We spent this morning touring the magnificent Monteverde reserve. We skipped the guided walk and just toured around for our own amusement. Right out of the gates we saw the quintessential bird to see – the “resplendent quetzal”. I don’t think Resplendent is a technical term but they always, always call it that. We were very lucky to see this bird as it should really be called the “elusive quetzal” or what Brooke calls it, the “chicken pretzel”. It is a very colourful and regal looking bird.
We continued on around the park and enjoyed the views and the exercise. Half way around the 5km hike we got to the lookout point where, on queue, the clouds rolled in so that we couldn’t see a thing – that’s what you get when you come to a cloud forest!
The cloud forest straddles the continental divide, the same divide that extends all the way north through Canada.
This afternoon, we took a tour of a coffee farm, Don Juan’s coffee farm. Our tour guide was a young, chatty guy who translated for Don Juan as he toured us around his farm. He showed us the process of growing seedlings to replace dying or sick trees, explained the growing season and development of the fruit, showed us how to pick the ripe cherry’s (they are a bright red fruit when ripe), and the different cleaning processes. As I understood it, there are two ways to process the coffee. Don Juan roasts the entire fruit, which is then ground to make the coffee. This is known as natural coffee. The coffee we buy requires the fruit be peeled from the seed and the seed dried in the sun. Once dry, it can then be husked down to the “bean”. Don Juan farms just one hectare of his land, trying to preserve the forest on the remaining land. He does one hectare because can pick and harvest that one hectare himself. He made us “natural” coffee to try which is what the farmers drink, and some home made banana bread having used bananas he grows.
At the entrance to the Monteverde Reserve.
A Resplendent Quetzal
Our guide, Alex, for our coffee tour.
Coffee through it's stages. Young green to mature red to dried black fruit.
Don Juan, the farmer.
What a coffee "bean" looks like out of the fruit.
The red machine grinds the fruit off of the bean.
The beans when dried.
A young coffee plant. They grow to 5 or 6 ft tall.
Me with a basked tied to me. This is how Don Juan picks his beans.
This is how beans used to be husked and ground.
Sugar cane we had at Don Juans farm.
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