Doka Estate Costa Rica Coffee Tour and Plantation

The other day we decided to visit the Doka Estate Coffee Plantation on the slopes of Poás volcano. They offer five different tours and we chose the “coffee tour experience”.

Here’s is our driving route to Doka:

As you can see, it is not very far from where we live.

Entrance.

Different brewed coffees to sample while waiting for tour to begin.

Restaurant.

Mural

We had an excellent bilingual tour guide and our group was small. We started out at an area where coffee plants were growing and learned about seeds, coffee varieties, growing habits and coffee production. We then moved on to the processing plant.

Old wooden oxcart.

Beans drying in the sun.

Different types of processed beans.

We purchased coffee in the gift shop.

There’s a butterfly garden.

Excellent chocolate.

The Doka estate is a full production coffee plantation and has been in operation since 1940. As residents who are surrounded by coffee and sugar cane fields, we found this tour so informative and well done. The setting is beautiful.

Click on images to enlarge.

My YouTube Video - Driving Home from the Doka Estate Coffee Tour

After we completed the Doka Estate Coffee Tour, we made a dash cam video of our drive home. The coffee tour blog post can be read here.

This video might be of interest to those wondering what driving is like in parts of Costa Rica. Here is the map of our route, showing in blue (and alternate routes in grey):

And here is the video of our drive:

The date of the video is incorrect. It has to be fixed on our webcam. 

An Amazing Sunday

Our gardener, Luis, invited us to his house for lunch on Sunday. Luis also does work for our Canadian friends, Diane and John, so that is our connection. Our Spanish is so bad right now that Luis phones John who phones us with messages from Luis. John's Spanish is very good.

We felt very privileged to be invited.

Diane and John picked us up and off we went in the direction of Palmares - after that, I was totally lost. We climbed up, up and up through the most amazing scenery. The day was perfect so we could see for miles.

Ticos' houses are quite often modest compared to North American standards. Small, but perfectly able to house a family. I think we North Americans are too spoiled and greedy and want this, that and the other thing, the bigger the better .... and then we get deep into debt trying to pay for all that stuff, a lot of which never gets used. For instance, Luis is making a covered patio outside the front of the house but the work gets done when they have a bit of money, not before. So it takes much longer to get what they want but no money is owed at the end.

We were fortunate to be served a typical Tico meal: olla de carne and it was so good! Beef, cilantro, onions, celery, red bell peppers, carrots, corn, chayote, yuca, ayote, sweet potatoes, plantains, and potatoes.  The bowl of broth with beef is put in front of you, a big plate of rice is on the side, along with a big plate of the cooked vegetables. You put whatever you want into the bowl of broth and enjoy, enjoy! Costa Rica coffee served alongside. This is a very hearty meal.

I'd like to try making olla de carne - Diane did and she said it came out more like a stew so there are obviously some tricks to getting it right.

Diana, Lance, John, Diane enjoying olla de carne

Our host, Luis, and Lance

Luis prepared the meal for us as his wife was at church, so we met her a bit later. Here are his wife and children:

The young lady on the left along with the little boy are neighborhood friends. We met their son but he was not around to be in this photo. So, second from the left is their youngest daughter, then Mrs. Luis, and then their oldest daughter.

After lunch, we took a walk to Eco Torunes Lodge, which is a resort with two swimming pools, cabinas, restaurant, and mirador (lookout).  It is located atop a coffee finca. This is a coffee cooperative of 11 farm families and they sell export quality coffee, either whole bean or ground. You can go for a tour of the shade-grown coffee and see how coffee is grown. We didn't have time for the tour but we were shown one of the cabinas that are available for rent and it was really nice - bedroom (king bed), bath, living room area, kitchen and a view that was hard to beat.

The two pools are down the side of the mountain and you can walk down to the pools or just jump into the (very long) slides. The views all around were amazing - we could see Atenas. This resort is where mostly Ticos stay but, because we know Luis, we could stay there at Tico rates.

