Panama Canal Cruise 2020 - Day 11
Our day started with a tour of the Doka coffee plantation. Don Vargas founded the company in 1929 the year of the Great Depression. It is located next to the Poas Volcano. The Poas Volcano is the largest volcanic crater in the world. I learned a lot about growing and processing coffee. Coffee seeds are planted in a greenhouse for one year then planted in the fields for three years. The plants yield their first crop after four years and continue to produce fruit for 25 years. The coffee fruit is ripe and ready to pick when it turns red. Pickers are hired to pick the coffee beans during the dry season between January and April. They fill a cubuela which is a coffee picking bucket with 13 kilos (28 pounds) of ripe coffee fruit. Doka pays $2 per cabuela. A skilled picker can fill 15 - 20 cubuelas per day. They work from from 6 am - 2 pm. They pick only red beans.
The coffee fruits are dumped into water. The best fruits sink. Floating fruits are lower quality. The coffee fruits are tumbled to remove the pulp. The beans are fermented for 36 hours and dried in the sun for 3-4 days. Then they are put in drying machine. At a specific humidity they loaded into burlap sacks weighing 60 kilo (132 pounds). Doka sells the sacks for $175 each.
There is a mutant coffee bean that is a single bean. Most coffee fruits have two beans. The single bean is called the Pea berry. It is sweeter than the double beans.
The coffee beans are roasted for 15 - 18 minutes at 290°C. The longer they are roasted, the less the caffeine they maintain. Light roast has more caffeine than dark roast. You can order coffee online at www.Dokaestate.comOur next stop was the La Paz Waterfall Gardens. There are three waterfalls that line the hiking trail along with several animal exhibits. After a lovely buffett lunch we visited the various animal enclosures and viewed the waterfalls in the rainforest.
Our final night on the tour ended with a lovely cocktail hour and farewell dinner. We have spent a wonderful 11 days with our fellow travelers.
Tomorrow we head to the airport.
Coffee plantation in a San Jose, Costa Rica
A one year old coffee bush.
The Red coffee fruit is ripe to pick
Fill this container. (Cabuela) )with 28 pounds of coffee fruit and earn $2.00
Coffee beans drying in the sun for 3-4 days. If it rains they gather them together and cover them with a tarp.
Live music at the coffee plantation.
A Jaguar at the La Paz Waterfall.
This is an ocelot.
A Bird of Paradise.
One of the waterfalls in the rainforest.
John and Priscilla’s final photo of the cruise.
Our view by the pool at the Marriott San Juan for our farewell dinner.