Puerto Limon, Costa Rica

 

    It's Monday, so I guess we're in Puerto Limon, Costa Rica!  Our guide Dennis took the picture for us.  He was such a nice young man and told us so many interesting things about his country.  Our 5-hour excursion took us one-hour from the port and into the countryside of this Central America country.  We passed so much lush green forests and numbers of lakes.  Even so, the homes along the sides of the road were mostly poor looking -- even more so than in Panama.

      Bananas are a big deal in Limon.  We passed many banana plantations on our one-hour drive out to a Cocoa Plantation.  These stalks were hanging at the plantation and we could eat fresh bananas from the stalk.  They taste really good!  Cocoa is also a major product in Costa Rica.  Photo of cocoa pods below.

    These men took natural cocoa powder, mixed it with a bit of raw sugar and powder milk and made delicious fudge for us to eat.  We also tried freshly roasted cocoa bean which was also good.

    This is a common house along the side of the road, but surrounded by lush green as are most of the homes.  Below are nicer homes, but still a bit hodge-podge and usually surrounded by a high fence.

Here is the downtown that we passed by.  Too bad, tours don't stop in places like this.

    I'll end our visit to Costa Rica with this delicate vanilla blossom growing at the cocoa plantation.  Did you know that vanilla is actually an orchid?  That was news to me!  The plant thrives in the tropical lowlands of the Caribbean side of Costa Rica.  I'm very thankful for the wonderful vanilla plant since it adds such delicious flavor to so many foods.  I'm reminded of the verse in Psalm where David writes, "Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who trusts in Him!" 34:8.