Monday- Check in with the Doctors and tour of Britt

First up on Monday was a trip to Hospital Clinica Biblica to meet the Doctors and take care of some paperwork. The hospital is quite modern and very clean and orderly. There seem to be several waiting areas throughout instead of one huge holding area like in the states. All the nurses still wear the white cap and uniform that in the States have been replaced by the less attractive green "scrubs".
 
Costa Rica aims to become the first "carbon neutral" country in the world and Hospital Clinica Biblica is the first hospital in Latin America to be certified by EARTH University's C-Neutral program.

We were met at the hospital entrance by Starlene Spencer from Medical Tours Costa Rica, our liaison for our time here. She is a Costa Rican born to American missionaries and is fluent in both English and Spanish. Very helpful since Marcia and I speak only enough Spanish to say hi and which way to the restaurant. More about Starlene later.  

Marcia's Doctors are Dr. Oscar Oeding Bermúdez & Dr. Carlos Wu Chin. 

Once done with the preliminary meetings we were free for the rest of the day. Starlene put us in touch with Go Easy Tourism Solutions Costa Rica. Eric picked us up at our hotel and drove us to one of the more popular coffee roasteries, Cafe Britt, in Barva de Heredia about an hour from the hotel.

 

Not sure what these guys had to do with coffee production but it was a good way to kill time before the tour began.

We learned about the history of coffee in Costa Rica, the process of how coffee is grown and harvested plus a tasting tutorial. Yes, slurping is involved much like it is in wine tasting! Our guides, Carmen and Tino, were informative and goofy but fun. 

Marcia volunteered to demonstrate how to taste coffee. Here she is slurping!

Back to the hotel for dinner in one of the 5 restaurants on site. Tomorrow~ the waterfalls and animal refuge!