The itinerary said to meet in the lobby...

at 6:30am sharp.  I awoke at 6:31am.  In fifteen minutes, I was out the door, forgetting my map of Costa Rica and my chocolates that I brought to share with the group. The group was nearly finished with breakfast, so to finish mine, I ate at break neck speed and then we were on the bus and driving towards the Caribbean side of the country, to spend the next five days exploring Costa Rica's cocao farms.

(Please keep in mind that everything I post, is mine for my use only, and if you wish to use it, please ask me)


This picture was taken at CATIE, at the cocao development center, and one of the first cocao trees I have ever seen. Cocoa pods grow directly on the trunk or base of the tree and we saw many trees that have ripe pods, unripe pods, flowers buds and diseased pods all coexisting on the same tree.  This configuration does  not allow for machine harvesting, but forces the harvesting to be done by hand using long poles with a sharp knife on the end of it and the harvested pods are carried in a basket on a strong and sturdy back.
The beautiful color of these pods in this picture show they are ripe, and the color of a ripened pod depends on the type of cocao tree. Note how close these pods are to the ground. This shows careful management of the tree since when a tree is allowed to grow to its normal height, the pods that are high up in the tree are difficult to cut down, especially without damaging the tree.  In the jungle, a damaged tree can quickly succumb to disease.