Part III La Leona Waterfall Hike And Coffee Plantation Tour

Welcome back first timers. We're still in Costa Rica, but this time we headed north and against

strong suggestions of some people we know, we are going to be chasing waterfalls today

That's right, we're going to go look at a famous waterfall. All right, we got our life jackets on

We're getting in the back of a truck. Watch your head. Watch your head

I know Terry is extremely excited. I wouldn't say that. Nervous. I am very nervous right now. Very outside of my comfort zone. Wish me luck, everyone. Will I survive

It really doesn't matter if we do or not because we already signed the waivers. So here we go. Oh man, that's a huge drop

So the drive from Tamarindo out to the waterfall took a little bit longer than anticipated

Originally, it said about an hour and a half drive. It took us over two hours. There was quite a bit of traffic

we were driving uh monday morning so there's school traffic regular commute traffic make sure

you prepare yourself for that because we were running late and now we're we're a little bit

behind but they were super accommodating they didn't mind that we were late and we're going to

try and do our best to keep on schedule now so we're at la leona waterfall well we're not there

yet but you're gonna see it and at the beginning of the trail there's a nice little cafe looks like

They got snacks, information, trees. What? I was just talking. Terry says I have to stop talking now

We have our tour guide, Alejandro. Hello, guys. Nice to meet you

Alejandro. But he's going to be taking us there. It's two kilometers there, two kilometers back

It's about a two-hour hike. Now, with larger groups, it might take a little bit longer, but because it's just us two, we're pretty quick

And I think we'll be there, enjoy it, and be back in about two hours. So the hike so far is a pretty nice meandering stroll. It's a little muddy, a little rocky, a little uneven

But if you have mobility issues, keep that in mind. Also, you need closed-toed shoes

It doesn't seem like it's an issue right now, but with bugs, I would probably recommend bug spray and sunblock

But right now, we're not experiencing any bugs. It might be too soon to tell, though

The first stop on our tour is White River

it's named after that because of the high mineral content and because of the high mineral content

no fish no frogs no snakes will grow or live in here so it's completely cold and pristine

This tree is called the naked indian tree it's a very popular tree out here in Costa Rica

legend has it if you give it a hug you have good luck so. Just in case they're reading it

What was that

It's cool. They got ladders and everything. Oh my God. Oh yeah

Be careful of the ants. They're out because it just rained and boy do they hurt when they bite

This is an amazing rock wall. There's caves, all kinds of stuff

But like I said, watch out for the ants. But those ants, they sure sting. This is the Batman cave

We're going Indiana Jones style now. We're switching to waterproof mode so you probably can't hear me that well, but we're

about to get in the water and go see this waterfall. Are you excited, Terry

It is so cold. It's very cold

There we go. Okay, you can repeat that now

That's it, that's it. It's shallow here. Yeah. This hike is so much fun even though it didn't look like I was having fun at some points

but it's good for all ages too. Little kids, older adults, everybody. Swimming definitely helps but

it is not required. The life jackets will save you. We totally survived the waterfall. Now we're

making the trek back. That was absolutely amazing. I know I say that a lot. Oh still trying to walk

but it was so refreshing so awesome the water was so powerful and man it was just a real special

experience and terry overcame all her fears or at least faced some of them i didn't know if we

were gonna make it some of those times but she got there she got back she got wet i couldn't be

happier i'm so proud of her for doing it i'm glad she came here i'm glad she went on this hike i

I didn't think she was going to do it. I thought she was going to wait in the car. So thank you, Terry, for coming

It was a good time, even though I was terrified for 50% of it

If it wasn't for our guide, big shout out. Alejandro was the man. He made sure we were safe there and back

There's times where Terry was choking me out and he had to step in and save us both

If you have any doubts about wanting to go on this trip, put those aside

go on them even if you can't swim. Terri's terrified of water and she did it

We'll leave all of their contact information in the description below but

this is just one more amazing special thing that Costa Rica has to offer

We outside of Liberia in Costa Rica just near the International Airport We just finished in an exhausting adventure at a waterfall So to give us a little pick we have another one in store for you today We at Tio Leo Coffee Farm and we gonna take a tour drink some coffee

get some chocolate and some empanadas. They have a huge gift shop at the beginning of the tour. They

have all kinds of arts and crafts and coffee for sale but I think we're gonna come back here after

we're done right now it's the tour time and they highly recommend putting on bug spray so we ladder

on pretty quick and uh hopefully we can avoid tuning mosquitoes we just finished the first

portion of the tour and it was in-depth and it was exciting we got the history of coffee the

history of coffee in costa rica about the imports the exports the the processes and then we learned

about what they do here specifically at this plantation on how it's sustainable and how they

use the byproducts to fertilize the crops and they're working diligently to find a way to

grow coffee plants at a lower elevation but in hotter climates to adjust to any potential climate

change down the road they're doing some really innovative things and we are comparing the smells

of different coffees like standard coffees here versus what they're producing and i'm telling you

I got full-blown handmade Costa Rican coffee chills. Ooh! That's exciting! But right now we're going to hold on the coffee because we've already had a cup

and we're going to start making empanadas. So open this up and press

Let's make this a little bit more compact

the empanadas are in the oil now it was a mixture of red beans and coffee that sounds

really exciting i can't wait to taste it but they're being cooked over here on open fire

