Hello visitor, you are about to go on a photo tour, a tour that will take you through many emotions. Terror, curiosity, love, hunger, learning, friendship and of course, cheese.

We were running late to La Finca Florita so we took the most direct route, the one best suited for mountain goats and dirt bikes.

Seems most things here are clinging to steep slopes or built on top of the local ridges. Roads make transportation possible, but only if you have a skinny vehicle as most bridges are one lane only. Many of the ravines these bridges cross are what you might call “imposing”. As in… did anyone cross this before a bridge was built?

Driving here you spend a lot of time waiting for the horse to get out of the road, followed by the limping grandmother, and then the small children, then the giant truck. You start to go and then and some guy backs out of his driveway. Finally you think you can go and someone in a scooter jumps in front of you and then you have to wait for the garbage truck.

Road conditions can be rustic, like being in Nevada. At last we impressed no one by driving our War Rig over the side of a cliff and turning around in the half-parking space at our Cheese destination and thus turning around and driving back out the goat path to a parking spot someone might consider “sensible” until someone later realized she’d have to walk up the hill…

By this time my lungs were aching for air…

On one side a crocodile, on the other a jaguar.  Thought to represent life and death.  This massive stone was dragged up the hill by some poor team of suckers who didn’t know we’d have hover boards by 2005.  In addition to doing that without dirt bikes and cell phones they also managed to align it perfectly north-south and east-west.

Tombs.  This could be your final resting place.

The view towards the area of the city that’s been cleared.

As usual, the city goes on far into the jungle.

Joyce is attempting to give you an idea of the scale of an established leaf cutter ant mound. It’s huge.

You’ll have to use your imaginations to see the huge conical roof over each of the house mounds.

Of course, Mr. Bigg lived in the biggest. But dudes were less important in this society. Even up to today the woman’s bloodline decides things and the guys are around to lift heavy things.

See the ghosts from the future? Centuries ago the locals knew this spot was haunted!

Why was this a good spot for a city? It’s way up a giant hill, and on two sides you’ve got this. No surprise visitors, eh?

Plantain comes in many wonderful forms pâtécones fresh made chips bagged chips and even on tico sushi!
And the church that shares a wall with our room…and we were lucky enough to wake up to church music Sunday morning…early.

This is the closest that Costa Rica has to ancient ruins – that have been uncovered and are available to tour. We had a tour guide take us along with our friends on the walk through the forest. They had a working aqueduct system still. The highest mound had the Chiefs house made of balsa.

This bird is rare to see.
They were nestled high on the mountain between two rivers and the Turrialba volcano which is still active.

We took a barely passable mountain path (called a road here) way up in the hills by Cartago outside of Turrialba where there are 375 dairy farms and the famous Turrialba cheese is made. We had our friends along for the tour given by Carla who milks by hand twice a day and makes cheese. They have a small farm but very good artisan cheese is made here.

Yes indeed that is Steve milking that cow. And some of the milk went in the bucket too! Carla was the true milkmaid filling the bucket in no time. She milks 9 cows by hand in an hour and a half.

The cheese is made with animal rennet and salt. They add basil or sweet pepper and cilantro to some batches. She was kind enough to let me try my hand at it and we got to take our cheese with us. It will be ready tomorrow, but still tasted good today while warm.

The horse appeared to be lost….

At last the panaderia!

Well, it is quite a process and not the least bit automatic.The machine looks like you just turn it on. But first you have turn the water spigot on and fill the tank. Then you turn the water spigot off. Then you turn the wash cycle on. When done you drain the water with another knob. Then you turn the water on again to fill the tank, then you rinse by turning the washer on again. Then you drain the rinse water. Then you put the clothes in the centrifuge section to spin them. Then you move them to the dryer. Got that?

The dryer is pretty normal but it takes three knobs and to turn it on you pull on the”no” knob not the “si” knob.

There is a lot to know about sloths. They are very interesting and quite slow for a reason. It’s hot here! These are rescued and orphaned sloths and most can not be released to the wild due to injury or a baby that can not be taught the sloth ways. Then we had a canoe trip down mosquito alley….and all that bug repellent is in the car….

And wild bananas too.

Joyce completely failed to step up and take photos of the experience, but we furthered international friendships tonight.  One of our fellow guests here at Coco Loco Lodge backed his coche up the wrong way and fell off the parking lot a good foot and a half into the lawn/swamp.  He was hung up on the concrete barriers with no purchase for his drive wheels – that’s where our War Rig came in (Google “Mad Max”, you’ll see what we’re driving).  Something useful for the giant rental we got saddled with instead of the 50-yr-old austin mini I’d otherwise prefer to do this trip in.  A half-hour of broken spanish plus the security guy crawling around under the vehicles with a very slim cable he found around and we were ready …  a mucho suave press on the gas pedal with some proper prep under his drive wheels and he scraped off the reef.  Possibly hardly destroying his car at all.  Well, he was able to drive away, probably everything is fine more or less.

Anyhoo… you know how us guys like to use tools and feel useful.  With success came lots of laughing and backslapping.  Pura vida!

Here’s a pic of our hut at night. Basic accommodation with a bathroom, shower and a fridge for $60/night cash money. 

Spiny lobster and rondon for lunch. A Caribbean seafood coconut curry stew. And the beach is right there. Handy.

Cacao tree

Bananarama!