Day 7- I LOVE COSTA RICA!

As if it's not painfully obvious from the title of this post we absolutely LOVED Costa Rica. It was by far our favorite place on the cruise. Shawn wants to retire there-- tomorrow! :)

We made port in Limon, Costa Rica where Shawn and I had signed up for a tour called "The sweetest chocolate rainforest" (Sounds promising right?!) As we waited in the lounge for our tour to be called they told us that it had begun to "slightly drizzle" outside. HA! It was POURING! By the time we got from the dock to our bus we were soaked but it was ok though because it was at least warm. Our tour guide's name was Evelyn and I just have to say she was FANTASTIC! Loved her! She was so well informed about her country and seriously knew about EVERYTHING! Our destination was about 3 hours inland so as we drove she told us so much about Costa Rica- the people, their government (which I would trade for in a heartbeat because they take very good care of their people), their economy- it was great! As a result of her incredible knowledge we got to make several stops along the way to see so many amazing things! Also, because we went so far inland it was not raining on us at all! (apparently it rained on the ship all day).
This is a banana plantation. It is one of their main exports. See the blue bags? They are covering the bunch of bananas. Each plant (yes, I said plant- not tree as I had previously thought) only grows one bunch of bananas per growing season. They put the bags over the bananas to help protect them- but not from the monkeys. As I also found out, wild monkeys do not actually eat bananas- who would have thunk? As a side note-howler monkeys also like to throw their poop at people when they are irritated. Thankfully we didn't come across any monkeys! :) Also, the fruit of the plant- banana- are actually the ovaries of the plant. So next time you eat a banana remember, you are eating an ovary. lol Evelyn stopped and bought us a bunch of fresh bananas to try- SO GOOD! Seriously, after eating a nice FRESH banana the ones here at home are pretty much tasteless.

See the brown ball in the tree- it is a Sloth (it's not Sid though, it's a mama sloth- it's baby is curled up by it's tummy- I think this is the pic that if you look close you can see the baby sloth's hand on the mama's arm).

When we got to the rainforest we were given instruction: Watch out for snakes- Costa Rica is home to MANY poisonous snakes. Watch out for the bullet ants- try not to brush against any hanging leaves in case there is an ant on there that could fall onto you and bite and sting you! What??? Holy crap- Shawn, what did you sign us up for??? But FIRST, we have to cross the longest suspension bridge in Costa Rica... Hyperventilate....
Shawn getting ready to cross the bridge- or maybe he's already on the bridge- how would I know, I was trying to breath and not look down! lol


So, we finally make it across the bridge alive! Now we have to walk on this narrow path through the rainforest. Man, I was seriously sweating trying not to touch anything and watch out for snakes! With a HUGE sign of relief we made it to a clearing in a cocoa plantation. They had a nice set up with benches there where they demonstrated how cocoa was first made way back when. It was a very interesting process and I am still amazed that somebody figured out what to do with it!
This is the Cocoa Fruit (yep, that's chocolate in the rough!)
The next step is to break open the Cocoa and take out all of the little "beans or seeds". Then you suck on the seeds (they have a very fruity taste) and then put them in a box to get prepared to dry in the sun.

After they have dried in the sun they mashed them up with a warm rock to make powder. From the powder comes everything else. We got to taste the powder- which was so pure and yummy! Then they made some hot cocoa for us and they had mix-in's for us to add that they used way back when- chili powder, black pepper, cornmeal, nutmeg. Then they mixed it with some lecitin and made a paste out of it- HOLY YUMMY!! Then the last thing was they had some made into small blocks of pure chocolate. Wow, never have I had such divine-tasting chocolate!! So, by the time we were finished with the presentation we were all pretty hopped up on chocolate! (YES!) I wasn't even worried anymore as we traipsed back through the jungle!


BUT, I should have been because as we were walking down the trail- mind you we were at the BACK of the group so probably 18 people had already gone down the trail already- the lady 3 people in front of us stops and says "Isn't this one of those snakes?" HUH???!!! Our guide rushes back to where we are and sure enough there was a little viper curled up on the path!! (look at the square in the middle of the picture, see the little cowpie coil in the corner- that's the snake!)

It was very small but apparently it is deadly. As he stood by watching we hurried past it (of course taking a picture first! lol). He was freaking out quite a bit thinking of all of the people who had walked past it already and they 2 guides had missed it! Our little group was being watched out for that day!

Who is that SEXY man- Tarzan??? ;)

This was a little lizard the guide found along the path. He was pulling out the flap under the lizards mouth that they apparently puff up when they are in danger and trying to look menacing.

See the blue legs on this little frog? It is a "blue jean" frog. So cute!

See the HUGE black ant? This is a "bullet ant", they bite AND sting and it apparently hurts for about 8 hours afterwards. HOLY COW!!

This is a vine that grows from the ground to the tops of the trees and then back down to the ground again.

They have the most GORGEOUS flowers in Costa Rica!

Me (and my ginormous butt) on the longest suspension bridge in Costa Rica! See me holding on for dear life? What you can't see is me hyperventilating also!
This is the River the bridge went over.

After we finished our tour of the rainforest we had a traditional Costa Rican meal in this fantastic open-air restaurant at the trailhead. We had black beans and rice (they eat this every day), farmers cheese, chicken, pork, plantains, and some native veggies. It was all so YUMMY! Along with the meal we had some passion fruit punch- puts orange juice to shame! We then started on our 3-hour journey back to the ship. Again, it was a fabulous trip back with lots of stops to see local sites. Just incredible!!!

This is an active volcano. Apparently it spews off like this every day. They have had to move a few of the higher villages lower in anticipation of an eruption one day.

This was taken at a Pineapple plantation. Call me stupid but I had NO IDEA that Pineapple grew on the ground!

After we had reached the port again we headed over to the local flea market to check into some souvenirs. It was such a nice environment to shop! No one was up in our faces trying to get us to buy their items. They were just friendly and when we moved on, we moved on. So enjoyable! We were able to get some beautiful salad fork/spoons made of Costa Rican Rosewood for a good price.

Here we are back on ship and ready to go to dinner. Costa Rica was easily the coolest place I have ever been! I can't wait to go back there one day!