Volcan Arenal y Monteverde 18 al 20 de Junio

Después de relajarnos con la naturaleza de la Bahía de Drake fuimos al norte, a la localidad de la Fortuna para ver el volcán Arenal soltando lava por la noche. El volcán entró en actividad en 1968 y destruyó tres pueblos salvándose unicamente una aldea que llamaron la de la fortuna. El viaje nocturno para ver la lava nos decepcionó porque debido a las nubes y la fuerte lluvia impedía ver la lava que caía volcán abajo. Algo vimos pero muy decepcionante. Después fuimos a bañarnos un rio natural de aguas termales debido a la actividad del volcán, se calentaron dos semanas antes de que entrara en erupción (como un aviso que nadie entonces supo por qué) y desde entonces sigue bajando el agua caliente (a unos 42 grados nos dijeron)
Tras la decepcionante visita al volcán fuimos al pueblo de Santa Elena donde hicimos Canopy extremo. Esto es un deporte de aventura que consite en ir colgado de unas cuerdas y saltar de un árbol a otro sujeto a ese cable (con arneses de seguridad) Muy divertido y no lo hago más :o) Además los monitores nos dieron una sorpresa al final y tuvimos que hacer el tarzán (una soga atada a un árbol y de la que te tenías que tirar tipo pendulo a gran altura) Esto si que no lo hago nunca más. La sensación es como la de la lanzadera cayendo al vacío pero solo atado a una soga por la que primero bajas según te tiras del árbol y después subes (nunca he hecho puenting pero debe ser algo parecido tambien.) En general Fortuna y Santa Elena ha sido la zona que menos nos ha gustado de Costa Rica porque abusan mucho en los precios a los extranjeros y te asedían para que les compres o cojas un taxi o te quedes en sus hostales asi que decidimos marcharnos hacia las playas de Montezuma después de tres días en esta zona en la que nos quedamos con la aventura del canopy!

Drake Bay and Corcovado National Park

15/06/09 - 17/06/09

From Manuel Antonio, we headed south to the Osa Peninsula with Martine and Baudewyn, the couple from Amsterdam that we had been sharing a room with (they are the ones wearing the life jackets in the photo below). It was a long journey so an early start was called for. Our first bus took us back to Dominical of all places, which had been the beach we had visited a few days earlier. We certainly didn´t think we would ever have another reason to go back there, but there we were, and it actually didn´t seem too bad the second time around :) From there we took another bus to Parmar Norte, a taxi to Sierpe, and finally a boat to Drake Bay (which gets its name from Sir Francis Drake who docked there in 1579). Before reaching the sea, the boat took us along the River Sierpe, which had lots of greenery floating about in it, which, we learned, is called lirio (that´s the Spanish word...I'm not sure of the English translation). The plant was brought over from Columbia to protect the wildlife from the chemicals used to fumigate the banana plantations alongside the river. The United Fruit Company used to have several plantations in the area until the labour unions started demanding a payrise for the workers (or so we´ve been told). The banana trees have since been replaced with African palms, which produce African palm oil, and because the African palms do not require the same chemical treatment, the amount of lirio in the water just keeps on growing. When we reached Drake Bay, after a rather bumpy crossing, we noticed that there was no dock - everyone had to jump off the boat into the water, while a few men kept the boat steady - not the easiest thing to do with the tide going in and out, but fun nevertheless :)

Drake Bay is a very small and sleepy town, and we loved the few days we spent there. The highlight of the trip was the day spent at the Corcovado National Park, which was an hour and a half´s boat ride away. We were a group of seven, plus our guide, who was brilliant and knew all the right places to look in to find the animals. On the way to the park we stopped a few times to see dolphins and flying fish (they really do appear to fly), and later on in the park while out on the coast, we even saw sharks. They were bull sharks, which are one of the three types of shark known to attack humans, so thank goodness they were quite far away :) We also saw all four types of monkey that inhabit Costa Rica (there is a picture of a howler monkey below - they make the most awful sound), two tapirs, the biggest mammal in Costa Rica (we were able to get up close to one of them as our guide knew a place where they usually sleep - Vic has a great photo below), anteaters, crocodiles, peccaries and lots of birds, my favourite being the macaw because it´s so colourful. We even saw a few of them on the beach the next day (see photo above). We were lucky to stay at another great hostel (Cabinas Manolo), with very friendly owners. They even treated us to a few lychees from their tree - I had never eaten lychees before and never even seen them with their skin still on, so I didn´t have a clue what they were when they gave them to us, but I´ve developed quite a liking for them now :)

