A wonderfully clear day, a 4WD trip to the mountains + a Coffee Finca

We were slip sliding down the primitive road toward the truck gathering coffee beans being picked on the slopes.  Harvesting coffee beans is demanding- walking up and down the hillside with a large tub tied around one's waist, balancing while pulling the ripe beans from heavily laden bushes, being stung by caterpillars hidden in the foliage.  By law, only the aribica coffee seeds can be grown in Costa Rica, to preserve the purity of the harvests. The bushes and beans are beautiful - reds and yellows of ripe beans, various shades of these mixed with green on others.  The harvest is continual for months as the berries ripen at different times.  

The finca we visited is a small family-owned and worked farm south of Cartago and Paraiso, southest of San Jose. [My B+B owners to left, James and Roy, and two of Roy's sisters - both working on the hill.]

Even small children work the hillside.

After the coffee tour, the mother of the family fixed us a simple and delicious lunch of beans, rice,  potatoes/vegetables with chicken, fried plantain (so sweet!), simple salad and "moro" blackberry drink.

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And a nice shot of Roy with machete and sugar cane.  Not a good shot, really. But nice subject matter.

By the way, temperatures here are in the mid-70s to low 80s, down to 60 at night.  I'm smiling.