3/13/2009 San Jose, Butterfly Farm, Britt Coffee, dinner Machu Picchu

We are up 5:30 am, way before our wake up call!  I take some pictures of our room.  We shower, get dressed, and go to have breakfast at our hotel.  We both have toast and coffee.  Cost without tip was $11.62 USD.

We are picked up in our hotel lobby at 7:40 am by Butterfly Farm tours.  Our driver is Jorge.  Today we are visiting the Butterfly Farm and Cafe Britt.


First stop is the Butterfly Farm.  Our guide is Heather.  There's just us and another couple.  First is a welcome cup of coffee.  Then a documentary film about butterflies showing the various stages and process of the butterfly life cycle.  Export office where the sorting, packing and export of the pupae can be seen but only on export days. We learned about the natural history of butterflies and the industry of butterfly farming.  The Butterfly Farm is a working farm which raises live butterflies/pupae for export.  We have a guided walk through the butterfly garden.  The Butterfly Garden is enclosed where over 1000 butterflies live their lives, feeding, mating, and laying eggs.  The caterpillar and pupae room.  Once the eggs are laid, the larvae (caterpillars) emerge and need to be reared on specific host plants.  We view the metamorphosis of the caterpillar forming the pupae where their bodies change from a caterpillar into a beautiful butterfly.  The tour is around 2 hours.  At the gift shop I bought some postcards for 400 colones.

Butterfly Garden

Mariposa Morpho/Blue morpho butterfly-postcards

Mariposa Caligo/Caligo butterfly-postcard

Caterpillar and pupae room

Next is the Britt coffee tour which I'm looking forward to as Costa Rican coffee is highly regarded.  The coffee tour was informative and enjoyable.  We walk through some coffee bushes and learn about the picking of the beans.  In a building we see a play of sorts that describes the steps from plantation to roasters.  In conclusion we visit the coffee and gift store.  I placed an order for coffee and candies.  Total $115.00 USD.  We put the order date 4/6/2009 so it will arrive when we are back home.  (This coffee was so good that even today in 2020 we have been ordering coffee from Cafe Britt)  In addition to the coffee and candies which will be delivered I also bought a Costa Rica coffee mug, a Costa Rica magnet, 3 small bottles of Cafe Britt coffee liquor, and 4 boxes of chocolate covered candy.  Cost of these souvenirs was $65.73 USD.  Then I spot some more stuff to buy-3 postcards, 3 stamps for the postcards, a tan Save the Rain Forest cap, and a child's blue gecko cap.  That set me back $27.98 USD. This tour is around 3-4 hours.  

Brochure

Coffee mug

My Cafe Britt order

Postcard

Buffet lunch here was included in our excursion.  There was chicken, rice with vegetables, cold salads of cucumber/carrots/tomatoes, chilled beets, spicy tomato base soup, watermelon.  It was very good.

Lunch

We are back at our hotel around 3:00 pm.  The rooftop of the hotel has a jacuzzi and sun loungers.  We spend time here just relaxing, soaking up the Costa Rican sun.  I also wrote some postcards to mail to family.

Hotel jacuzzi

Relaxing

For dinner we have decided to go to Machu Picchu which is walking distance from our hotel.  I have a pisco sour and Richard has his first Costa Rican beer-Imperial.  I have a filet mignon cooked perfectly medium with a yummy sauce, mashed potatoes, vegetable medley of cauliflower/green beans/carrots/broccoli.  Richard ordered a fish dish in a tomato based sauce which came with rice.  He said the fish was cooked just right.  He does not like his fish overcooked.  Dessert was flan with raisins and lime ice cream.  We are pleased with our choices.  Food was incredible with great service.  Cost without tip was 22689.00 colones

Pisco sour

Yummy!

Delicious

Walking back to our hotel

KFC in Costa Rica!