Bahia Drake 15 al 17 de Junio

Desde Manuel Antonio salimos hacia Bahia Drake al sur de Costa Rica, en la peninsula de Osa. Nos habian dicho que era el area mas salvaje de Costa Rica y estamos de acuerdo! Desde Manuel Antonio cogimos un bus hasta Dominical para coger otro bus que nos dejo en Palmar Norte. Viajamos con la pareja de holandeses que habiamos conocido en Manuel Antonio. En Palmar Norte conseguimos un taxi para los cuatro que nos llevo a Sierpe. Alli tomamos una barca, primero navegamos por el rio y despues por el mar hasta que llegamos a Drake, un pueblecito de un centenar de habitantes. Es un pueblo remoto con playas llenas de vida salvaje (monos, guacamayos, iguanas) y desde donde podriamos ir al parque de Corcovado. Dicen que el pirata ingles Sir Francis Drake llego a estas costas en 1579 y desde entonces tomo el nombre de Bahia Drake. Si llego el pirata el tesoro no lo hemos encontrado :o) Esta zona esta llena de cultivo de Palma africana con el que hacen aceite. El taxista nos conto que antes todo esta zona estaba plantada de bananos de la United Fruit Company (la Yunnay como dicen aqui) pero que la bananera se marcho hace unos anios a otra zona de Costa Rica donde los trabajadores pedian menos dinero. Una cosa que nos llamo la atencion en el rio Sierpe fueron los Lirios. Son unas plantas que bajan rio abajo en grandes cantidades. Fueron traidas de Colombia por las bananera americana para proteger la vida del rio cuando fumigaban los bananos. Desde que la bananera se marcho se han reproducido muchisimo y bajan en grandes cantidades.
La visita a Corcovado la hicimos con un guia profesional (que hasta llevaba un machete) Fue espectacular. En el mar de camino a Corcovado vimos delfines y peces voladores y en el parque cuatro especies de mono, dos tapires (el mayor mamifero en Costa Rica), osos hormigueros, guacamayos, peccaries (una especie de jabalies), una serpiente y muchas aves. Caminamos por el parque/selva y al llegar a la desembocadura del rio vimos un cartel que decia 'prohibido bañarse'. En esa desembocadura vimos dos cocodrilos, una tortuga y en la orilla del mar a pocos metros de nosotros un tiburon Toro (unos 2 metros) que hicieron la excursion muy interesante!

Aunque no nos pudimos bañar aqui :o(

Finalmente tomamos unos frutos llamados mamones chinos que el dueño de nuestro hostal se subio a recoger a un arbol y nos regaló. Tienen un sabor muy dulce y una vez que los pelas tienen forma de ojo sin pupila y una textura parecida a la uva pelada (Lauren en la foto con los mamones chinos)

Playa de Manuel Antonio 9 al 14 de Junio

Después de la subida al Chirripó decidimos pasar unos días de descanso en las playas del Pacífico. Primero fuimos a Dominical que no es una playa turística aunque está llena de surferos americanos. No nos gustó mucho ya que aparte de surf no había nada más que hacer. Además la playa estaba sucia, llena de troncos y ramas por lo que nadie se tumbaba a tomar el poco sol que hacía. Asi que decidimos ir un poco más al norte hacia Quepos y la playa de Manuel Antonio. Aquí por fín encontramos lo que buscábamos. Playas de arena blanca, limpias y rodeadas de palmeras con vida salvaje como monos, perezosos e iguanas (mas abajo podeis ver fotos de un mono, un perezoso, una iguana y yo haciendo el mono en el parque de Manuel Antonio.) Descansamos días enteros tumbados en la playa... vuelta y vuelta y nos quemamos a pesar del protector 50 pantalla total del Asda.

