The Java Jive!

Hola Familia y Amigos!

It's been a very eventful week! We have been away from internet for most of it, so we're excited to finally have a chance to share stories and pictures!

Last week we finished up our Spanish classes and said goodbye to our wonderful host family. We cooked Elaine Klein's famous chili, which most of them had never heard of, but they all really enjoyed. It was a nice way to end our stay with them, gorging ourselves on delicious food and exchanging pleasantries that we only half understood.

On Sunday at about 5:00 AM we left Tamarindo and the pacific coast and headed for San Isidro del General. The route by bus is rather tricky, which, combined with the fact that we are traveling with nearly everything we own, meant that renting a car made the most sense. Of course, it also meant that we had to brave insane Costa Rican drivers as well as an entire country devoid of road signs. Fortunately, most of the drive went pretty well, with the exception of a particularly stressful two hours when we were lost in San Jose. Between our sub par Budget Rental Car map and the fact that not a single road in the city is marked, it's a wonder we ever found our way out. However, we made it to San Isidro before dark, where we met up with Frank in a small bar and began the next chapter of our adventure.

For those of you that may not know, we decided to head to San Isidro to work on an organic coffee farm. We found the opportunity through an organization called WWOOF (shout out to Peter Richards for putting us onto it!), which I think stands for World Wide Opportunities in Organic Farming. The organization matches local farmers with people looking for free (or cheap) places to stay and work. Frank and Sue are from Canada, but have been here in Costa Rica for the past 14 years living a very simply, off-the-grid life. They were looking for a couple willing to work by day and live for free on their property. We were a good fit.

When we got to the farm Sunday night, Frank showed us around the place and introduced us to our home for the next while. Our cabin was the first structure they built after purchasing the property. It's one large room with a separate small structure for a bathroom outside. However, it does have electricity, running water, and a fulling functional kitchen, so I suppose we're not entirely roughing it. Still, we do have a fair number of bugs, as well as nightly visitors in the form of rodents, lizards, and large cane toads.

We work in the morning from 6:45 to about 12:00, although most days it's been a bit later than that. We've had various jobs, but the main one has been processing coffee. We did a little bit of picking the first day, but we're not nearly as fast as the two local guys who Frank hires for 10 bucks a day, so our main job has been to do everything that comes after the picking. The coffee goes through multiple steps that are way too boring to relate here, but it mainly has to do with extracting the beans from their shells, washing off sugars, and picking out beans that are not ready or have been infested by bugs. It's tedious work, but we have both found it strangely satisfying. Four days ago we didn't have the slightest idea about what goes into a cup of coffee, and we will certainly never look at one the same way again. Appreciate every sip you take and think of us!

Our afternoons are pretty laid back. After work we fix lunch, read, nap, and try to figure out how to get a hot shower. Frank has a coiled hose system on the roof which uses the sun to heat water. However, between a lack of sun and our general ineptitude, we can't get it to work right. There was no hot water in Tamarindo either, so it's been about a month since our last hot shower. In the evenings we cook dinner, read, and occasionally watch DVDs (borrowed from Frank) on our laptop . Because the sun goes down at 5:00, we're asleep nice and early, ready for the next day of coffee processing.

We're planning to stay here for the next few months to help Frank and Sue through the holidays. Upon our arrival, we were very sad to learn that Sue is terminally ill with breast cancer that has since spread to her ribs and brain. They don't know how much longer she has to live, and her kids and grandkids are all coming down from Canada in December. We will look after the farm while they all travel, assuming she is feeling up to it at that point.

Other than that, not a whole lot to report! The pace of our life has shifted dramatically from what we were up to back in surf city, but we are enjoying it a lot. The only thing we don't like so much is how out of touch we are with everyone, so thanks again to you all for taking the time to read! We promise that we'll make our way into town every now and then to get some internet and stay in touch!

Ok, without further ado, some pictures of the last week:

Scarfing chili with our host family:

Playa Conchal, near Tamarindo:
In a cloud going over Cerro De Muerte, or the hill of death (0ver 10,000 ft!) on our drive south:

Nina fixing a plumbing problem in our bathroom on our first day of work at the farm:
Our cabin:
Our kitchen:

Washer for our clothes:

Nina sorting recently picked coffee:
Frank in the drying room, looking at some coffee:
Paul in the drying room, examining a coffee grain:
Nina with a basket full of recently processed coffee grains:

Paul working the machine that separates the coffee beans from the shell:
We love you and miss you! Thanks for checking the blog!

Nina and Paul