Back to Luis' house - and it was all uphill but not so bad and myself and Lance led the pack. Ticos are very affectionate people - here are two photos to prove that:

 

The first one is of Luis and his youngest daughter, and the second one shows John on the left, Lance and Luis with his arm on Lance's shoulder, and the youngest daughter again. It is quite common to see teenagers holding their parents' hands as they walk around town, mothers and daughters arm in arm. Men greet men with hugs and handshakes.

When we met Luis' youngest daughter (I am sorry but I did not catch all of the their names this time) she went to each one of us in turn and gave us a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

John and Diane brought several cans of wall paint for their casa and also the meat for our olla. They have visited Luis a lot in the past and always bring something useful, such as tile for their bathroom, etc. We came bearing two bouquets of flowers for Luis' wife and dessert, not knowing what else to bring - being newbies.

I think Mrs. Luis liked the flowers because she gave me this when we left:

Mrs. Luis likes to paint! like me! This is a glass bottle that she painted the design on.

 This is my new treasure. I might bring her some acrylic paints next visit. Not only that, we left with this:

Half of a big squash, the other half was given to Diane and John. And we were also given instructions on how to cook it. Plus, the seeds are to be planted into the ground to give us more squash.

This blog entry was a bit hard for me to write, because at one point Luis' wife said, in Spanish, to Diane and John, "You are our friends and family, and now Lance and Diana are our friends and family", and she held her hand over her heart  - I am parphrasing here but I think that is what Diane's translation was. It was obvious I was moved by this declaration, because Mrs. Luis came over to me and gave me a big hug.

Strawberries, Breakfast, Cows and Poas Volcano

On the recommendation of a friend, we decided on Friday to visit Bosques de Fraijanes - a recreational park on the slopes of Poas volcano.  The park has a lake and forests and hiking is popular. Another reason for a visit was to buy the luscious strawberries that are grown in the area. 

We left our house around 0730 - we wanted to have breakfast in the Fraijanes area. Freddo Frescas was recommended but instead we stopped at Restaurante Tipico de Fraijanes. It was open and had lots of parking available so in we went. We were not disappointed.

It’s a very large restaurant and the interior is beautiful. I think it caters to a lot of tour groups and tour buses going up to Poas volcano.

The menus are in English or Spanish. We always choose Spanish because it forces us to read and order in Spanish. We no longer have much trouble doing this but if we get stuck, I have a translator on my phone. Our server was really nice.

We both ordered mora batido con leche and a desayuno tipico (typical Costa Rican breakfast). The mora is a fruit similar to blackberries and a batido is similar to a smoothie but you can have it made with milk or with water. We had ours with milk. Lance also ordered a coffee.

This breakfast was excellent. Starting from the left and going clockwise - two eggs, slice of local white cheese, toast, plantains and lastly the gallo pinto. I thought this gallo was really tasty but, as usual, the quantity defeats me and I can never finish the portion. This version had nice big pieces of cilantro in it. Total cost: 11,000 colones (about $18.84 USD). You can get similar breakfasts for less at the sodas but, as I said, this restaurant probably caters to tourists so the prices would be a bit higher.

A view from our table. Dark clouds were starting to come in. Sure enough, as we left the restaurant it started spitting rain.

Hydrangeas everywhere and always blue because of the soil.

Off we went to find the park and strawberries. At an elevation of between 3000 to 4000 ft., almost in the cloud forest, strawberries grow very well. The volcanic soil, temperature and the annual rainfall all contribute to big juicy berries. Coffee is another crop grown in this area. I’ve seen both strawberries and coffee grown under shade cloths. 

I’m not sure what’s under these shade cloths - strawberries or coffee, sometimes it’s tomato plants.

We found beautiful berries at a shop along the way. 2 mil for this container (2,000 colones, about $3.40 USD). I’ve seen much smaller sizes in our local grocery stores for a higher price and not as good looking.

We found the park but decided not to go in because of the rain. We’ll leave this visit for the dry season. The area around Poas is absolutely stunning. Dairy cows thrive here because of the cooler temperatures. Here is a cow tied up to a fence outside the field so she could eat the fresh green grass that was there. Several other cows were also tied up and none of them were bothered by the traffic going by or by me taking photos.

Breakfast was so good and the strawberries a real treat that we are going to make going to the Poas area a more regular occurrence. After all, it’s only about a 45 minute beautiful drive from our house.

