The ladybug is resting her wings after fluttering a lot.

Hello Hello Hello!!!

The ladybug took a reprieve, but has returned! Where did I leave you last? Ah, I believe it was last week on Thursday. So, starting Friday….

On Friday we had this amazing opportunity! Two representatives from Fair Trade Labeling Organization International (FLO) came to the Intercultura to speak to us. One was from FLO general: she is a representative who works to promote Fair Trade and to establish relations with companies and famers here in Costa Rica who want to be certified. The other representative is from FLO-Cert, and his organization focuses on the certification and audits of farms and companies who are Fair Trade certified. I really hope that I have the chance to talk with Uriel, the guy from FLO-Cert, tomorrow, because I have many questions about the ramifications of non-compliance.

After we had this talk we then took taxis to San Jose (we were all jam-packed and it was pretty uncomfortable) to hear a presentation of a representative from SCACR. SCACR is the organization that is in charge of deciding who wins the Cup of Excellence in Costa Rica for each year. As I said before, we actually had the opportunity to visit the winner of the Cup of Excellence this year in the mountains of Naranjo. Also, the representative of SCACR is in charge of training and contacting new farmers who wish to be a part of this major coffee alliance, specifically women farmers. Although the organization serves to train all farmers on how to increase the quality of their crops, this particular representative is in charge of training women farmers. In Costa Rica there are many obstacles in the paths of women who want to be coffee farmer owners. They are pressured to be at home with their families, they might have pressure from their husbands to not have such a dominant role, and the industry in general is run almost entirely by males which lead to low self-esteem and confidence in the women to have a sense of empowerment. About 20% of the participants in the industry in Costa Rica are women. So, this representative focuses on outreach to new women farmers and the organization hosts special training for women to empower them to gain confidence, gain new knowledge on the techniques to improve quality of their crops, and provides the necessary tools to be successful in a male-dominated industry. After the presentation we participated in a cupping exercise, where we learned how people in the industry evaluate coffee. This was fun, but swishing coffee in my mouth and smelling coffee over and over again caused a big headache.

After this long day of lectures and presentations a group of us crammed into a taxi on a miserable drive back to Heredia. Although San Jose is only 20 minutes away from Heredia normally, it took us almost an hour because of rush hour traffic. The fumes were unbearable, and it was raining so the roads were really insecure. I felt pretty nauseous at the end of the ride. But! This leads to the fun part! So, Rose and I worked really hard to organize a trip for us and some of the members of our group to a beach called Montezuma. Montezuma is on the Pacific Coast. In order to get there you have to take a bus to Puntareñas, a ferry to (I forgot the name of the town), and then a taxi or bus to Montezuma. Normally, the whole trip takes about 7 hours (including the ferry ride which is one hour long). However, Rose’s host mom is the most resourceful person in the world and she managed to get a hold of a friend of a friend who owns a van that holds ten. He charged us a total of 400 dollars for a round trip bus ride and to take us around the beach town. With ten of us, this only cost 40 dollars round trip per person, which would have been around the same price had we bussed it the whole way. So we got in the van, drove to the ferry, waited around until more cars showed up because the ferry was docked and wouldn’t leave until 30 cars were there and we were number 15, got on the ferry, arrived on the other side, and drove to Montezuma. We go to our hotel and finally were able to relax, get a drink, dance some salsa, and hit the sack around 3. Phew! Talk about a long day. Remember, we had those lectures earlier, so I was really exhausted by the end of it all.

So! Finally to Saturday. Saturday was a lovely, relaxing day, where all we did was hang out on beaches. Our driver, Javiar, took us to this beautiful beach, and we swam in the Pacific, sunbathed, read books, looked for pretty shells, and chased hermit crabs all over the place. At this beach we ate amazing pizzas and drank mojitos that were made with fresh mint. After this beach Javiar took us to another beach that had a freshwater river that was actually fresh! Completely safe to swim in (as long as we didn’t swallow the water, of course). There was this tree that was crookedly hanging over the river and had a rope hanging from it. Of course, y’all know me, I climbed up the tree, grabbed onto the rope, and with a little bit of difficulty eventually swung on the rope off the tree into the water! I made a big splash. It’s all on video, and as soon as I figure out how to, I will post it on this blog for your enjoyment. After a fun day at the beaches, we headed back to our hotel, where we walked around the main street buying trinkets and things to bring back to family and friends. Then we ate at a restaurant, I had my favorite seafood and pasta in white cream sauce and I split it with a friend because it was too much for me to finish, we then went back to the hotel, had some drinks and chatted on the porch which is on the beach front and it was really relaxing to be near the shore, and then went to sleep. Next day: ate breakfast, and then had a pretty awful ride back because a girl in our group threw up and it was disgusting. We got on the ferry, away from the bus, by the time we got off the ferry the bus was okay again and then we went back to San Jose. I think it was an extremely successful weekend.

Monday we got back and we went to the Poas volcano first thing in the morning. It has this crater in the middle that is filled with bright green liquid! Like I said before, as soon as I can figure out how to, I will put a picture up on here. We took some pictures by the crater, and then headed up the volcano further on a beautiful hike for 2 hours. Afterwards, we went to yet another coffee farm that is the largest supplier to Starbucks in Costa Rica.

And finally today, we had a talk by the director of agronomy of Starbucks for Costa Rica! Interesting talk…

Ok, I am done typing. As always, more to come soon!
Love,
Ceci