San Jose to La Fortuna Part One

Well, I'm already in danger of getting a bit behind; my main camera's battery died today and I'm having mucho trouble transferring photos and videos from my various other devices. But I'll at least make a start!

Managed to get up at 5 am (3 am Pacific time), though it wasn't pretty. Breakfast was nice, though, with fresh papaya and pineapple, and a made to order omelette maker person. It was served on the top floor of the hotel, which had been kitted out for the famous 1963 JFK visit.

View from the fifth floor balcony, 6:30 am today:

/The National Theatre

Various rooms on the fifth floor, mid century Gothic-Mediterranean:

We then set off for a tour of the Doka coffee plantation. I liked a lot of the foliage and flora there; this is the bark of a rainbow eucalyptus tree:

Christmas decorations still everywhere; this tree has some coffee bags as ornaments.

Here's a solitary peaberry as compared with a regular coffee bean, which come two to a fruit:

Coffee berries at various stages of ripeness:

We put Luke to work picking some coffee berries:

Hi tech counter for noting how many barrels of coffee beans have gone in the washer thingie.

The washer thingie:

Coffee berries galore:

 Their coffee berry stripping thingie was made in London 120 years ago and is still going strong. All hail the industrial age.

The coffee beans need to dry out in the sun for a few days and need to be raked every hour. Here's Luke again:

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