Costa Rica day 4

Since we did not make it to the beach yesterday, we had to go before breakfast and we leave Tortuguero.  Costa Rica is full of volcanoes and the beach was a dark brown colored . . . almost like hot chocolate mix.

We did not venture too far as we were alone and you never know.  We had been told at least a dozen times to not enter the water due to the extreme force of the waves and under toe.  Luggage pick up was soon so we headed back to do final packing.  I think I could get used to this not have to drag my bags from place to place.  So nice to put it outside my door one day and it magically appear in my room the next night.  We hurried to breakfast and to our meeting point . . . don't want to be that person in the group that is always late!  We boarded our boat and off we went.  We had been on the boat a few minutes when we turned around for the guide to show us something; can you guess what is in the tree?

I could not either. Here is a closer look . . .

If you guessed . . .

TOUCAN you are correct.  Okay so not this one but it was a toucan.  It was cool to see one in the wild but nicer to see one up close like we did a few days ago.  I don't know how the locals know but they sure have great eyes for spotting the critters.  We continued back on our long boat ride but stopped again to see these guys . . .

MONKEYS!  Super cool and seeing a lot of neat animals today makes for a great start to our day.  I guess that is the bonus for being up early!  Of course more BIRDS too . . .

The boat ride was great even if it was to be two hours. Boats are the mode of transportation and this is what ours looks like . . .

You get a different perspective being on the water.  This is how many of the locals live too . . .

Now that is what I call rustic.  We continued on until we reached where the bus was waiting for us.  Today our adventure takes us from Tortuguero on the eastern coast all the way to the Arenal Volcano area so it will be a super long day!  We board the bus and had been warned the road was very bumpy and slow driving.  Well, they sure were not lying because it took us over 2 hours to go 31 kilometers.  At least we did have a nice comfortable coach with air conditioning and a movie too.  We passed by a banana plantation and were able to see how they transport bananas.

So the bunches of bananas are cut by hand and hung on a hook, a man then pulls that long line of bananas to the processing plant.  Wow that is a very physical job.  The bunches of bananas weight about 120 pounds each and who knows how many are transported at a time.  They did say it is a very strenuous job and really does cause problems with your shoulders and back.  I was amazed and will never complain when paying for bananas after seeing how they get from the field to the warehouse to be transported to us.  The blue bags are placed on the bananas while they are still growing in the field to protect them . . .

Costa Rica is the second leading banana producer.  After our banana lesson, the guides popped in the movie Tarzan so we knew it was going to be a long ride until our next stop!  I may or may not have taken a nap and Colin watched the movie for the first time ever.  I woke up in time for a tasty lunch and was happy to be off the bus!  Back on the road and our next stop was sure to be sweet . . . a tour of a pineapple plantation.  Our tour guide, Michael, was hilarious and so amazing.  He knew anything and everything about pineapples and had the most charming personality.  He had us all laughing the entire tour.  We started by seeing them growing . . .

There were hundreds and hundreds of acres of pineapples!  At several points in the tour the tractor would stop and Michael would jump off and grab a fresh pineapple.  He would pull out his machete and have it completely peeled in five swipes . . . it was amazing!  Of course we ate it!

How good was it?  No words . . . you know how butter melts on a hot skillet . . . that is my best comparison.  When it touched your tongue it melted . . . it was hard to say no!  When we ate all the pieces he would give the left over to a kid . . .

. . . a pineapple sucker!  Colin has not really ever had pineapple and he loved it too.  We then moved to the packaging area where they are dumped by the truck load and washed . . .

. . . good pineapples float and if not they are pulled out.  Then move on to where they are hand sorted . . .

. . . and then boxed to arrive at our local stores.

Great tour!  I loved every minute of it and all the pineapple treats at the end were yummy too!

Now these were no ordinary pineapples, and I was taken back when I learned who owned this pineapple plantation . . .

YES, I could not believe it either!  Most Texans recognize this bakery's name and we even have one in our town!  So the next time we eat a fruit cake from Collin Street Bakery the pineapple was probably from this very plantation!  Our tour ended and back on the bus for our last ride of the day.  I knew when they popped in the movie Jungle Book we still have at least ninety minutes until we arrived at our hotel.  I enjoyed my back row seat all alone and took some notes from the trip.  We arrived at our hotel just as it was dark so did not really get to see where we were at but this was all I needed to see after a super long day . . .