Monteverde

After LaFortuna we went to Monteverde to spend a couple of days. Here we spent two nights at Terre Viva. This is a family owned dairy farm that has added a small “bunk house”, a few small cabins and one larger cabin to host travelers. We learned from Frederico, who runs the farm, that Costa Rica’s economy is now based on tourism. Before this for a hundred years it was coffee, and a hundred year before that it was bananas. It is in this area that the largest Chiquita plantation was located. Coffee and bananas are now second and third for economic revenue. As tourism increased, with attention to preserving the nature many farmers added lodging for travelers to their business but stay farmers at heart. Frederico and is wife run a dairy farm with 80 cows and now 13 calves.

The farm may be the favorite stop of the trip. The first night Frederico took us for a walk through the rain forest. He had an incredible ability to find frogs, snakes and insects within the first few hundreds yards of our hike. His favorite creatures are snakes and insects because they are less popular and less cared for. They way he talked about this expressed a sensitivity to the things that are often outcasts. His warmth through our stay shows his generous hospitality for people and all.

His wife Goudy was also very gracious. Often checking in, arranging tours and transportation as needed. They opened their farm to use and invited us into a piece of their daily life.

I think the girls enjoyed the feeding of the baby calves. Two were born while we were there and they were able to feed them in their first day of life. Pretty cool. It was also neat to see them working side by side with a 6 year old boy whose family lives and works on the farm. He would fill the milk jugs for the girls to feed the calves. Cleary he participates in the feeding daily and knew exactly what to do.

On our last day there we went to the Monteverde cheese factory. This is where the milk from the Terre Viva farm is taken every other day. The factory began in 1948 by a few Quaker families that left the US in a stance against the draft and because they did not believe in war. Costa Rica was a perfect place as around this same time they disbanded their army. To this day they continue to be a country without a military branch.

Anyway, back to the cheese factory. It was great to see from beginning to end how cheese is made. To see how Frederico moves his cows to 30 different pastures feeding them only grass, watching the cows get milked, seeing the truck pick up the milk, and then how this is processed into our daily food. We were able to sample a variety of cheeses and I think we all liked the smoked provolone the best. It was smoked using wood from the coffee plant.

The day in between the milking and the factory was filled with adventure….the hanging bridges and the zip line canopy tour. I have to admit, this was AMAZING!! WOW! To zip along the canopy was quite a thrill. The views were beautiful. I even got to see a howler monkey lying at the top of the tree. The guides were marvelous. Clearly they love their jobs, people and kids. The girls had a blast. The last zip line Jess and I went together for 1km and it took over a minute to cross the canopy! Now that was incredible.
~Marcy