Trapiche!

09/03/2011

If I should sum up the day in one word I would definately say "FUN"

Today was really funny!

In the morning we went al Trapiche: anyone knows what is it?? ...No?? Maybe with a picture??

No?? Well I didn't either before this morning. Let's give basic explanation.

A Trapiche is a mill used to extract the juice of certain fruits of the earth, such as olive or sugar cane. It uses the force of animals to grind sugar cane in order to extract the juice from which sugar is removed.

How does it work?? Let me show you!

We learnt a lot of things about bananas, plantains and sugar cane. It was really an interesting visit. We were able to taste some sugar cane and...you know what?...it was...sweet!!! jajaja Loca!!!

 Cutting the sugar cane so that we can taste it!

 

Sugar cane half eaten...but I don't know who did that!! ;-)

 We also discovered all the steps to make coffee! 

From the plant...

To the drying part! (yes,yes, the coffee is white before being roasted)

Bananas and plantains: Do you know the difference?

Which is what? Have a guess!

Next question: what's that plant? Easy no??

Do you know how long it takes this fruit to  grow? I was amaized by the answer!!

At the end the kids even had the opportunity to make candies with sugar cane syrop. They made: peanuts, coconuts and chocolate. Of course, we had to taste them...my favourite was peanuts! The chocolate one was too sweet and the coco didn't have a strong flavour enought so you could hardly taste it.

 

Coconut

 

Chocolat

Peanuts + Sugar Cane sirop = Yammy!

The lunch was great! It was a buffet and there were a lot of vegetable!! Clara Feliz!!! LOL

 

And Chiquitin offered me a 250g packet of coffee....so goooooooood!!!! So kind of him!!

On the afternoon, back to the office to do some administrative tasks! 

At 3pm I took a break and went back to my flat... a long long way from the school...at least 30 seconds! Maybe 1 minute if I forgot my key in the office.... and made the crepe dough! As well as a Pineapple juice which was....hummm the best smoothie so far. I brough some to the office and everyone loved it. Smoothie Girl is back!! I'll also make some muffins when I come back to Monteverde. Now, leaving in 2 days, it's going to be too short to save the food if I have too much. From the crepe I still have a lot of flour and milk but fortunately, it can be kept quite easily while I'm not in Monteverde!

Tonight is Crepe party!!! Let's see what's going to happen!

Oh yes! I nearly forgot...tomorrow night...i'll take a dance class!!! Jajaja Poor people who are going to dance with me...hope they will bring good shoes...

Didn't show you my new car:.....

And always remember: PURA VIDA!!!

National symbol of Costa Rica: Guaria Morada

RAIN!!!

08/03/2011

What a nice feeling to get up at 5am, well rested! Well it's true that going to bed at 9:00 helps!

This morning the kids had free time so we didn't have to meet them. I did some work in the office and at 8:45 Muni and Chiquitin came to show me around so that I can know where everything is. It was quite nice to have a private visit and to learn a lot of anecdotes I'll be able to use with my groups.

That's something I really want to do:

The afternoon went smoothly, I kept working on administrative task: questionnaire and certificates.

On the afternoon we had a surprise: RAIN!!!!

It's raining and I'm happy! You might think "she's crazy"...but i'm NOT called Loca for nothing ;)

To be more serious, I was happy at first because everyone told me than in Monteverde there is always a lot of rain but that's nothing to see with the European rain...I wanted to check it by myself... well to be honest I was disappointed. It was a thin rain and it lasted for no more than 40 minutes... sure I'll have another chance to see heavy rain!

Let me introduce you to my other colleague Arelys, of should I say to my boss as she is head of the group's department where I'm working.

 

One in all... not a lot to say about today! 

Treasure Hunt and Cooking class

07/03/2011

Treasure hunt!! Today's word!! It was the activity organized for the kids to get to know Santa Elena.

They had to find 10 places in the city center of Santa Elena and took photos to prove they had been there. Among the photo were famous places of the town like the police station, the Donde Henry's coffee, the Serpentarium... but they also had to take a picture of the Monteverde's symbol which is a morpho: a blue butterfly.

After what we went to the school for a cooking class. They or I should say "we" learnt how to make "Arroz con pollo" which is Chicken and rice... well it's not only rice and a chicken breast....it took us 1 hour to prepare and we were 10 to work....

What you need:

I don't know if I need to mention the two first ingredients but let's do it for the blonds who read the blog^^

• Rice and Chicken!!
• Corn
• Tomatoes
• Black beans
• Green beans
• Carrots
• Plantains
• Sweet chili
• Aromates
• Celery
• Lettuce
• Red cabbage
• Cornmeal
• Salt
• Water

1. First of all you need to cook the rice
2. Then you put some water to boil with some aromates and the celery. When the water boils, put the chicken in it to be cooked.
   
   
   
3. Mix the cornmeal with some water and a bit of salt to have a compact mass
4. Make some some balls with the mass and flatten it to have some thin pancakes.
5. On a flat pan, cook the "tortillas" (=thin pancakes)
6. Cook the black beans
7. Cut everything left in small pieces and grate the carrots
   
8. For the salad, mix together: lettuce, tomatoes, half of the carrots and red cabbage
9. Once the chicken is cooked, you need to fray it...yes yes..to fray it!
10. Put a big frying pan on the fire and put in it the corn, the green beans, part of the carrots, the chicken
11. Mix everything together during approximately 10minutes
12. Then add the rice and cook everything together for another 10 to 15 minutes.
    
    
    
    
    
13. During this time, put some oil to fry.
14. Cut the plantains in neat but long slices: cut in the direction of the length and not width.
15. When the oil is boiling, put the plantains slices to fry

   16. To have a typical plate take some of the rice and chicken, put some salads, some black beans, 1 tortilla and some plantains slices.

   17. Don't forget the most important: ENJOY!

We all enjoyed immensely our food. Muni and I were eating with the 3 teachers and talking about the Tortillas, we came to speak about the French crepes...Well as it was to foreseen...I'm going to make some on wednesday's night for all of us.

On the afternoon, the kids wen to their classes and Muni and Arelys showed me all the administrative tasks I will have to do. It's not complicated as most of it I've already done during my placement in AIM but it takes a lot of time to check it twice ...or more!

I went to go some shopping: eggs, flour, milk...well everything to make crepes!!

I have a problem with my fridge...it's a freezer...or at least it keeps thing so cold that it freezes it!

It was quite funny at first but the problem was that I had to eat everything very quickly. So today' smoothie was Mangoes + Bananas + Orange juice....YUMMY

And then, time to go to bed.... it's already 9:00pm!!! jajajaj