Costa Rica III

    Here's where we stayed for the 4 nights of the second half of the week, in a hotel with its own little compound on the outskirts of metro San Jose.  A/C, tv, swimming pool--definitely a jump up in comfort from the bungalow at the coast!  One problem though, was the big mango tree in the background:  it was heavily loaded with mangoes overhanging the metal roof of our room, so when the wind blew, mangoes would occasionally crash down onto the roof without warning.  Inside it sounded like someone suddenly firing a shotgun right next to you!  We asked to change rooms (ours was the only one under the mango limbs) but were told "no" because the hotel was full.  Thankfully it wasn't windy most of the time we were there, and we only suffered one mango "blast" during sleep hours.

The grounds of the hotel were beautifully verdant and manicured.

    On our final day in Costa Rica, we went to a nearby "chocolate tour", where they teach you about the cacao plants and walk you through the various steps of chocolate making.  Cacao tree plantations are actually not located in the highlands where this was, but they did have some little trees growing there for demonstration purposes.  Below is how the cacao fruits grow right on the side of the tree trunks.  (Notice Rose was representing for Hershey with her attire that day.)

Here's August with a cacao that's been broken open to show the seeds covered with white pulp (overexposed in this photo, unfortunately).  The seeds are the "cocoa beans" from which chocolate is made after lots of processing.