Weekend in Manuel Antonio National Park

I have just got back from an amazing weekend exploring Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica's smallest but most highly regarded national park. It was created in 1972 and it's 1700 acres is home to many of Costa Rica's animals and endangered species. Playa Manuel Antonio was rated number 17 out of 25 top beaches in the world on trip advisor.. and while it was beautiful, it was no New Chums (but i'm bias!). 

After catching a bus for 4 hours (an air-conditioned, new and uncrowded bus I must add - how boring after Nicaragua's chicken buses) I arrived at Manuel Antonio. First thing I saw after stepping off the bus was a sushi restaurant, so much excitement, and it was lunchtime, so went straight in there. It was pretty delicious, but after two months of no sushi I think anything would have tasted great!

My was right on the beach, Hotel Verde Mar, which was ideal. It was also the home to a bunch of super cute white faced monkeys, and a sloth! 

I did a tour of the national park, which was really good as it's so hot there that most of the animals are up in the trees all day. Our guide, however, knew where the animals were and had a large set of binoculars. On the tour I met some girls from the states, and did a canopy jungle tour with them the following day. This was crazy fun, we were metres in the air climbing high ropes and flying down huge flying foxes. We even went upside down on one flying fox, much more scary than it looked. 

  

He spotted a kid with a dorrito..

All that we got to see of our sloth friend, they sleep 20 hours a day

Manuel main beach

 

Super small tree bat

Snake!

Iguana

Manuel Antonio Beach

Canopy jungle tour!

Week Six - Made it to Costa Rica

I was feeling a bit glum to be leaving Nicaragua, but after being picked up from the airport and driven into San Jose, we passed a very large shopping mall, and I felt a little happier. I am living in more of an studio apartment here, but it's nice, modern and has more of an outdoor area. It is in a gated community, and very safe. Being a 10 minute walk to work, it's a great location.

The area we are based is Tres Rios, a coffee growing region of San Jose, as the city sits at 1200m altitude. The office is built on an ex-coffee plantation, and having only been built two years ago, it is obvious to see the changes in the area. I am told that as the city expands, farmers are now looking at selling their land for malls, offices and houses. This is because they are able to earn more money from the sale of land to developers than they would selling coffee. Very sad, but a reality, especially because Tres Rios coffee is highly regarded and sort after. From the office window you are able to see the coffee mill just down the road, and patches of coffee trees around the block.

I spent my first weekend relaxing, walking around the area, and at a family day of one of my colleagues. It was very cool seeing family life, eating delicious Costa Rican food and hearing about daily life here. Their family is huge, and this was just a bunch of the cousins on one side, which equalled to around 30 people.

On Monday and Tuesday I was in the office learning the history and process of coffee here. Wednesday to Friday was then spent visiting a numerous number of coffee farms, micro mills and mills. They were all very interesting, had their own way of handling coffee and own background stories.

Costa Rican breakfast of gallo pinto, omelette, fried banana and fried cheese

First farm we visited

New coffee flowers

Water conservation programme in the area

Micro Mill

Standard unit to measure the volume of cherries

Microlot drying beds

Honey dried coffee

With one of the producers

Yellow, Black and White honey processes

Vista Al Valle Finca

Vista Al Valle Finca

Turning the coffee

Sonora Coffee Finca - Measuring the cherry

Sonora Coffee Finca

Aquiares Coffee

Aquiares Finca

Aquiares Finca - old robusta base with grafted arabica top

There's usually a view of a volcano I was told..

Aquiares - with the son of one of the owners and producer, Diego

Small plane ride back from La Cumplida

I was very, very lucky to be offered a plane ride back from La Cumplida instead of the 3 hour chicken bus trip! When they asked if I was keen, I tried to be very subtle in my reply of si, por favor.. but was secretly ridiculously excited. How did they know this is one of my favourite things!

This was a good way to see the country from above, and was really crazy seeing the green, lush mountains and coffee producing areas, versus the dry and flat lower land where the mill and Managua is located. It was also interesting seeing the different housing areas that have developed; the closer to the lake, the more shanty towns and huts there were. This is due to the fact that it is a lot hotter and dryer at the lower altitude, and the land is completely dried up. Nicaragua is full of mountains and volcanos, not unlike NZ. 

The plane ride was an awesome way to end my glorious five weeks in Nicaragua, and am very gutted to be leaving tomorrow. I would never have imagined that I would come to love and admire the country so much in such a short time. Everything about it is beautiful, hospitable, inspiring and a place I would highly recommend anyone to visit. The tourist market is something that is quite new to the country, and while it was nice not seeing many tourists, obviously with tourism comes money and development. On to the next adventure in Costa Rica, where the market and coffee is very different.

La Cumplida

Matagalpa

Crater lake, and lake Nicaragua in the background