Buenas! This past Friday, we had a cultural activity with the program coordinators (International Center for Development Studies (ICDS)) and obviously being in Costa Rica, it was a coffee tour. I don’t know about you all, but I am not a coffee fan, sue me. I just never could get past the bitter taste. The worst part in my opinion is how wonderful the aroma is, and how the actual flavor does. not. match. the. smell. But I digress. We began the Britt Coffee Tour with a friendly introduction from our tour guides, who I learned later were actors to make it more fun and interesting. We basically went through the conditions that coffee needs to grow in for the best flavor, the regions of Costa Rica where coffee is grown and how that affects the taste, and the life cycle of a coffee bean. Dude, I’m telling you, the smells are amazing, I was thinking I could possibly enjoy coffee, but the taste is just, not it. Anyway! The tour reminded me of a shorter Hershey Chocolate Factory tour, and more wholesome in a way. We finished by watching the roasting process in a movie, and then we were obviously directed straight to the gift shop. I’m a sucker for gift shops, so I definitely spent a lot of time there. I was ~this~ close to buying a sweatshirt for $51 but thank the LORD that my friends made me put it back. I did end up purchasing some coffee for my aunt, my host mom, and some hot sauce for my mom. They also had free samples of chocolate covered coffee, fruit like passionfruit, melon, pineapple, and cranberries (which reminded me of the Brookside chocolate covered fruit so, YUM) but because we were in a gift shop, everything was MAD expensive, so I only left with the coffee for my aunt and host mom, and the hot sauce for my mom. Let me also include, my friends who love coffee, LOVED this tour. So if you are a coffee-lover and ever find yourself in Costa Rica do a coffee tour!
Anyway, we had lunch which was surprisingly delicious (picture included below) and then we headed home. It was a short adventure, but I love my group so it was fun to all be together and hang out. Little bonding activities like that are bothersome to a few of my classmates because it takes away from the weekend, but I just like getting to hang out with everyone! We probably won’t see these people again for a while, if ever again, so I try to enjoy my time with them. We are only in week six, but I’m starting to feel a little sad that we are in the second half of our time here. Ciao for now!
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