Day trip to Zarcero

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We awoke on Sunday morning and decided that since we still had the rental car we’d better make good use of it and not sit home. We started off driving the opposite direction from San Ramon and ended up in the town of Piadades Sur. It is a quaint little town with a great turn out for Sunday soccer matches. It seems the women go to church while the men play or watch ‘futbol’. We cruised the town for awhile then Bill decided to take us elsewhere. Callista & I had no idea where we were headed but were willing participants. Before long the road was familiar to me as he and I had visited Zarcero on our first trip to Costa Rica. We had wanted to take Callista there to see the topiaries in the central park.
Zarcero is situated north and east of San Ramon. Between San Ramon and Zarcero are not any towns of real significance when exiting San Ramon through the northern part of town. The drive is about 45 minutes through cattle country in the upper reaches of the central highlands. When reaching Zarcero one is almost on the continental divide and can roll over the mountains at Zarcero and proceed down into an area known as the central lowlands where one might find a main town known as Ciudad Quesada or better know to the Tico’s (locals) as San Carlos.

(A special thanks to Bill for helping with the directions on the postings. He’s writing the portions describing how to get to the areas we visit.)

Moon Handbooks, Costa Rica book describes the drive from San Ramon to Zarcero as a drive as lovely as a fairy tale. I’d have to agree.

The main attraction in Zarcero is the central park with its beautiful topiaries. Our pictures do not do them justice. Although we were lucky enough to enjoy a nice clear day the shadows do not allow for great pictures. Some are abstract shapes while others are of helicopters, animals and dancing people. At least that’s what we saw. Bear was exited to ‘visit’ each and every topiary and give it his personal stamp of approval.

We wandered around the central park thru all the topiaries stopping to enjoy an ice cream cone just as church let out. Shortly there after we were excited to catch a parade of young people showing off their cars. We still don’t understand why anyone would want a Corvette in this country with the roads in the condition they are and the speed bumps in every town but at least one person does. I guess young people everywhere want “cool” cars.

We stopped for lunch on our way home at La Cocina de Turno, Dona Childa. What a treat to here what sounded like steel drum music coming from a type of bamboo zylaphone. Callista was less than please with her arroz con pollo but Bill enjoyed his casado. Casado is an interesting thing that we only learned a reasonable explanation for last night. Casado is the Spanish word for married. They join or marry several things on your plate with your meat of choice. Casado con pollo for example is a grilled chicken breast with black beans and rice as well as picadillo, (cooked diced vegetables) vegetable salad, a couple of corn tortilla’s and a fried plantain. I would call it typical Costa Rican food. Casado seems to be one of the cheapest things on the menu most places we go. For an inexpensive meal with lots of different things to try I highly recommend it.

Pura Vida,
Jen

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Comments

[Cyn]

Wow!!
How beautiful. What a nice day trip. Cyn

[Cristina]

music
The instrument is called a marimba. It is quite a traditional instrument, and you will see it when people do traditional dances. The sound is so beautiful!