Turrialba

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On Sunday we got up leisurely and the the girls all ate fruit and granola while Tim decided he needed the more substantial breakfast that was offered downstairs by the kitchen there. While we sat on the balcony and nibbled, Tim received fruit, juice, gallo pinto, eggs and bread.

When we arrived the night before we discussed with the manager that we wanted to go to the Volcano Turrialba and also the Archeologic Discovery Guayabo. The driver called his colleague who had a 4 wheel drive Diahtsu (?) and we made an arrangement that he would take us to the two places for 40,000 colones which was about $80 for all of us. We decided that was okay and we loaded into his mini SUV and headed for the Volcano. It took a long time to get up to the volcano and we passed many milk cows and several dairies. There were lots of signs for homemade cheese and butter along the road. On the way up the driver told us that we just passed through his neighborhood and of course he had lots of honking to do to say hi to his friends and family. We actually passes his sisters on their way to church.

After quite a while of nice road and then some very rough unpaved roads we arrived at the park and signed in with the ranger their. We drove through the entrance and only could go a little farther before the driver told us that was it with his car. if we wanted to get to the top to see the craters we would have to hike. The girls had only flip flops and sandals on but somehow made it to the top. It was quite a hike and we were thankful for the coolness on the top. The day was not very clear and we couldn't see the views down under the clouds to the valley below or across the horizen to other volcanos, other peaks or to the oceans as we had heard. We were able to see one of the three craters and there were columns of vaporous gas coming from various cracks in the area. These are called fumaroles (spanish or also english?) which I tried to film with my movie camera. The girls are making a movie and we gave a sort of video diary of what we were seeing. While we were up their we saw one ranger looking around and taking notes on a clip board. He had on a respirator and there were signs that said that one must enter at their own risk. I did smell the sulfurous gas and had a strange headache at one point, but we were able to breathe okay.

Affter we took our photos we headed back down and the driver took us to a place to get some take away chicken tortillas. We needed to take out and eat in his car, otherwise we would not be able to make it ti Guayabo and visit before it closed at 3:30pm. So we slurped our frescos and tried to not to get the juice all over his car. We managed to get to Guayabo in plenty of time.

Guayabo is an ancient site where indigenous people from before the time of Christ had set up sofisticated water storage and drainage systems using large rocks. These have been unearthed and carefully maintained by archeologists. Their were really nice paths all around these structures and we were able to walk all around the structures and enjoy a lot of plants and shady jungle in this park. This park is not really a tourist attraction. There is very little written in English anywhere and we saw no other Gringos or Europos anywhere at the park. The ticos were there having picnics and enjoying their national treasures. It was a really pleasant afternoon.

After Guayabo we loaded back into the taxi and headed for the hostel. We were all very tired and almost nodding off. Once we arrived we rested for a little while and then went out to dinner at a really nice restaurant called the Feria (the agricultural fair). There we all had the fish which was delicious and our bill for all 4 of us with frescos was $17 including the tip. Afterwards Kristen and Allison asked us to make video diaries about why we were visiting Costa Rica and what we did while we were hanging around with them.

We were all so tired that evening that we were all in bed by 10pm. We really needed our sleep for an early day of packing and traveling the next day.

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Photos

Tim eats a taco
Tim ordered a taco at the Turrialba bus station and received a salad with a taquero in a bag.

Kids in the back seat
Here are the youngsters all in the back while I ride shotgun in the taxi to the Volcano

Dawn and Tim
We take a break hiking up to the volcano.

Taxista
Our driver was Chico and he and his little SUV worked very hard to get us up the volcano.

Fumaroles
This is one of the three craters that are active. Lots of vaporous gases are coming from the area which is the white smoke seen here.

Tim and the twins
We wanted to show Barbara W that Nabisco is selling their products here in Costa Rica. Tim is holding a small package of Chips Ahoy.

Boys on Horse
Here these kids were chasing our taxi and we asked them to stop for a photo. The red hair and freckles on the boy in front is really unusual here.

At Guayabo
Here we all all posing in front of the ancient aquaduct system. We had a nice afternoon here.

The twins (gemalas in spanish)
Kristen is on the left and Allison on the right. Kristen is studying to be a pharmacist and Allison will be working on editing movies in LA this fall.