Federicos

So David made it safe and sound...without his luggage. The airline lost his bag so he made it through the days at Federicos without his main luggage. How unfortunate. But the trip to Federicos was fabulous. He was filled with the same enthusiasm and random trivial information as usual. He lives in Birrisito right above the Valle de Orosi which is a fabulous coffee growing area as well as above Lago Cachi, the second largest lake in Costa Rica. The first day was rather rainy so after Federico made us a fabulous lunch with grub we got at the store in town, we just hung out on his patio that looked out over the valley. we played some cards... David taught us all a card game called Oh Hell... and then had a long hut tub session filled with smoothies and back massages. It was fabulous. That night we watched a stupid mindless comedy... year one. Then hit the sack for a big day lay ahead of us... our tour of valle de orosi.
Originally Volcan Irazu was going to be part of our tour time at federicos. However, he told us with the weather the way it was there would be no visibility, and apparently its less impressive than the other volcanoes we have visited already. First, we hit up a local store that sells organic coffee from the area. Federico has a few coffee plants that provides for this coffee brand...cafe cristina... so its possible we have some of his own beans in our bags. First real tour stop was a lookout point over the valley where we got some good pics. Next stop we went down into the valley to the town of Orosi. We stopped to get pics of the oldest church in use in Costa Rica. Iglesia Colonial. There Federico talked some local kids into letting us join their soccer game. So we had a game with the local kids, quite enjoyable.
We continued our tour to the local hot springs, known only by the locals. We chilled in the natural hot springs for a while. Privelaged enough to witness Federico in his little spandex, and David had to borrow some little shorts from him too haha. After the hot springs we had lunch at a little local restaurant overlooking a river. HUGE portions for fairly cheap. Cass david and i couldn´t finish our portion so we saved part of our HEAPING rice portion for breakfast the next morning. It was quite delicious though.
Next we went to the coffee plantation in the valley. Had some coffee straight from the sock for about one dollar, and had some coffee flan with it...AMAZING. This little restaurant on the coffee plantation was also bordering Lake Cachi, which was so beautiful because it has so much vegetation around in growing in the lake. We walked around it and took some more beautiful pics of the lake and plants and flowers growing around the lake. Then we finished up the tour by walking next to the coffee plantation, then drove home which was by a dam on the lake. In the end we did a huge loop around the valley which started at 830 in the morning and ended at about 3 i think. Oh... i forgot to mention that cass and i started off the day by making our chocolate chip banana pancakes for everyone. It was fabulous.
We just hung out the rest of the night, enjoyed some music and hot tub. This morning we left at about 830. He dropped us off at a bus station in Cartago where we caught a ride back into San Jose. Walked to central market and had some iced coffee and bread from the panaderia. now just chillin at pangea again, uploading our pics. Tomorrow, cass and I catch our shuttle to the airport at 540 in the morning to fly to panama to spend our last week here in central america. Till then...peace