| Costa Rica | Living the Pura Vida | Federica Heiman | |
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”Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails.
Explore. Dream. Discover.” - Mark Twain - |
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#4-8 Forth update - eight months of
Costa Rica living |
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It took me a while to get back to writing but I would like to share with you the adventures of these past couple of months before we embark on the next trip for spring break. But first - Breaking News - my family and I decided to stay in Costa Rica for another school year!! It was clear from the beginning that I enjoyed the pura vida lifestyle. Despite having to put my business, Dolce Federica, on hold to come here, in these eight months I was able to learn and see so much. It took the rest of the family slightly longer to decide to stay but all of us are now ready for another year of adventures.
If you have followed our journey from the beginning, you will probably realize how much I enjoy discovering new places, especially if there's cacao/chocolate related sites to visit nearby. No wonder then that we took another couple of trips since I last wrote.
The highlight of this past period was probably our weekend in Nicaragua. The border lies only a couple of hours from where we live, Playa Potrero. Some people drive to Nicaragua and back from here in a day, just to renew their Costa Rican tourist visa. |
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From San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua |
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In Nicaragua we visited the southern coast town of San Juan Del Sur. I was very pleased to discover a couple of places that carried small artisanal local brands. Flocks of young European travellers (mostly backpackers and surfers) descend on this town, with a taste for high quality cacao. One store in particular stood out - La Fuente de Chocolate. It's run by a Parisian gentleman and carries at least 7-8 brands of delicious local chocolate. |
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I can't say that the cacao from the other side of the border tastes any different from that of Costa Rica; but it has been very interesting to observe the diverse chocolate making techniques and different fruits added to bars. We did a few chocolate tastings in San Juan del Sur and brought several bars home. We also booked a tour at Oro Chocolate, a small chocolate company owned by an Indian gentleman and run by a local chef. Their cacao comes from a Nicaraguan micro-lot, and their mission is the reforestation of the area. The bars have beautiful packaging but I particularly enjoyed the tour of their small (really small) facility located right in the outskirts of San Juan, under the landmark statue of Jesus Christ. The woman who runs the "factory" showed us all the steps of the process from roasting to packaging. It's incredible to see how in this part of the world so much is done by hand. |
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| | Ground beans separated per type before going to the melanger (grinder) |
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Back to Costa Rica! Another interesting side trip we took was to Rio Celeste, the turquoise river where two bodies of water meet and create a colorful optical illusion due to the mineral particles in the water. |
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The river is part of a beautiful national park situated at the bottom of the Tenorio volcano. This is an extremely fertile area and therefore one of the cacao growing areas of the country. |
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While there, we visited a cacao and vanilla farm, Finca La Amistad, which has a very cute, expat owned lodge. It's very interesting to me that most of the cacao companies I visited here are owned by expats and run by Ticos (Costa Ricans). One of the reasons might be the capital needed to purchase the specialized equipment. For years, Central and South America only produced the raw ingredient, cacao. Local farmers were seldom able to see and taste final products. In the past few years, artisan chocolate companies has been cropping up, and locals are getting the necessary training to produce fine chocolate. |
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| | Grafting baby cacao plants |
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At La Amistad, we walked around patches of trees that are identified by letters and numbers. In each patch a different combination and of trees is grown to cross pollinate the different cacao species, creating new varieties clones. Nowadays most trees are hybrids of multiple varieties. Current literature often only refers to the three main genetic types of cacao trees - Criollo, Foratero and Trinitario - yet the world now has more than 200 combinations of different types of cacao. The cross-pollination and grafting between trees of different varieties produces genetic improvements. Grafting is the process of placing a portion of one plant into or onto a stem, root, or branch of another (stock) in such a way that a union will be formed and the partners will continue to grow (wikipedia) At the farm we saw the grafting of baby trees that will yield cacao clones known for their high productivity, excellent quality, resistance to diseases such as monilia, and resilience to adverse climatic conditions. |
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Lastly, I am very excited for the arrival of some family and some Montclair friends at the end of this week. I am now planning our next vacation to visit the beautiful country of Colombia during the kids' spring break and will fill you in on the next email. |
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Sunsets are never the same! We try to be at the beach every day (kids activities permitting) for this beautiful sight. Every day we have a new stunning photo |
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On a more folkloristic note, these are pictures from our commute to the kids' school. There is only one main road and I guess it is for everyone to share... |
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