean looks like. Peaberry was one of the blends that Brett had tasted during breakfast. Only 5% of all of the coffee that grows is considered to be a peaberry bean. It grows on the same plant as other coffee beans, but because of a mutation, it grows differently than the rest.

After that, we all walked to a nearby building where all of the magic takes place. There are many different “stations” needed for getting the coffee ready for your mug. Many of these involve machinery.

Once the coffee bean makes its way through the stations, it is sorted into different bags. Milton showed us three different bags, each with a different quality of coffee. He said that a lot of the time, the lower quality coffee is used for the lattes and flavored drinks.

We finished walking through the building in about a half hour and ended up out back where the millions of beans were spread out on the ground, drying in the sun. The workers rake out the beans with a long wooden rake and let them partially dry. As long as they do this for a little while, they can mark “sun dried” on the package and save time by drying them with more machines later. Sneaky, sneaky.

The last part of this tour was in another small building along the coffee bean stamped sidewalk. There, Milton showed us the machine that is responsible for the roasting, aka adding flavor, of the finished product. He told us that one worker’s recipe might be just a tiny bit different that the other, but that’s all it takes to create a new taste.

Here is a picture of different roasts – dark roast, medium roast, light roast. 

When you order decaffeinated coffee, the picture below of the small one is what it looks like before they grind it up. Apparently, they can sell the coffee beans to other parts of the world where they decaffeinate the bean and then send it back to Doka to use for making their decaffeinated coffee. Those who then have the caffeine are able to use it for their own products, like soda!

Once this part of the tour was over, we walked through the gift shop and Brett bought a bag of their “Breakfast Blend” coffee. Within 10 minutes, we were back in the van and ready for part two of the tour: Volcán Poás.