Jorge's Pineapple Farm and Ciudad Casada

Melissa and I embarked on our second self-planned journey. She works for a company in Wisconsin, and one of her business connections Jorge owns a pineapple farm in Alajuela. So, we decided to spend a weekend visiting him and his family. Early Saturday morning we took a taxi to the San Carlos/ Ciudad Casada bus station in downtown San José. The first bus that was direct was full. Luckily, we were able to get on a different bus to Ciudad Casada as long as we were willing to endure a few stops. The bus ride was about three hours long. However, unlike other buses I have been on in Costa Rica, we were the only non-nationals on the bus. That was a whole new, eye-opening experience in itself. 

On the way to Ciudad Casada, we passed through a lot of Alajuela, one of the seven Costa Rican provinces that I had not had a chance to explore yet. Alajuela is a province where there are a number of smaller towns that are a little more well to do like Ciudad Casada and San Carlos. We drove over a couple of mountains and past a few volcanoes. We experienced one white out (which are common in Costa Rica due to the cloud forests and the humidity). That made me a little nervous on the two way, windy, steep roads. 

When we arrived in Ciudad Casada, our first attempt to use a Costa Rican public pay phone was a fail. Luckily, we found another one, and we were able to meet Jorge and walk to his house in town. Jorge's house in town was bigger than any other residential house I have been to so far in Costa Rica. It actually had a front yard, a typical tiled front porch, and even a backyard. The house was well decorated with a number of artisan crafts from all of Jorge's travels. It seems that Jorge has been EVERYWHERE. When we met up with him, he had just returned the night before from Brazil. 

This is a picture we took right before Melissa
and I left with Jorge and Maura.

We went inside and met the muchacha from Nicaragua, his father, one of his nine brothers, and two of his children. We had the opportunity to meet his daughter briefly, but we spent most of the weekend with his nineteen year old son Daniel. Jorge, Daniel, Melissa and I went to the Dos Pinos plant just outside of town to pick up some medicine for the cows at the farm. Dos Pinos is the big dairy provider in Central America. Its kind of like Swiss and Turkey Hill, but its the only one. We get Dos Pinos yogurt, ice cream, milk, sour cream, queso crema, cheese, and a whole bunch of other products. Jorge is starting a milk, cheese, and sour cream production at his farm, and he is hoping to get a contract with Dos Pinos. It was really cool to see the factory from a Tico farmer's point of view. 

If you look in the middle of the picture, there is a concrete wall with the
 Dos Pinos emblem on it. Dos Pinos means "Two pines" in English. 

From almost anywhere within the city limits of Ciudad Casada, we were able to see the dormant volcano pictured below. Jorge was actually born at his parents' farm on the side of the volcano. A couple of his brothers and his cousins still have farms on the side of the volcano towards the top. On our first day, Jorge pointed out the volcano a lot and told us stories of his childhood. On our last day, before driving us to the bus station, Jorge drove us to his cousin's farm. It was one of the farms with the highest altitude. Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures from that adventure, because the humidity did not allow my camera to take any clear pictures. However, we were to look south the whole way to Lake Nicaragua. Within in our field of view, we were also able to see a number of volcanos including the magnificient Arenal volcano. Jorge also pointed out five or six cities that we were able to see. It was probably the most amazing view I have seen since I have been in Costa Rica. If I were to move down here, that's where I would want my house to be. Although the altitude did make it a little difficult to breathe. Ciudad Casada is even higher above sea level than San José.

After showing us the Dos Pinos factory and a Home Depot type store, we went back to the house to eat lunch. La Muchacha made a typical South American dish. It was a spicy soup where you added chicken, avocado, tortilla chips, cheese, and a whole bunch of other ingredients. It was amazing! Of course, like any good Costa Rican meal, there was Gallo Pinto on the table. Gallo Pinto is served at every meal including breakfast. Ticos are OBSESSED with it. Luckily, my host family is a bit more Americanized, so I get more variety with my meals in San José. Gallo pinto is starting to grow on my though, because I have it at every meal on the weekends. Who knows? I might get home and start craving gallo pinto all the time. After lunch, we packed up the car for the two hour drive to the farm. 