Allí vimos las finales de la NBA entre Orlando Magic y Los Angeles Lakers (Primer anillo de la NBA para nuestro amigo Pau Gasol!) y conocimos gente interesante como Tom de Michigan que viaja con su guitarra y se hospedó en nuestro hostal, el "Vista Serena". Tom (ver foto) tocaba la guitarra en el hostal y su linea favorita era "that shit is bananas" aunque no fue capaz de tocar la bamba..... Eric, un estudiante de medicina que está tan metido en sus estudios que se traga el oraldine despues de enjuagarse la boca (aunque dice que aun se acuerda de ducharse) y los holandeses Martine y Baudewyn (suena como bottle of wine) que se quedaron en nuestra habitación de cuatro literas y con los que marchamos rumbo a nuestro próximo destino. La Bahía de Drake, hasta ahora el más impresionante lugar para encontrar vida salvaje en Costa Rica.

Manuel Antonio

09/06/09 - 14/06/09

As a reward for our hike up Chirripo, afterwards we planned to spend four or five days at the beach. The first beach we headed to was Dominical, which was supposed to be one of the smaller and less touristic beaches, yet still popular. We did not like it! It's a great place for surfers, but we haven't had any lessons yet, and we didn't settle in Dominical long enough to have any, so although Vic really wanted to stay in one place for a few days, we decided to move on again the next day to Manuel Antonio, not knowing what to expect, but thinking that anywhere had to better than Dominical. The one night we spent there was quite fun though as we went to watch the NBA finals, and although we had to watch most of the game without sound, there was a great atmosphere and I found myself really enjoying it, so we ended up following the rest of the series over the next few days to see the LA Lakers beat the Florida Magic by 4 games to 1 (best of 7). We were cheering on the Lakers as they have a Spanish player, Pau Gasol, who Vic likes, and who has now become the first Spanish player to win at the NBA Finals.

To get to Manuel Antonio, we had to get the bus to a place called Quepos, from where we got a taxi to our hostel. From there, it was a quick ride on the bus for only 25p to get to the beach, where we spent quite a bit of our time and managed to get sunburnt...oops! The only annoying thing is that you are constantly approached by people selling things. Waiters from nearby restaurants offering food and drinks, others offering pineapple and olives, or coconuts or granizados (flavoured ice drinks). We did actually buy two of these and they were great. We went for la bomba (the bomb) which had 7 different flavours of syrup, as well as powdered and condensed milk. And there must have been about 15 different people selling ceramic pots in a variety of sizes and designs. We saw them everywhere...on the beach, walking along the street, even in restaurants. Apart from going to the beach, we also enjoyed just spending time on the terrace of our hostel, laying in the hammocks and watching the birds and monkeys below. We also had a great view of the sea from there and it was always so peaceful. We were in a room of four, and the first couple of nights, we shared with a girl called Alexis from Maryland, USA. After she left, a couple from Amsterdam, Martine and Baudewyn moved in, and the four of us actually ended up travelling on to the next place together. We met lots of other people during our stay there, it was a very sociable place and we highly recommend it to anyone travelling to Manuel Antonio. It's called Vista Serena, is in a great location, the prices are very reasonable and the people are great!!!

Manuel Antonio also has a National Park, with various different walks and three beautiful beaches. We didn't spend any time on the beaches there, preferring instead to hunt for animals, as we hadn't managed to see anything at Poas or Chirripo, and at first it seemed that we weren't going to be very lucky, as people would tell us that they had seen 4 or 5 monkeys in one place, and we wouldn't see a thing when we got there. We saw a couple of sloths (one with a baby) and lots and lots of lizards and similar-looking things (not sure what they're called but they're a bit bigger), but still after a couple of hours we hadn't seen any monkeys :( Our perseverance paid off though, as later on we saw two different groups of monkeys and got some great photos and videos. Unfortunately, we haven't worked out if we're able to put videos on here yet!

