Day 13- Tours and Clinic

Today for breakfast, I had a cheese quesadilla for breakfast along with some pineapple and watermelon. It is interesting to see the different styles of meals here because I've had some pretty different things, especially for breakfast, that I would never have thought of eating for breakfast in the United States. We then were on our way to the Trapache Farm. Here, we were given a tour by one of the family members through the sugar cane plants, coffee plants, and banana trees. We were able to see the whole coffee process all the way from planting the seeds, picking the seeds, drying the seeds, peeling the seeds, drying them again, peeling them again, sorting the different grades of seeds, and finally roasting the seeds. It was really neat and engaging to learn how coffee is made and the hard labor that is needed in order to get a cup of coffee for breakfast! We also learned the process of getting sugar from the sugar canes growing in the field. We ended our tour by having lunch made for us by the ladies who live on the farm, which was delicious!

We had a little freetime when we got back to our school before Spanish class in which I started feeling really sick. There were about five people in our group that did not feel well so we had some down time for everyone to rest up before sitting through Spanish class. During class, I could not concentrate at all because my head was pounding so hard, had a fever, and my through was swollen. Our professor, Dr. Powell, decided not to risk anything while we were in a different country, so she told three of us that we needed to go to the nearest clinic ASAP. There are no hospitals in Monteverde, the closest one is 4 hours away so we went to a little clinic, where luckily there was an English speaking doctor. He told me that I had a tonsil infection and prescribed me some medicine to go pick up at the pharmacy. Dr. Powell insisted that we go right home to bed and she would go pick up our medicine and bring it to our house. My mama tica made me some lemon tea (I think that's what it was) and off to bed I go! Today was quite the adventure, and with a little rest, I'm sure I'll be better in no time!