We were chilled and somewhat dispirited after our vain attempt to view the Poás Volcano.  Our mood improved 
rapidly when Dario drove us to café on an idyllic coffee plantation.   The café's name indicated that the plantation was a family business that had been in operation for three generations: Café Tres Generaciones.  Coffee remains one of Costa Rica's chief exports,  Fortunately for me, not all of it is shipped out of the country.

Hydrangeas (Hortensias)

         After we had downed mugs of steaming coffee, we strolled in the garden.  Hydrangeas, Hortensias in Spanish, grew in profusion, as did amaryllis and Bird of Paradise flowers.  Dario showed us the coffee ripening on the handsome trees.  The red fruit had to be picked by hand.  The coffee fruit, called cherries, contained the seeds that we know as coffee beans.  The beans would be washed and roasted, and, eventually, ground.  As a coffee aficionada, I appreciated all the stages of cultivation that brought the essential beverage to my table every morning.   

Coffee cherries 

Bird of Paradise flowers in the coffee plantation's garden