Mount Chirripo - Scaling Costa Rica´s Tallest Mountain

03/06/09 - 08/06/09

03/06/09
From Cartago, we moved on to San Isidro de El General, from where we were going to book our trip to Mount Chirripo, Costa Rica´s tallest mountain at 3820m. They tell you to book by telephone, but when no-one picked up, we decided to try and find the office and book in person. This turned out to be more difficult than expected and we got lost several times, but we finally managed to find it, and after some phone calls and a trip to the bank to make the payment, we had it all booked for two days´ time, meaning that we would have to move again tomorrow to spend the night in San Gerardo de Rivas, to start our climb in the early hours of Friday morning. We spent the rest of the day not doing very much, and we very naughtily had McDonald´s for lunch. I´m sure Caroline will be proud :) That evening, Costa Rica were playing the USA in a World Cup Qualifying match, so we went to a nearby bar to watch and have a few drinks. The atmosphere was great, especially so because Costa Rica, much to our surprise, beat the USA 3-1. Needless to say the locals were extremely pleased with the result.

04/06/09
The next day, before making the 2½ hour journey to San Gerardo, we went to the supermarket to buy some supplies for our mountain trek. We would be spending a total of three days in the park, and the only thing that was supplied was drinking water, and a place to stay. We had to carry all of our food with us, so we stocked up with some essentials and made our way to San Gerardo. When visiting the park, you have to first register at the office, which is located at the bus stop just before San Gerardo, so we got off there, leaving us with a 2km walk to our hotel, uphill with our big rucksacks. In our wisdom, or maybe it was just in mine, we had reserved a room at the hotel nearest to the start of the mountain trail, which funnily enough, happened to be the hotel furthest from the bus stop. It was a very difficult walk - the first km took us about 10-15 minutes, but the second km took us half an hour. I was struggling more than Vic was, but eventually we reached our hotel, and we stupidly thought, that if we could manage that climb with our big bags, we would easily be able to manage to walk up the mountain with only our small backpacks...how wrong we were. We had a good dinner that evening and packed our bags ready for the early start the next day.

05/06/09
We woke at about 5am to have some breakfast before setting off on the 14.5km climb to the shelter, which would serve as our accommodation for the next two nights. Leaving the hotel at about 6.30am, we thought that gave us plenty of time, although we later found out that other people had left as early as 4.30am. We thought we had got off to a good start when we had passed the first few kilometres and we were enjoying the exercise and the scenery, but soon after we came to a point in the path where it split in two. We had already been assured that it was impossible to get lost, and yet here we were, not knowing which way to go. We chose to go left, and it seemed to be ok for a little while, even though we were heading down rather than up, but we were a bit worried when we reached a gate that, albeit with some difficulty, we were able to pass through. When we reached a second gate and went through that one, we realised that we had gone wrong somewhere, as the path was very narrow and quite dangerous to walk on, so, feeling somewhat distraught, we turned back to the take the other path this time. This too, ended up to be wrong, and after going back and forth a couple of times, we went back the way we had come from, as we must have made a mistake earlier on. We found another path heading in an upwards direction, so we thought this must be the right one. I was already quite worn out by now, but we had to make up for the time we had lost, so we persevered, thinking that we must be nearing at least 5km by now. But to our horror, the next sign we reached was 4km...we could not believe it. We had already been walking for 3½ hours and I had almost drank all of my water. To make matters worse, soon after, it began to rain, and although it might have stopped briefly a couple of times, it pretty much rained constantly the rest of the way, a total of 6 hours. I can´t even begin to describe how difficult I found the next 10.5km, and I will never know how I managed to get to the shelter. It was honestly the most difficult thing I have ever done in my life, and I just couldn´t wait to reach the shelter and put on some dry clothes....but that didn´t turn out the way we had planned either. When we finally reached the shelter at 4pm, soaking wet and exhausted, we opened our bags to find that they too were soaked through, as was everything inside, and I mean everything. Our spare change of clothes, our towels, our sleeping bags, our passports and our money. We luckily managed to get some blankets from one of the men in charge, so were at least able to sleep in something dry, but where our room was so cold, we knew that we would have no dry clothes the next day, and so we didn´t think we would be able to make the final climb to the top of the mountain. After the disastrous day we had had, it just seemed wrong, that we should miss out on the best part of the trip.

