Camino de Costa Rica
Day 11: San Pablo to La Esperanza
Date: February 23, 2024
Miles: ~9.5
Time walking: ~ 6 hours. Started at 7:30am and finished at 1:15pm.
Difficulty: Elevation gain - 2600 ft
6:30am breakfast. Very hot day with incredible views.
Lots of very steep ups and downs
Walked through several coffee plantations of rolling hill views. Some coffee growing on very steep hillside. Hard to imagine harvesting.
Visited a specialty coffee maker. Very interesting learning about the different processing. One way vent lets out air, so you can smell the coffee. Learned that coffee should be stored at room temperature, not in refrigerator or freezer. Luke made his Instagram debut for the coffee shop.
Staying tonight on a farm. Since we are a couple we are in the main house with a shared bath.
Our Team Wonderful friends are in the big tent. Looks tight. Tarp wall separates from another group. They complained the next morning of snoring, burping and farting.
Dinner 6:30pm - hearty soup, plantation with beans, rice, salad. The 11-day group joined us. Luke gave a great talk about stars. Nice viewing. So glad we weren't with the 11-day group they had one team member that constantly interrupted Luke with his views on evolution. Several of our group had to shut him down so we could get back to hearing from Luke.
Day 12: La Esperanza to Naranjillo
Date: February 24, 2024
Miles: ~10
Time walking: ~5 hours. 7:30am start and finished at noon.
Difficulty: Elevation loss - 2864 ft. Mostly a gradual fire road descent.
6:30am breakfast. Warm sunny day, but relatively easy with mostly gradual fire road descent. Some shade, and nice views out both sides. First sighting of the Pacific Ocean out in the distance.
Saw a few fires. Controlled burns of coffee plants.
Staying tonight in tents on wood platforms. Has 4 showers and 3 bathrooms
Plentiful lunch enjoying our amazing view. Chill afternoon reading, relaxing, Jenga and Bingo.
Dinner very good - spaghetti, vegetables, plantains. This was our favorite campsite. View was outstanding, very clean, shelves for our stuff, loved the games, towels they provided for shower and food. Warm welcoming hosts. Day capped off with a beautiful sunset.
