We book a tour to see the Doka Estate Coffee Plantation, the town of Grecia, and Sarchi today. Our pick up time was 10:30, so we had a leisurely morning. Our van arrived and we drove, and drove, and drove – for 1-1/2 hours before we stopped and were transferred to ANOTHER bus! We joined another group that had been on a tour to the Poas Volcano earlier in the day.
We passed by stands of rainbow eucalyptus trees ich were imported from Australia. They were on the Doka Estate and used just for ornamental purposes before arriving at the beautiful entrance.
The Doka Estate is located in the coffee capital of Costa Rica, Sabanilla, Alajuela. The farm belongs to the Costa Rican Vargas Ruiz family, pioneers of coffee production for more than 70 years.
Our guide gave us a good tour of the coffee production process. The harvest season is about 4 months long – from October through January. The pickers earn about $40 per day depending on how much they pick. They get $2 per cajuela (a special basket with a volume of 17 liters) which is like the smaller green box in the picture and they can pick up to 20 boxes per day.
It is not a job I would like to have – picking all the coffee seeds by hand! After the seeds are picked, washed, and sorted, they are spread out in the sun to dry for 2 days before they are heat-tumbled dry. They rake them and turn them every hour and turn them to ensure they dry! This is all done by hand.
The beans are then put into bags and shipped to countries all over the world where they are then roasted. They last more than a year this way, but only about 6 months if they are roasted.
There was a small butterfly garden on the estate and one of the butterflies liked my jeans!
We also saw an interesting plant in the butterfly garden – a type of Venus flytrap. The one on the right is open and the three on the left have closed on some kind of insect.
After a buffet lunch, our bus headed on to the town of Grecia for a short stop.
Grecia is noted for its unique church, Iglesia de laNuestra Señora de las Mercedes, made entirely of pre-fabricated steel plates painted red that were imported from Belgium in the 1890’s.
The inside of the church was as impressive as the outside with the steel plates painted white.
The construction of the church was a coordinated effort of Grecia's population, the Catholic Church, the Costa Rican government, and local coffee growers.
As we were leaving, Tobey spotted a couple of parrots in the vents at the top of the church!
We left Grecia and headed to the town of Sarchi which is Costa Rica's most famous crafts center. The town has a huge oxcart built about 5 years ago in the town square where we stopped for a photo.
While the town has more than 200 stores and small family-operated woodworking factories , we stopped at the one that is supposed to be “THE” only oxcart factory. Who knows for sure? Anyway, the town is know for its artisans who produce wooden bowls and other tableware, fold-up rocking chairs of wood and leather, and a wide variety of kitschy items.
The most popular items on sale are "carretas", elaborately painted oxcarts that traditionally carried coffee from the highlands down to the port on the Pacific coast. We did enjoy looking at the oxcarts and watch a couple of their artisans painting the carts.
It was 5:30 by the time we left Sarchi for the drive back to San Jose. We passed several poro trees which have large orange flowers on them. They were quite beautiful to see along the hillsides.
Our tour finally dropped us off back at the hotel after 7 tonight, so we had a full day. Both of us decided we should have booked the tour that included the Poas Volcano after talking with others in the group. Well, I guess we have to save something for the next trip!
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