March+4,+2010

Parque Inbio biologicial park and Cafe Britt coffee plantation
media type="file" key="Parque Inbio and Cafe Britt 3_10.mov" width="300" height="300"Hope’s Journal 3/4/10 Today we went to the Inbio Park. We toured around the different biomes that included the mushrooms, the plants, the butterflies, the insects, and the snakes. We learned that there are 136 species of snakes and 22 were poisonous! We also saw a sloth that we were lucky to see because it only comes down the tree one time every week! Then we went to the mushroom lab where they were growing and examining them. The butterfly observatory was very interesting. We saw many different species of butterflies including the Blue Morpho and the Monarch. In the insect museum we saw cockroaches, tarantulas, walking sticks, and many more. Even for people that are scared of insects would enjoy this! At the end of the tour, we went to the maze made of hedges. It was very fun! Today we went to the coffee plantation. When we first arrived we were offered delicious iced coffee that was even better than Starbucks! After, we followed the funny tour guides and learned about how the coffee was roasted and where it originated. it was interesting to learn about how this delicious drink that we all love was created! After that, we followed the guides into the forest to see how the coffee was prepared. The next thing we did was go into the factory to see how the coffee was packaged. The tour guides then put on a funny skit about where the coffee was originally from. There was also a coffee tasting for volunteers, even though none of us were picked L we continued on to the Café Britt gift shop where we all bought delicious coffee beans, chocolate covered coffee beans, and more for our friends and family. The last thing we did before we headed back to the bus was have lunch at the buffet in the gift shop where we ate many common typical Costa Rican foods.

media type="custom" key="5530365"media type="custom" key="5534097" Today we went to Parque Inbio and Cafe Britt. First at Parque Inbio we saw the variety of biomes in Costa Rica. Number one, the rainforest. In the rainforest we saw some very unique plants, the process in which mushrooms are made, and saw an adorable sloth, which are very rare. We were really lucky to see the sloth and plus he was really low that we could of touched him, it was so cute. Also in the rainforest we got to see some tarantulas and learn that some spiders webs can be strong enough to make bullet proof vest. In the next biome, the water, we saw many different creatures. Such as iguanas, four different types of turtles, a variety of fish, caiman, and some very loud birds. We probably saw about twenty iguanas which were very scaly, we learned that if an iguana is green, it is young. There were probably forty turtles, they were every where. We saw some very interesting fish with unique color, texture, and shape. Unfortunately we only saw one caiman. A caiman is like a very small crocodile. Really small just about the same size has an iguana. And for the birds they were so loud. They had long big feet so they could walk on water. The last biome, dry land. In this biome we saw a huge beehive, some very pointy plants, orchids, snakes, and many insects. We learned that you shouldn't move an orchid because the bees that pollinate it won't move with the orchid and it would die. We saw about seven snakes. We learned that there are about 126 different snakes in Costa Rica and out of 126 snakes 22 are poisones. At the very end we got to see a big map of Costa Rica with all the protection national parks that Costa Rica has. After Parque Inbio we went to Cafe Britt. When we first arrived they had us taste there wonderful coffee. It was so good! Then we began our tour to learn how Britt makes their coffee. First they hand pick the red berries off the coffee plant. Second they take the two seeds from the berry and peel them. Third the roast what is in the seed and make delicious coffee! After the tour we went into a theater and watched a skit on the history of coffee and how coffee was originally from Africa. That was our wonderful day in Costa Rica! By Caroline Satterfield