Costa Rica, part 3: Orosi and Irazú

After leaving Cabinas Cecelia and Santa Maria de Dota, we headed to Orosi. We had a somewhat frustrating time getting through Cartago, but once we found one of the only street signs in the city and figured out where we were on a map, we headed in the right direction. Before we got into town we stopped at Mirador Orosi to get a view of the whole valley. It was awesome to see the river and the town on such a beautiful clear day.

Here's Mac and I at the Mirador, after I figured out how to use the self-timer on my camera:

Once we got into the town of Orosi we got turned around a little bit and asked two teenage boys for directions. After telling us where to go, they offered to sell us some of the avocados that they had with them. We got 5 beautiful avocados for 1,000 colones or about $2. We finally got to the hotel, checked in and had a snack with the newly acquired avocados and the bread that we bought a couple days ago. Our hotel room had a small kitchenette, which worked out perfectly.

Here's the view over town from the balcony of the hotel:

We decided to spend the afternoon doing a circle tour of the Orosi Valley around Lake Cachi. Our first stop was supposed to be the Ruins of Ujarras, but we realized we missed the turn when we came across the dam that was supposed to be our second stop. The signage in Costa Rica is less than ideal to say the least. But we stopped once we had crossed the bridge near the dam and got out to walk across the bridge and see the lake that it creates (Lake Cachi) and the river in the valley below. Here's a shot of the dam and nearby cultivated hillsides:

We got back in the car and headed back to the Ruins. It was really hot, but it was nice to see the ruins and walk through the surrounding park. This church was originally built in 1693 and is Costa Rica's oldest church:

Here's a shot of me at the ruins:

The surrounding area was really beautiful. The orange trees that you see were actually flowering trees that were in bloom all over the central valley:

And this sign kind of cracked us up. The graphic in the bottom right is what makes it really funny:

The next stop on the tour was La Casa del Soñador. It is a house that was built by an artist and woodworker out of wood and bamboo and some parts of it are intricately carved. There are also lots of little carvings for sale inside the house.

It was a little confusing if the guy actually lived there or not (or if he was even still alive), and the space was very small. Both the guy at the hotel front desk and our guidebook made a point of mentioning this place, so I think we had higher hopes. It was interesting, but didn't "wow" us:

Then we stopped at this really lovely restaurant on the lake for lunch. I had delicious crepes with spinach and sweet corn and Mac had ceviche, and yes, we tried some more of the local beer. It was a hot afternoon and the ice cold beer (and the seltzer) tasted great.

After lunch we walked down to the lake to enjoy the breeze and the view over the water:

We had fun taking photos in the pretty scenery. Here's Mac pointing out some cute little ducklings:

And an arm's length shot of the two of us:

And a nice shot that Mac took of me under this great big tree that was at the end of a little peninsula that jutted out into the lake. Mac said he thought it looked very "Alice in Wonderland":

We soon got on our way to finish up the circle tour and head back to Orosi. We had to cross this narrow old one-way bridge on the way back, and it didn't help that this guy was just standing in the middle of it:

We stopped at a grocery store in Orosi to pick up some more bottled water and ran into some Americans who were living in Orosi for a few months. The woman wanted nothing more than a jar of Ragu tomato sauce, but they didn't have it. We had fun checking out what they had to offer and even picked up a can of Rum and Coke to try later.

After parking the car and dropping off some stuff at the hotel, we ventured out to walk around town. Orosi is really quite small and the people are very friendly. We ran into the Americans again and waved Hi. It's amazing how quickly you can find a friendly face in a small town. We walked through a section of town with brand new homes and then found the footbridge that goes across the river:

Here you can see where the old footbridge once stood. The green rectangle on the near shore is completely collapsed into the river. The new footbridge gets quite a bit of use. In the 15 minutes or so that we were here at least a dozen people walked over it in either direction.

Here's a view of the river from on the bridge:

And of the bridge itself:

We walked back toward town and got a closer look at the church in town, which is the oldest still-operating church in the country. It was closed, so we didn't get to see inside. It's fairly modest on the outside, but had a really nice lawn and landscaping:

It sits on the edge of the soccer field in the middle of town. Most towns that we went to had a main church, a park and/or a soccer field. And most of the directions we got involved where something was located in relation to one or more of these locations. For example "It's 100 meters from the north side of the Parque". Not many of the streets are named, so having a map with landmarks is also extremely helpful.

