Coffee plantation tour, Poas Volcano, animals, and waterfalls

Today was packed with activities! At the last minute, I signed up for a "combo tour" offered by the school, and I'm SO GLAD I decided to do it. Nobody else in my main group from the school went, so I was able to meet some people from around the world and some other Americans, including a very nice well-experienced traveler and a Spanish professor.

We started by going on a coffee plantation tour about an hour outside of town. I learned a lot about coffee, and I have a new appreciation for it! I understand why really good bags of coffee cost so much- there really is a lot of work involved. To the right is a picture of a coffee plant when it's first sprouting. They're called "soldiers" because they look like they're wearing the helmet (these are the only soldiers you'll find in Costa Rica!) Once the plant grows bigger, it produces tons of little red berry looking things that are picked by hand. Then they are washed in a huge tub of water, where the beans that float are thrown away because they don't contain a lot of flavor. The beans are then left to dry in the sun for 3 days and taken inside when it's going to rain. Lots of manual labor involved. Eventually the beans are roasted at a very high temperature for 7-18 minutes, depending on the type of roast. The longer they are roasted, the more flavor they have (but, interestingly, less caffeine.) We were lucky enough to sample all the different types of coffee they produced... just not the decaf!

After that, we headed to Poas Volcano. I had seen pictures of it before, but there is no way to described how impressive it was to see it in person. The main crater was HUGE and reeked of sulfur. There were a couple scientist standing near the edge of it and they looked about the size of my pinky. They study the volcano because although it's dormant, it's not extinct yet (hence the gases flowing off of it.) They are trying to predict it's future activity.
We then hiked a little further to the next crater, which was beautiful but much smaller and looked more like a secluded lake. I was more impressed by the birds and squirrels hanging out around there, to be honest!

After a long, windy bus ride with a few stops to catch a few lovely views of the town and valley below, we stopped at a park for lunch, all different kinds of animals, and waterfalls.

I was able to get real close to some beautiful hummingbirds. Some were the size of an apricot, others were bigger than my hand.

Even up close, I couldn't believe this frog was real. Though it's pretty, it's also poisonous. It was still pretty difficult to convince myself not to touch it!

We saw a bunch of wild cats: ocelots, leopards, cougars, and relatives of those. The cages here are not like they are in the states. If I wanted to, I could have touched them (and had my hand bitten off, I'm sure.) The enclosures only had flimsy metal bars and were way too small. I felt bad for the animals inside, stuck in a prison they did nothing to deserve.

In a hand-painted ox cart with my new friend Roberta.

In front of a beautiful waterfall. We walked all the way up to the top and worked our way down all three cascades. We even got to stand right under and beside them. I was so relaxed... that's the place I want to go whenever I'm feeling stressed.

For the bird fans: Isn't that the cutest thing you've ever seen? I got to hold one!

Needless to say, today was wonderful! Tomorrow we leave for Monteverde, where we'll meet our new host families and check out our new school. I can't believe there's only one week left!