Road Trip to Playa Hermosa, Jacó, Costa Rica - Day 3

After another great breakfast at our hotel (coffee, orange juice, fresh fruit and today I had huevos rancheros) we drove north to Jacó to Jose’s Crocodile River Tour. We were signed up for the 10:00am tour which we were told is the best time for lighting for taking photos and seeing the various birds and animal life. There were only five of us - a couple from Holland, a nice fellow from Florida and Lance and myself.

All the staff wear t-shirts with Jose’s Crocodile River Tour written on them. We asked one of them if he was Jose - he said yes, he was Jos A. Another person said he was Jos B. Get it? All the staff were really nice.

It was a short walk down to the little pier where the boat was tied up. The boats are special river boats with lots of seats and a cover to protect from the sun. It was nice to get out on the water and into a cooling breeze. Our guide was so funny - so many jokes - he knew where we all were from and that we lived in Grecia and were Canadians. Icy cold bottled water was handed out about halfway through the trip, which is 1.5 hours long.

Both our guide and the boat pilot had eagle eyes and could spot the smallest lizard and the most elusive camouflaged bird. I saw bird species I have never seen before ... great egret, little blue heron, tricolored heron, snowy egret, white ibis, roseate spoonbill and boat-billed heron. Have you ever heard of the basilisk lizard? It’s also called the Jesus Christ lizard. Why? Because when it is scared, it runs across the water on its hind legs to safety and everyone says “Jesus Christ, did you see that?” That’s what our guide told us, several times. Or more likely, it refers to Jesus being able to walk on water. I’m not being sacreligous here - this is what the lizard is called. Anyway, we saw a few of them and they ran on water.

Some bird photos.

Now to the crocodiles. Our guides knew where the crocs hang out, and they knew the individual crocs, how old they were, how much they weighed approximately and whether they were male or female. They knew the territory the males patrolled and they had given them names based on their individual appearances. Same with the females. The crocs responded to whistles and would slowly glide up towards our boat.

Giving a croc a piece of chicken:

Sarchi, Costa Rica

Earlier this week, we decided to take a morning drive to Sarchi - 12.1 kms from our house in Hacienda El Paseo, Puenta de Piedra, Grecia.

Sarchi is the capital city of the canton of Valverde Vega in Alajuela province and is 1000 m/3000 ft above sea level. It’s a beautiful drive through winding, climbing roads surrounded by coffee fields. Sarchi is a key artisan town famous for woodworking - wooden bowls, folding rocking chairs of wood and leather (we have one at our house), furniture of all kinds. This is where the carretas (oxcarts) are elaborately painted by hand and for which Sarchi and Costa Rica are famous. The oxcarts were originally used to haul coffee and other goods from the highlands of the central valley down to the Pacific ports.

Our green/rainy season is a good time to travel around. The mornings are mostly sunny and warm, with rain falling later in the day (or not at all). Everything is lush and thick with growth. Since it’s the off season, there are not many tourists around. Not far from Sarchi itself, we stopped at Fabrica de Carretas Joaquin Chaverri, the oldest oxcart factory since 1903. This is a tourist site with many tour buses arriving every day during the dry season. We were the only ones there at our visit so it was nice to stroll around without the crowds.

I think Fabrica de Carretas have recently renovated their site, which was huge to begin with. They did a good job, with beautiful murals on the inside and outside. A mural artist was painting inside when we were there. The gift shop is very large, and the prices are reasonable for most things. Marked prices are in U.S. dollars but they will convert to colones if asked, as I did.  I drooled over the leather purses, gorgeous. There are beautiful handmade wooden items and we ended up buying a carved wooden sea turtle and a wooden key ring for our car keys. At the back there is a lovely garden. I think this is also  the area where you can see oxcarts being made and painted and there may also be a restaurant - we didn’t go back there this time.

Heading back home, we got roads mixed up a few times (few or no signs!) but it didn’t matter. We have all the time in the world to putter around.

Beautiful carved oxcart.

Painted oxcart.






Incredible details on the murals.


The light across the iguana is from the sun.