We started our morning by making our own breakfast! It’s been great to have a small kitchen space to make some of our own meals. Today’s weather was perfect for a hike in the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. Our AirBnb is only a 5-minute drive to the reserve, so we got there pretty early. We were actually only the second group to enter! When it comes to nature trails or high-tourism areas, we highly recommend starting your day early. After 9am or so is when the tour shuttles start to arrive and unload dozens of people at a time.
The park is $25USD per person and there are many different trails within, with four main attractions…the continental divide viewpoint, a waterfall, a hanging bridge, and a giant ficus tree (it’s worth noting that all the trails start at the entrance). Unfortunately, the hanging bridge was closed and we’ve already seen plenty of ficus trees, so we decided to do the trails that led to the continental divide and waterfall. A park staffer gave recommendations for us to see the continental divide first by taking the Sendero Camino trail to the viewpoint and taking the Sendero Bosque Nuboso back. He recommended this route specifically because of the incline and decline. He then suggested seeing the waterfall by way of Sendero Tosi and taking Sendero Cuecha back. This gave us plenty of time in the park and we felt like it was just the right amount of walking.
We heard so much wildlife around us, but the forest is so dense that it was difficult to find everything. We recommend booking a guide for this tour if you’re interested in seeing more and learning about the local flora and fauna. At one point on our trail, we heard a purring sound and we didn’t need a guide to know it could only be a jaguar or an oscelot…neither of which we wanted to wait around for!
Just outside the park is a really amazing hummingbird garden. This is free to enter and we could’ve spent hours here, but after that hike we had to feed our grumbling stomachs.
We worked up an appetite after our long morning hike, so we decided to head to Stellas for a nice lunch. We shared a Cajun chicken wrap, which was really yummy and hit the spot! They have indoor and outdoor seating… we highly recommend sitting outside. Moments after sitting down we saw white face monkeys jumping from tree to tree right in front of us!
After admiring the monkeys during our nice lunch, we made our way back to our AirBnb to freshen up before our “Coffee, Chocolate, and Sugar Cane” tour at Don Juan! This is one of the activities that we booked in advance, and because of Monteverde’s elevation (over 4,000ft), it is the perfect place to grow quality coffee. We arrived and were pleasantly surprised to learn that we were the only ones going on the 2pm tour!
Coffee beans are grow all year long, but are only “in season” and ready to be picked between the months of November-February (the fruit turns from green to red). Therefore, we didn’t get the full experience of picking the coffee beans and going through the process of making coffee, but our guide Julio still explained the entire process from start to finish and let us sample some of the processes…he was so knowledgeable and highly recommend him! We learned so much, but one of the main misconceptions we rectified is that the more you roast the coffee bean, the more caffeine is lost! For example, light roast coffee has more caffeine than dark roast!
After going through the process of coffee making, we switched to learning the process of making chocolate! Don Juan also has another location in La Fortuna, and Julio told us that this location is where they grow most of their cacao. If you’re in the Arenal/La Fortuna area and love chocolate, you should check it out!
We’ve had cacao before, but only the hybrid Trinitario (a genetic mix between Criollo and Forastero). Apparently the hybrid (Trinitario) is more common because it has characteristics of hardiness and production (Forastero) mixed with sweetness and flavor (Criollo). Julio gave us our own Criollo cacao fruit to munch on while we walked the grounds and learned more about the chocolate-making process.
At the end of our cacao tour, Julio made us a traditional hot chocolate drink made from fresh cacao nibs, salt, black pepper, cinnamon, powdered milk…and cayenne pepper! This drink, called xocolatl, is how the indigenous people of Mesoamerica prepared the fruit. They viewed the cacao fruit as the blood and body of gods, which would give them wisdom from Quetzalcoatl, the serpent god, when drunken.
If you think about it, you can see how the word “chocolate” comes from “xocolatl.” When Europeans came to Central America, they introduced domesticated cattle to the region and added milk (“latte”) to the bitter xocolatl, and came up with xocolatl–latte, which we now know as chocolate.
It was the best hot chocolate we’ve ever had!! With our drink, Julio also gave us different types of chocolate to try…white chocolate, 70% dark chocolate, dark chocolate covered coffee beans, milk chocolate covered almonds, and fresh pineapples with milk chocolate drizzled on top! Everything was delicious, but our favorite was definitely the chocolate covered pineapples…who would’ve thought that these two would pair so well together…
Last but certainly not least, it was time to learn about sugar cane! Keeshia actually grew up around sugar cane plantations in the Philippines, but was probably too young to really be in tune with the actually process of extracting and making sugar from sugar cane.
Julio had us help him make a fresh sugar cane drink that you can really only have fresh…apparently the drink begins to ferment within a few hours! We helped press the sugar cane until all the juices came out, and Julio even added fresh basil, mandarin, and lime from the garden into the cane so that we could get some of its flavor as we pressed it! We drank every last drop because it was really that good! It tasted like the sweetest lemonade we’ve ever had…and it was 100% natural, and locally grown/made!
After the tour, Julio brought us back towards their gift shop where you can have unlimited cups of light, medium, and dark roast coffee. Milk and sugar is available, but we opted to try a small sample of the three different roasts without any additives a.k.a. “black” coffee.
On the way, we ran into Don Juan himself! When we do tours on private property, it’s not too common to get to see and meet these people. He was incredibly humble and thankful to the tourism that keeps his family’s business running, and we were incredibly thankful for his efforts towards conservation and carbon-neutral farming. Julio mentioned that he no longer works on the farm, but often makes an appearance to greet his visitors from all over the world.
If you know Joey, you might know he is not a coffee drinker at all. He tried each roast, but Julio wasn’t going to let him leave the tour without really enjoying the coffee, so Julio was generous enough to brew us “green” coffee…it tasted just like green tea and Joey loved it! Green coffee beans are basically the coffee bean before it begins its roasting process. We were surprised to know that you can actually drink green coffee, contains the most antioxidants and caffeine! Just as with other fruits/vegetables, the more you cook them, the more nutrients and active ingredients are removed/denatured.
Julio even brought us a cheese filled corn empanada made in their kitchen to accompany our coffee…come on!
We purchased some light roast coffee beans and ground cacao to take home with us, and Julio even gave us another cacao fruit for future enjoyment! Before we left, we asked Julio for a dinner recommendation and he told us about the nearby Monteverde Brewery. We love local recommendations and craft beers, so this was a win-win for us!
When we arrived at the brewery, they had so many great varieties that we opted for a flight to sample them all. The beer was great and the food was even better. We split their special hamburger, and we’re glad we did…it was huge!
After a full day (and stomach), it was time to head home for some much needed rest. Tomorrow we will be zipping through the canopies of Monteverde and enjoying a dinner that we’ve been looking forward to for months…so stay posted!