MUNGO EATS Latin America

Our first day up in the cloud forest was a bit of an errand day.  We booked some activities for tomorrow, and we actually did a little souvenir shopping.    Souvenir shopping is pretty difficult actually.  Not only do we have to find things that we like (or that others will like), but we also have to find things that are not breakable, are packable and let’s face it, are small.  We have very limited space dedicated to souvenirs and mementos. 

We had lunch in a restaurant called the Tree House Cafe, and it was, as the name suggests, up in a tree.  The limbs of the tree ran through the restaurant, and the waiters, would just duck around them to get to the various tables.  I wonder how many times they hit their heads, before they figured out where all the limbs were. 

In the afternoon, we visited a cheese factory.  Now before you all start groaning, “Oh no, not another Cheese post”, I hereby solemnly swear to never write about cheese again, after this post.  You get to sample the cheese you see, so how could I say no to a tour?  Anyway, it was quite interesting.  The factory processes 45,000 litres of milk daily into cheese.  The Monteverde cheese company was founded by a group of Quakers that came to Costa Rica from the US because they disagreed with the idea of the draft.  We were told they thought about coming to Canada, but it was too cold.  The fellow giving us  the tour, Ronald, was born in Wisconsin (where they know cheese) and he told us that cheese making in Costa Rica had to be modified to meet the demands of the Central American Palate.  Where a Wisconsin cheddar is aged a minimum of 7 months, Central Americans like their cheese mild, so the longest aged cheddar in this country is 6 months.  No wonder we have a hard time finding good cheese. 

Maybe it isn’t that interesting to read about, but I had fun and so did the kids.  Tomorrow we move onto EXTREME adventurers… zip lines, hanging bridges and butterflies.  Yippee! 

Oh, one last note.  As we were getting ready for bed, this creature decided to enter our room. I am not sure what it is, but it was about 2 1/2 inches long.   I know it is not a great picture, but I had to take it quick.  That is my shirt it is crawling up and I really wanted to get it off me before it reached skin.  This is the first runner up for “Biggest Bug  We’ve Seen”.  Here’s another view, the view I had as he walked up my leg! Eeks!