Exploring Costa Rica - Day 2 - San José

Read Day 1 here. I got up at about 6:00am this morning so that I would be alert for breakfast and our orientation meeting. Breakfast was at 7:00am in the hotel dining room. Breakfast was served buffet style and included cold cereal, fresh fruit and juices, toast, omelets made to order, scrambled eggs, as well as the soon easily recognizable gallo pinto – black beans and rice. I met our group leader Pedro Bosques for the first time. He and our bus driver Didier Aguilar had already met most of the group as they had provided most of the airport to hotel transfers the night before. After breakfast the group met in one of the hotels conference rooms for our orientation meeting. Our group leader Pedro Bosques formally introduced himself as well as our bus driver for the duration of our program, Didier Aguilar. He gave us some general information about Costa Rica and the program. We learned what the current exchange rate was, what calling card worked the best, etc. We also had the opportunity to introduce ourselves to each other. Some of my fellow travelers were on their first Road Scholar program and we had one person in our group that had been on over 50 programs! After our orientation we were off to INBioparque, the National Institute of Biodiversity for a tour. The park has examples of the different eco systems that make up Costa Rica. We had an introductory video that explained to us that Costa Rica is a relatively young land. The area that is now Costa Rica used to be under water until volcanic activity created the land bridge between Nicaragua and Panama. This bridge became a corridor between North and South America and this is the main reason Costa Rica has such biodiversity. The park has only been in existence for about 12 years and it was amazing to me how lush and green everything was. We saw all kinds of flora and fauna including various bromeliads and frogs and they even had a small butterfly garden with lots of different species of butterflies.

Once we finished our tour of INBioparque we got back on the bus and we were off to the Doka Coffee Plantation. The plantation is higher up so we had about an hour ride to get there. Upon arrival to Doka we went directly to lunch at the plantation restaurant which was open air with a great view of the property. Before our tour started we had a few minutes to enjoy the butterfly garden right next to the restaurant. We were given a guided tour with a Doka staff member, Omar. Omar had a great working knowledge of the whole process of coffee making from planting – which is what he started his career at Doka doing - on through to the final processing. I learned quite a bit. Did you know the best place to store your coffee is your freezer?  Even though I don’t drink coffee it was all very interesting and to be honest the smell of all the coffee was heavenly.

On the way back to the hotel Pedro asked if we wanted to stop at a grocery store and take a look around. It was large and modern just like in the US and had a wide variety of products. It was funny to see some of the same products with Spanish labeling.   We arrived back at the hotel with time for a little relaxation before dinner. Dinner was at 7:00 and then back to the room to repack because tomorrow we head to Tortuguero. Pedro let us know that we were leaving early- suitcases need to be outside our rooms at 6:00am.   *During the program, either the group leader and driver, or the hotel staff takes care of getting your luggage to your room and picking it up when you change locations.  All you have to do is make sure it’s outside your room at the specified time. Day 3 >