We ate dinner at a restaurant that's known for it's typical Costa Rican food. Mac got a huge plate of fajitas and I got a vegetarian cosado with the standard rice, beans, plantains, veggies, chayote and some tortilla chips. I also got a banana daquiri, which was really tasty!

We wandered through town a bit more on our way back to the hotel. Once we got to the hotel we used the internet connection to make some plans for the beach and looked at some maps to figure out our plan for tomorrow. We also shared that can of Rum and Coke, which was actually surprisingly good for what it was:

We woke up the next morning and had a small breakfast of more avocado and bread in our hotel room, and got a cup of tea and a mug of coffee at the hotel coffee shop. I had to take a photo of the little hotel parking lot. Clearly, this is the standard rental car in Costa Rica. Ours in the one in the middle:

On the way out of town we were stuck behind this truck loaded with fruit. We would often see trucks like this stopped on the side of the road, selling their fruit. We eventually found enough of a straightaway to pass. Another thing about driving in Costa Rica is that there are very few marked passing lanes. When someone knows they're going slow they'll put on their left turn signal to say "I know you're going to pass me, that's cool" or "there's no one coming, I think you can make it now". They will often slow down even more as you pass them to make sure you can do it safely. It actually works out well on these winding mountain roads.

We headed out of Orosi to the top of the Irazú volcano. The drive was essentially straight up a mountain. About halfway up the mountain we came to this "big Jesus Christ" as the woman at the Irazú entrance referred to it. It certainly is a noticeable landmark! It's also the place where you can go left to continue up to Irazú, or turn right and get to another volcano, Turialba, which is currently closed because of recent activity. I guess you have to have someone watching over you when you live or work on the side of an active volcano!

The mountainside (volcanoside?) that we drove up was particularly lush and we saw many farmers working the fields. You would think that volcanic soil wouldn't be good for growing things, but apparently it is:

The cows like it, too! There was a lot of livestock, sometimes tethered, mostly just roaming free, along the side of the road. Mostly cows and horses, but the occasional goat, too. They seem to know that the road is a bad place to be. We saw many very close to the road, but none got in our way:

Twenty-six kilometers past "the big Jesus Christ" and we finally made it to the top of Irazú! There was a very sweet woman at the kiosk who took our money and explained in broken English where we could go and where we couldn't, and also told us that we shouldn't spend more than an hour at the top because the air quality was poor thanks to Turialba's recent activity.

Here is a shot of the main cauldron and the brightly colored water that sits inside it. The color of the water is due to minerals found in the rock. It's a crater lake, so there is no inlet or outlet, it is filled only by rainwater, and we were there in the dry season, so it was pretty low.

We were told by both our guidebook and the front desk of the hotel that it would be really cold at the top. We bundled up, but really didn't need so many layers. It was a lovely day and for the most part we were in the sun above the clouds.

Here's another shot of the lake. This was taken while standing on the fence and holding my camera above my head to get a better view of the lake.

The surrounding landscape was rather "moonlike" with dark soil and ridges that looked like dried lava flow:

Here's Mac getting a better view:

And the two of us. There was a group of tourists coming in just as we were leaving and we snagged one to take this photo. We got there early enough to enjoy an uncrowded and unclouded view and walk along the edge of the crater.

Near the gift shop and snack bar we noticed this trash can had Mac's name on it. Of course we had to take photos.

This one was Mac's idea:

There is another small viewpoint above the main area where you can see the lake. We tackled the poorly paved road to make it up there and it was neat to be at the highest point on a volcano in Costa Rica. Here's the view from there of the main crater:

The clouds really started rolling in while we were up there. Here's Mac at the top. Apparently on a clear day you can see both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans from up there. Obviously, we were not treated to that view:

The the sign with the official altitude:

After having a snack at the snack bar and doing a little souvenir shopping we got on our way to our next stop: San Ramon. We had a fairly easy drive all the way through Cartago and around San Jose, with only a few moments of not being sure we were doing the right thing. Again, that lack of signage can be a little frustrating. But eventually we made it to Casa Amanecer.