SARCHI, COSTA RICA

                                           All about Coffee

           Sarchi, Costa Rica’s main artisan town and home of the colorful caritas, the famous wooden ox driven coffee carts is not too far from San Jose.   The city is spread over hills that are covered with coffee plantations. The Trojas River divides the small city north and south. Sarchi means land of ashes.

       My first visit to this small mountain city was on a brief stop in the country when our ship’s crew mutinied years ago---that’s a long story. I was fascinated with the coffee wagons that are now painted with folk cart and are meant as decoration. But once upon a time coffee was transported from one side of the island to the other in ox carts for ship transport.     

     Alfaro and Sons is the only true ox-cart manufacturer in town. Carpentry methods have not changed since its founding in 1923. The two-story building is surrounded by trees and flowers. The machinery on the first floor is powered by a water wheel in the back of the shop. The carts are painted in the back. The show room is large and carries furniture and other wooden items, to say nothing as a plethora of tourist items.

        I could not resist buying a cart, a wee bit too large for a end table, but it is great on my patio. The shop ships and I wasn’t home a week when it arrived.

And speaking of coffee….. Coffee only grows above 800-feet. Costa Rican economy was often referred to as a desert economy or a coffee/banana economy. I have visited several coffee facilities. At the first one in Costa Rica I learned: Tomas Acosta first introduced coffee in 1805. In 1821 coffee plants and land were given to people in the Central Valley, but the land belonged to the government. In 1831, the government deeded the land to anyone who had been farming it for the previous ten years. At that time the only country trading for coffee was Nicaragua. 

       In 1832 Jorge Steeple transported 25 ton of coffee to Panama via mule, where it then went to Chile and then on to England. In 1844-45 William Lalacheus linked the Central Valley to the Caribbean. From Caldera, around Cape Horn, to England and back to Costa Rica took 18 months. In 1900-14 coffee prices dropped and did not recover until 1939.

       Costa Rica is one of the few places where Arabica coffee is grown. Robusta coffee is too bitter to drink by itself so is combined with Arabica. However, Arabica coffee is sold and drunk by itself.

     Britt is one well known brand of Costa Rican coffee. We arrived at Café Britt just before a heavy downpour. In the theater we watched an entertaining live presentation about coffee.  It takes three years for the plant to produce beans and the plants produce only one crop a year. The same field is picked 4-5 times each season, at three week intervals. Only the red bean is picked, and all coffee beans are picked by hand. They are ripe during the dry season, December to March. Pickers strap a large basket around their waist that when full weighs 25 pounds. The beans are processed the day of picking. They sit in water 24 hours. Eventually the beans are sun dried for seven days, then can be held up to a year before roasting.

       The show was animated, funny and a delight while telling the story and history of coffee.

THE FRENCH COUNTRYSIDE

Cezanne's studio 

From Aix-en-Provence, France it was a long, narrow, winding road up into the hills, and I was happy not to be driving. Cezanne bought the property in 1901 for 2000 francs and built a narrow house between two olive trees he would not cut down. The house really consists of one very high-ceiling room. A large 30-pane-window faces north with three regular windows on the south wall. Many of the articles he used as models for his paintings are in the room. We were told they even keep the apples fresh all the time. A tall ladder was in one corner, so he could climb up on it and see how light reflected from above on his subject.  

Cezanne only sold 12 paintings during his lifetime. He and his two sisters were illegitimate.  However, he was rich as his father was a successful banker and businessman. His father had a big home in town and apparently took good care of his son financially. His mom died in 1899 and it was very traumatic for Cezanne. He was eccentric and really didn’t care about selling his work. 

  After touring the home and listening to a docent in the home we wandered around the grounds. It was quiet and peaceful in the hills. It was an interesting visit mid afternoon.

                       

ST. PAUL DE VENCE

St. Paul de Vence is a quaint village in France.  The walled town still has its 16th century ramparts almost intact making the village pedestrian friendly as vehicles cannot   maneuver around them and cannot enter the village.  Situated atop the mountains overlooking the Mediterranean coast, it was discovered by artists, who were probably attracted to the village’s quality of life, in the 1920s.

It was a slight climb up and down from the parking area to the city entrance. The walled city is shaped like a ship’s hull. The views from the ramparts of the ocean and the terrain below were fantastic. We chose to walk the ramparts to the end of the point where there is a small cemetery where Chagall is buried. After finding his gravestone---all the graves are above ground since they sit on solid rock---we walked down the narrow alleys window shopping and looking for an inviting restaurant for lunch.

We finally selected a quaint restaurant that was busy but not hectic. The lasagna was very tasty. A couple of other people followed us and chose crepes. We eventually walked back to our starting point and found our way back to the parking lot. It was a delightful stop. As we toured the French countryside we always stopped in unique little villages for lunch.