The drive was long and hot. We picked up Maura on the way. She is a thirty year old woman that has been helping out the family since the kids were little. In exchange for her cooking for us for the weekend, we helped out with her job. Apparently her job is legal in Costa Rica. She buys jeans and other clothes from San José and sells them out of her house. When she goes to the farm, she takes some along. We drove around with her as she collected money from some of her customers in the town around the farm. It was really interesting to see some of the houses and people in such a rural, poorer area of Costa Rica. 

Jorge reminded me a lot of my Papa. We made a million stops on the way to the farm so that he could pick out the perfect ingredients for the dinner. Sometimes we would stop so he could talk to some random people that he knew. We even stopped at this one tourist attraction where there were a whole bunch of Iguanas. Iguana is a typical Costa Rican dish, but it is illegal now in some parts. 

We finally got to the farm about an hour before sunset. We switched vehicles to the open top jeep. Daniel warned Melissa and I that the suspension was shot in the Jeep and to hold on tight. Driving around the farm in the jeep was the most intense off-roading I have ever experienced! The four of us drove out to a part of the farm that Jorge was renting out to a different farmer and stole some of the Yucca. Jorge said that he did not like the guy anyway, so I guess it was okay. The Yucca is kind of like a really tasty potato that grows on the Tapioca plant. Apparently these Tapioca plants have nothing to do with the creation of Tapioca pudding, but I am not convinced. 

We had a very tastey stew for dinner with Maura, another farm worker, Jorge, and Daniel. Jorge has about thirty Nicaraguan employees that live on the farm. We got to stay in the "Farm House". The farm house was even bigger than the house in Ciudad Casada. It was decorated with beautiful marble and other things from around the world. We ate on the deck that looked over the river, but we did not really get a good view of the farm until the morning.

The next morning we went out and picked oranges and other fruits for breakfast. Jorge showed us around his personal tree collection. There were a whole bunch of exotic trees from other countries like India, Angola, Thailand, Brazil, etc. Do not ask me how he got them past customs. We made fresh orange juice for breakfast. The oranges in Costa Rica are actually more yellow in color, but they are still very tasty. For breakfast I had Gallo Pinto with the farm's sour cream. It had a whole bunch of onions and peppers in it. My eggs also had onions and peppers in it, and I also ate whole mushrooms. Most people who know me know that I am an extremely picky eater. I am proud to say that I ate everything that was served to me the entire weekend. I have actually grown very fond of papaya also. It took a little while, but it is definitely growing on me.

After breakfast, we went on a tour of the pineapple fields with Maura and Daniel in the jeep. Maura does not like her picture taken... 

I do not know what I was expecting when I was told that I was going to a pineapple farm, but I definitely think that Spongebob Square pants led me wrong. Pineapples grow out of the ground, not on trees. In fact, after the pineapple is picked, the workers cut off the green top and replant it. That is what grows and produces the next pineapple.

Pinapples as far as the eye can see!

Picking prickly pineapples

These ones were not yellow enough yet.

We picked all of these. I had scratches all up my arms.
Pineapple picking is not an easy task.

This is the pineapple I brought back for my family!

After we got back from pineapple picking, we went out to see the crocodiles in the river. They were pretty cool. We also got to see all of the cows and the calfs. We even got to watch the workers making the cheese, and of course there was a little left to sample. ¡Que riquisima!

When we got back from our adventures, we helped the girls make lunch. Melissa and I made the pineapple juice. The best part of making pineapple juice, quality control. We had to test every single pineapple to make sure it was sweet enough...that was my favorite job. After lunch, we went horseback riding with Maura. The only problem was that the horses were not well-trained. I would be curious to know if they were even trained at all. My horse did not know how to stop. Melissa said that she was glad that I was a horse person because anyone else would have fallen off or freaked out. The horse was crazy! We got a beautiful view of the whole farm, even if it was at a gallop. Let's just say... I had a hard time walking the next couple of days. 

Before the horse went crazy!

I can't believe I survived!

The farm house, it was so amazing on the inside. 

Melissa and I had a few "friends" living in
the room across the hall.

Sunday night, we drove back to Ciudad Casada. We did not leave until noon on Monday, because Melissa and I did not have class until Monday evening. Spending the weekend with Jorge was a once in a lifetime experience, and it was probably one of the coolest things I have done so far in Costa Rica.