A Month in Costa Rica, May 2012

Part 1 - Teaching | Part 2 - Coffee Farm | Part 3 - Puerto Viejo | Part 4 - Final Thoughts
This series of stories is not only a way for me to archive my personal travels but also a way for me to share my experience with the Steemit Community to enjoy. Many people think travelling is fun, easy and relaxing, which it is! But there are many unexpected difficulties as well and I hope to show both sides of my trips

If you like my stories, please like, comment or follow me @chuazm!

Changing Programs

Coffee Planting

Continuing where we left off in Part 1 after I left the teaching program, I decided to volunteer in a coffee plantation instead in the beautiful village of Monteverde. Monteverde is a small community up in the mountains with an elevation of 1,400m (4,600ft) and I would be working for a mom and pop coffee farm - Finca Bella (translation: Beautiful Farm).

I partied and traveled on the weekends (stay tuned in Part 3!), said my goodbyes to my host family in San Jose and hopped on a van for a 4 hour journey up the mountains!

The van was a rickety old thing that had to carry us up the mountains and that was honestly, as a person afraid of heights, one of the scariest things I've ever experienced. I wish I had taken pictures on my phone instead of my film camera back then! The roads were basically non-existent, only whatever dirt path was carved out. The width of the road could just barely fit the width of the van, and it was a 2-way street! If any other car/van wanted to get through, the other had to reverse until they found a small nook by the cliff wall to squeeze into.

The scariest part of the journey was definitely when we passed an area that was just hit by a mudslide. Part of the road collapsed and the only replacement it had was 2 wooden planks. The van driver must have done this a million times because he masterfully balanced the van's 4 tires on the 2 wooden planks as we crossed the hole.

Growing Coffee with my New Family!

As soon as I arrived in Monteverde, I met my the people who would be my host family for the next 2 weeks. The parents could not speak a word of English, but thankfully the kids can. I also had a roommate from the U.K. that spoke Spanish with the strongest English accent! It is still one of the most hilarious thing I've heard.

The decision to change program to come here was definitely the best! Just check out the view from the house. At 1,400m above sea level, the air was crisp and clean. I was amazed at how big of a difference the air can do for a person's vitality. I'm not, and wasn't, a very particularly fit person but the air allowed me to hike for hours without even breaking a sweat or panting.

View from host family house

Our daily routine was simple.

• 4:00am - Wake up and wash up
• 4:30am - Pick eggs, dig up black beans etc from the garden
• 5:00am - Make breakfast with the freshest ingredients no money can get you
• 5:30am - Time to work!

Coffee plantations go through an annual cycle of planting, growing, maintaining, harvesting etc. I came just in time for us to move the young shoots from a makeshift pot into the ground. That meant a lot of digging.

This was the new plot of land we had to cover in the next 2 weeks. It involved clearing the land, digging the holes and planting the young shoots

We were digging about 200 such holes per day per person

It wasn't an easy job, having to climb and dig a slope with this gradient

But I had a friend to help keep me company everyday!

12:00pm - Done with work and head home for lunch! The sun would get too bright and hot to work
1:00pm - My own exploration

Exploring Monteverde - The Green Mountain and Cloud Forest

Monteverde (translation: Green Mountain), Puntarenas

Monteverde is famous for its nature and biodiversity and its nature. With such fresh air and stamina I never knew I had, I HAD to go explore the area more!

]
It's called Cloud Forest because we're literally in the clouds!

Random cliff I decided to climb

It was worth the view. At first I thought that was smoke coming out the ground, but it was LITERALLY a cloud growing out of thing air

I would usually spend the rest of my evenings exploring. The shower in the house was barely drops of water, so mother nature provided me my own shower place and I've been using it everyday!

I also made a few friends who joined me on my daily hikes and showers.

So this was my simple life growing coffee on a farm! This went on for the next 2 weeks until it was time to say my sad goodbyes and leave Costa Rica.

This is not the end of the series yet though! I didn't only work work work at Costa Rica, I also met new people, went on adventures and had plenty of fun! That will all be told in Part 3.

If you like my story, please check out my profile (@chuazm) for more! I would really appreciate some likes, comments or feedbacks. I'm very new here and would like some help and advice. Cheers!