Advertisement
Published: December 18th 2009
Edit Blog Post
Happy to report everything went smoothly on our trip from Tampa to Miami via Amtrak, and on our flight to San Jose. We cruised through immigration and customs very easily with no lines. We were able to get to our hotel very easily. We spent our first day getting to know the neighborhood we are staying in. Our hotel is nice and basic, and we settled in right away. We decided to book a few tours for our first days here. The past couple of days have been jam packed abosolutely fantastic.
We spent Wednesday heading to Parque Nacional Volcan Irazu, Cartago and the Orosi valley. We had a very nice tour guide and 2 ladies traveling from Venuzuela were also on the tour. The volcano is inactive and is the highest volcano at 11,000 feet. We definately felt the altitude! The drive up was a narrow winding road - the views were incredible. We were able to walk around the crater and spent a bit of time there taking it all in. After having a coffee break there, we headed to Cartago to see the Basilica de Nuestro Senore de los Angeles, a very well known church. It is
known for the face of the Virgin Mary which appeared on a stone. The stone is kept behind the Church and there is holy water there - many people make a pilgrimage there, often on there knees- for the healing qualities of the water. We saw some people in the church approaching the alter on their knees. It was an interesting experience. From there, we headed onwards to the Orosi Valley ' which is an agricultural area - lush rolling green hills, coffee plantations - just gorgeous. We stopped for lunch at a restaurant right on a lake and had a typical meal - rice, beans, plantains, and vegetables or meat. Our last stop of the day was in the village of Orosi - which is incredibly serene and quaint. We spent a bit of time walking through a pretty church and the small town. Couldn´t have asked for a better day - but we were in for even more of a treat on Thursday
Thursday we had a tor with a larger group - we met folks from all over, Brazil, Italy, Canada, and ironically ' several people from Chicagoland. We started our day off at a Coffee
Plantation - Doka Estates, its the oldest family owned coffe plantation in the area. After a hearty costa rican breakfast - rice, beans, fruit, eggs... - we were off to tour the plantation and see how coffee is produced ' very interesting. Of course we got to sample the final product!! A short distance from there is the Parque Nacional Volcan Poas - which is an active volcano. We walked in to the main crater - which produces a HUGE fumarole of sulfurous gas - luckily for us the wind was blowing away from us. We were also able to hike a bit in to an inactive crater which has a lake, and then hike onward to the highest point before heading down from the craters. We drove through rolling hills - lots of cattle, and farms, the area also produces ornamental flowers and there are greenhouse tents covering much of the hillsides. All along the way are artisans goods, fruit stands and little restaurants - we were able to stop at a few. We headed to our next stop - La Paz Waterfall Gardens. The road there is fairly treacherous - there was substantial damage in this area last
year from an earthquake. There is alot of construction on the roads to repair the damage, and the side of the road is essentially a cliff of red mud. La Paz is an area with an animal sanctuary ' including butterfly garden, hummingbirds, monkeys, aviary, poisonus frogs and snakes and a feline area. We got to have another tasty costa rican lunch - which provided fuel for the next leg in our adventure. In addition to getting to see animals up close - there are hiking trails and an amzing waterfall. The waterfall is 400 stairs down - but worth every step. It was just beautiful. Currently - there are only 2 waterfalls to see, there were 2 other falls ' but the trails were not accessible after the earthquake. We had so much fun - everything was so beautiful, we were speechless most of the time. We were completely exhausted - nothing like some clean fresh air and outdoor activity - we slept like rocks last night!
Today, we are just taking it easy and relaxing a bit. We had a super breakfast here, the hotel includes a very tasty homemade meal -we´ll be figuring out what we
want to do for the next couple of days. We are thinking a day in San Jose and a trip to a couple of nearby towns - Sarchi and Grecia. Definately going to be practicing the spanish! Edward is doing pretty well - but I get a bit flustered. We may be able to take an intensive 4-5 day course at our next location...
OK - I am going to try to pick out some pictures and will hopefully be able to ad them shortly. Hope that everyone is doing well, keeping warm and having lots of fun. We miss everyone and will catch you soon
Advertisement
Tot: 0.1s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 12; qc: 57; dbt: 0.061s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Mom
non-member comment
wow
Wonderful descriptions. I'm going to try and pull some maps and plot out what you're seeing. So I'm thinking you'll won't be wanting rice and beans when you get home.:) Shara, when I get flustered in Italy, I think of one word in Italian and work around it. Perhaps that will help you in Spanish. Can't wait to see pics. Love ya. xoxoxoxoxoxox