Los Pupos Coffee Plantation

 This is Minor, our guide and teacher of all it takes to raise the best quality coffee in the world. Once planted, it takes 7 years before the coffee beans are ready to harvest. The higher the altitude, the better the quality. We hiked up a good ways and planted our own little coffee plants.  This beautiful site is just a few minutes outside Santa Ana but straight up the mountainside.

 Ducks in the backyard at the house of the owners at the plantation. They also grow corn, onions, garlic, lemons and flowers. They had bags of coffee for sale cheap (none for me, thank you) at about 3-4.00 a bag.  The same size bag imported to the US sells for 100.00!

I forgot my hat but brought my sunglass. It was hot in the sun but the rain came and cooled things off as it does pretty much every day. It is "winter" here now so the rainy season has arrived.  The other sunglass was in my bag, just popped out and I couldn't find it fast enough to not get left behind so just went with one.

Wildlife Costa Rica Style

Giant iguana on the river bank

                                                                           Just pretty

               Iguana JesuCristo because it can make bubbles under its feet and walk on top of the water!

                                            Female kingfisher spreading her wings to cool off.

     Family of howler monkeys crossing over us as we float under the bridge. The howl of the male is startlingly loud and deep, like a lion's roar!

Finca Sura

 Garden of Eden

This is Roberto. He and his wife own this beautiful pineapple farm and started it from scratch on an abandoned dairy farm. They grow ornamental plants, cinnamon, cacao, star fruit, coconut and many many more. They gave us fresh pineapple juice, pineapple bread and all the fresh picked pineapple we could eat. This large fruit he's holding is actually cacao - the beans inside are covered with a sweet slime that supposedly is good to suck on.  I thought it was disgusting. 

I'm standing in front of the sura tree - this one is the largest and es más grande, as tall as a redwood! The farm is named for this amazing tree. It's large buttresses support it as the roots are shallow but the buttresses are hollow.

Planting my piña in the Texas row!

We each took home pineapples we picked ourselves.

Weekend Class Trip

                                                  On the way to the rain forest in the clouds

                                          The Walking Palm. Roots are on top of the soil because the feeder roots are so shallow, they can't support the plant.

The rain forest is so thick and dense, grows so fast, our guide told us the cartels can carry their murder victims into the forest and no one can ever find them as the plants grow over them so profusely. The forest grows up to the highway and needs constant maintenance or it would overtake the road, too.

A few more pics

Costa Rica flag outside the entrance of Conversa 

Coffee plantation on the mountain side on the way up to school every day.

Typical home on the route to school

Professional Chef

Fabiola goes to English class every Saturday and has learned to say, "When I grow up I want to be a professional shef." She got to practice her skills after we bought the ingredients for chocolate chip cookies.  They were a big hit with the family and with the other estudiantes at school!

Ticos

Saturday night I attended a Family Home Evening with the elders in a tiny living room of the sister in the center. Several members (about 10) from our part of Santa Ana were there - we had a great lesson (I only got the jist), sang songs, played telephone and ate chicken fried rice. Warm, sweet and so committed to the gospel! I enjoy their spirit and genuine love for the Lord and others even when I can't understand them.
Other pics:
Farmer's Market every Sunday in Santa Ana
Sunday was Corpus Christi - a celebration of the body of Christ. The designs are made with a template and are made of grains and rice.  The young girls who have completed their catechism classes (that's Fabiola) walk in procession around the block where all four calles each have a different design. As they walk through the beautiful grains, they symbolize the sharing of the Savior's message and sacrifice outside the walls of the church with the people of the pueblo.

Saturday at the Temple

Beautiful, beautiful morning! Got to the city bus stop, rode to San Jose, caught a taxi from there to Belén where the temple is - all by myself. A little scary but ended up to be no problema. Met some lovely senior couples happy to speak inglés and spent 6 hours in this lovely, peaceful place. Such a comfort and blessing to have this rock to stand on as I navigate a foreign country.

Catching Up!

I'm behind in posting! With classes starting, talking with my familia and playing games with my tica sister every night, its hard to find the time. I've had trouble loading pictures to the post as well so I'll try again.

My group from Sam Houston arrived on Thursday and the girl that stays in the house behind me is Danica from Angleton.  She is a beginning speaker and is overwhelmed as she has never been so far away.  Today she was excited she finally was able to respond to her madre tica and ask a question.
It's pretty funny that I'm actually translating for them - me!

These are students from Baylor and Ashland University in Ohio.  They have been great friends and really good kids. I've enjoyed being with them all! This is the bus stop in Santa Ana where we catch the shuttle to the school. 

This is a look out the bus window on the way back to town from the school.  The roads are narrow, lots of pedestrians and motorcycles and the drivers drive muy rapido. This is a typical street where the homes are right behind the gates and walls you see here. You'd be surprised how well cared for and pleasant it is inside the gate - courtyards and paths with plants and flowers in many of them.

On Wednesday, I was the only participant in the yoga class held after regular activities were over. I worked an hour with a legit yoga instructor and was dripping sweat at the end. She had another class to hurry to so I waited an hour for the shuttle bus to come back up the mountain to pick me up.  This is the view I had as dusk and then dark joined me until the bus got there.  Alone and peaceful but a little scary too. 

The first 3 days this week I was in a small class with these 2 guys and me with Profesora Anna.  She is muy muy sweet, patient and speaks very slowly for us. I felt close to her, she kisses me hello each morning and smiles all the time.  Now that my profesora from SHSU is here, I'm no longer in her class and I'm sad but still can see her during breaks and lunch.  Dr. Andrist is fine but much more uptight and OCD about things.  She was my Span. culture profesora last spring and swamped us with hours of work. Hopefully, she'll relax as the days roll on.

This was the activity today during break. These are a few of the Converse profesoras that are so much fun. The one who fell down is Gata, our resident school madre.  She looks after the students needs outside of school, arranges with the host families, helps arrange all the excursion trips, etc.  She is loves much and is loved muchisimo!