Jose's Chocolate Tour
Travel day started off on a high with a trip to Don Oliver cocoa farm. We took a tour of a bunch of different species of trees.
At each tree they gave us a large sample and I tried a ton of new fruits I was never brave enough to buy for myself. When a sweet older Costa Rican man is offering it to you, you really can’t say no.
Star fruit
Papaya
Mango
Cacao fruit - Really wild! It’s kind of slimy and tarte but delicious!
Roasted seeds / raw seeds - Bitter, like 90% chocolate taste (I guess it basically is 100% but not processed or smoothed yet)
Guava (different from home) - Like a marshmallow with a seed in the middle
Miracle fruit (for later) - Turns sour things sweet
Sugar cane juice - Loved this, sugar water!
Rum (made from the sugar cane) and coconut - Strong 35%
Pineapple
Coffee
Orange like a cup
There was a sloth at the farm, our first sloth of Costa Rica!
After the tour, we went back to the hostel and packed up. We saw another sloth!!! 2 in one day! It was really amazing to see, they really are so strange and cute.
We hit the road to Manuel Antonio, the drive was very scenic. I really don’t have a ton to say other than that we got stuck in a rainfall a few times which was like nothing I have experienced before, worse than the drive to Tofino. At one point it was too heavy for us so we pulled over and danced around, FREE SHOWER YAY!
Another highlight of the 6 hour travel day was the crocodile bridge.
It’s basically just a regular bridge but with a twist… there is a family of crocodiles underneath it.
They a f*ing HUGE, I knew they were big but when you see them in person they really do look like dinosaurs. Fun facts: Crocodiles spend lots of time with their mouths open as a form of heat regulation, like panting for dogs.
As we entered Manuel Antonio we noticed kilometers of palm trees, perfectly spaced out. It seemed like an abandoned farm but I need to do some googling.
Our new hostel is really great, rustic, certainly more “hostel-ly” than the Selina Chain. I will write about that more tomorrow but if I’m being honest I am a bit too annoyed to do that right now because I just went to put in my AirPods and the case was empty… I am trying not to get annoyed because life happens and sometimes things get lost while traveling but boy does this suck!
I emailed the hostel to see if they are there, I have a theory that I either fell asleep with them in last night and didn’t realize OR I did put them away last night but when my phone fell off the little corner table my case got knocked off and they fell out without me realizing. Either way they are not here. Keeping my hopes up that they found them and I can mail them to the Selina in Manuel Antonio, fingers crossed.
I pride myself in really taking care of my things, especially tech stuff, I have basically never broken anything and used my stuff until they died like old phones or computers. So this is a bummer but also this past year I have been working on accepting things and not getting worked up, its just negative energy thats not needed so I am deciding to stay positive and believe that they will be found or I will save up and replace them.
PURA VIDA BABY! How can I be annoyed for long while I can literally hear the noises of the jungle all around me. I am so lucky to get to be here, I am very grateful to have this opportunity.