Homemade chili, at the end of you, if you'd like to get your recipe, just take my WhatsApp

number, and I'll send you the recipe and the ingredients. Red beans. This is an amazing empanada, and the chili sauce, man, that slaps

that turns it over the edge would recommend it's chocolate time we're going to sit down

he's going to tell us all about chocolate we're going to learn about the history we're going to

learn about the culture the fables the therapeutic uses of it and i can't wait originally from

South America. Discovered growing wild in the Amazon South America by Ecuador almost 4,000 years

ago. The indigenous people brought it to northern Central America and the first tribe in contact

with cacao were the Almecs in Mexico. And then the Aztecs but finally the Mayans were the first

to discover they could make a special beverage out of this. Since first time they prepared this

drink. It was like a can of a tea with some spices. They called this drink so

glad. It was that special when they tried that they couldn't believe that that

was made by themselves. So they thought that that was something really special

given by God. For that reason, they decided that this was going to be a holy

drink. Not only the Empire could have it, but only during special ceremonies. Besides

him, the only human being who tried this drink at the beginning was Hernan Cortes

the Spaniard who conquers Mexico. We just found out that you're supposed to eat

a little bit of dark chocolate every morning to replace your serotonin drops from the night before

and chocolate was used as a currency here in Costa Rica. Teri's going to be shucking some cocoa beans

Mmm. Mmm. You can eat the whole thing. It's like a brownie. It's like a toasted sunflower seed

That's pretty good. Yeah. I don't even know why we're shucking them. No

I could just eat these. Oh, you eat the whole thing? I don't know

I didn't get the instructions. Oh, I just took the, I took the shell

Oh, maybe I'm doing it wrong. We got another round of cacao drink

This one they're calling iguana milk. I don't think that it's actually iguana milk just by the nature of mammals

Oh, oh, oh, oh. I was looking through the camera. Sorry, my perception was off

That's so good. So good. That's really good. light and chocolatey big one and grande

so I'm going to take the nacho oh yeah it's light, aromatic, sweet

without being overly sweet or creamy, this is nice it's even refreshing for being a hot drink

when I'm sweating right here we've got the brown cacao underneath the leaf

But not like super choppy It tastes a lot like chocolate covered almonds chopped up sweet nutty

delicioso. We're now transitioning to another part of this tour. I think the

coffee and the sugar and the chocolate's all hitting because I'm getting pretty

excited right now. We're getting a chocolatey rub down. How's that feel? Nice exfoliating

Terry opted out of the chocolate facial. Next part of the tour we're going to take a little walk around the property

check out the plants, the coffee, the cacao. Let's go. This plantation is over three and a half acres

of farm and trees and fruit and plants the coffee is here but it's sheltered by the different plants

fruit and it is diverse guava plantains avocado anything you can imagine it's growing right here

what do you think it's pretty cool a lot of mosquitoes This is a noni plant

Terry get some of this in your nose. No I'm getting it

You really should try it. So this is the coffee cherry. It's actually, these ones aren't ripe yet

They're green rather than red but biting into it. It's still really sweet

It's juicy. Mmm. Mmm. That's really good. Way better than the Congo chili that Terry didn't film me try because that burned my face off

The types and varieties of plants out here is amazing. And everything smells great

We're biting into stuff. They're tasting good. This is an experience you have to do

We lost some of our group members first to some mosquitoes and then to a Congo pepper

which kind of wiped the other half out. Terry and I, we're still hanging in. It's starting to dump pretty good

So I think we're going to head back and go to the next phase of this tour

Time to try some tamarind juice and fresh plantain. That's really good juice. It almost tastes like tea

It's very good. Not sweet at all. Very refreshing. Plantain. That's really good

It's almost like potato, and you guys know I love chips. It's sugar cane pressing time now

we're about to make sugarcane juice. Two extractive juice, we use an old-fashioned sugarcane press like this

but usually are made by using oxen, mules, donkeys, horses, cows, or tourists

Oh wow! Sugarcane

Sweet and cold, kind of like lemonade. That is sweet, but refreshing

Very citrusy. We are at the culmination of the tour. It's the roasting time

I'm here with Tio Leo

He's the face of the business. He's going to tell you all about it

All right. We're here. We've been expending the last three hours in here, working out with coffee, chocolate

cooking class, and sugar cane. finishing just finishing with the coffee roasting process so what we're trying to do it's something

very small it's a small family business that is focusing in the future trying to

adapt deficits and plans for the future because as you know climate change is affecting worldwide

and the scientists are being announced that by 2050 coffee is going to start disappearing if we

don't do anything to change the global warming. So that's what we're trying to do in here

trying to adapt seeds and plants that we brought from higher elevation and adapting them to almost

seed level. And after 15 years, our plants are going in good progress. They are completely

adapted. So don't worry about it in the future. You're going to have more coffee

Thank you so much. You had a great time. It's been a real pleasure. Thank you. thank you guys we're gonna check out the souvenir shop terry found the chocolate section there are

so many beautiful hand-done pieces of art world-class pieces of art right here in this gift

shop if we had more space in our luggage we would definitely be picking up some of this stuff because

it is great i think for now we're probably just gonna grab coffee and then maybe a cool mug or

something. That was so much fun. We learned so much. We got to try plants. We tried coffee

chocolate, everything. The food, the drinks, the tour, all of it was amazing. If you're out here

in Costa Rica, especially if you're in Tamarindo or up in Liberia, you got to make a trip out to

Tio Leos. He's a character. The staff is amazing. We had a great time. But if you like this video

check out one of these other videos where we had another great time in Costa Rica. Thanks again for

following along in this episode and join us next time when we try something else new for the first

time don't forget to like comment and subscribe first timer high five