06/06/09
As we expected, our clothes were still wet when we woke up early the next morning, so we knew we weren´t going anywhere. In the couple of hours´ sunshine in the morning, we managed to get at least some clothes dry for the next day, and the rest of the day was just spent in the shelter, because it was raining again. We had rented a gas cooker from our hotel so we at least were able to have some hot food, and our roommate, Daniel, from Germany, also very kindly shared his tea and coffee with us, which we were grateful for, as it was so cold. Not wanting the trip to be a complete waste, we decided to get up really early the next day to go up to the summit and get down again before making the long trip back down to our hotel. 25km in one day was asking a lot, especially of me, but we wanted to at least give it a go.

07/06/09 - 08/06/09
We woke up at 4.15am to set off as soon as it was light. We left the shelter at 4.50am. It was so peaceful at that time of the morning, and it felt good to be out in the fresh air. We managed to reach the summit in 2 hours, and the view was incredible. The last part involved climbing steep rocks, where you needed to use your hands to keep your balance. It was difficult, but I enjoyed it a lot more than our walk a couple of days ago, and it was such an amazing feeling to reach the top. We took some photos, wrote in the guest book, and started to make the very long walk back down. Getting back down the rocks took a lot longer than it had to climb up them, but we still managed to get back to the shelter in two hours, which was a lot quicker than we had anticipated the day before, so we were feeling quite positive for the walk back down to our hotel. The only thing that was worrying both of us, was that it could start raining at any moment, and that we would have to do the entire walk in the rain. But we must have been due some luck for a change, for we almost got the whole way down without any rain whatsoever. It was such a different experience to the one we had had on the way up. We hardly ate or drank anything the whole day, but just kept walking and walking, hoping to get back to the hotel before the rain came. We almost very nearly did it, but just before we reached 2km, it started. It was then that once again, we were unfortunate enough to lose our way. With less than a kilometre to go, we were faced with a choice of what path to take. We originally took the right one, but worried that it was the wrong one, we turned back again and actually took the wrong one. Doh...realising that this one was wrong, we eventually got back on the correct path and finally, thank God, reached the bottom. We realised then that on Friday, we had been wrong from the start, as the path we came back down on, was not the one we had taken. We had completely missed the entrance of the trail, heading instead into a biological reserve - we were so lucky to have made it on to the right trail at all the other day. Back in the hotel, we could laugh at how badly the whole thing had gone, but we were nevertheless really glad to have done it, and proud of ourselves for having been able to do it. Just for the record though, I never want to do anything like this again. We were in absolute agony the rest of that day and the next, so although we were due to move on again the day after, we extended our stay at our hotel so that we could get some proper rest. We did absolutely nothing the whole day, and we felt so much better for it, although my feet were still very painful. Even now, a few weeks later, I still have three very bruised toenails....yes, it seems that you can bruise even your toenails.

Cachi and Ujarras

02/06/09
Today was spent visiting Cachi and the ruins of Ujarras. A very kind man gave up his seat on the bus so that we would have a better view of the coffee plantations on the way. They also grow local vegetables in the area including chayote and ayote, which are similar to squash. I have already tried chayote; Vic of course has not :) About a twenty minute walk from the centre of Cachi, there is a huge dam, so we got off the bus early to have a proper look and enjoy the walk into town. On the way we visited the 'casa del soñador' (the dreamer´s house) which is a small shop filled with handcarved wooden sculptures. The place seems to be quite famous, as upstairs they have several newspaper cuttings plastered on the walls, but the sculptures themselves weren´t really our thing so we didn´t buy one. Cachi itself is a very small and quiet town, and we didn't spend much time there.

After some lunch, we got back on the bus to head to Ujarras. The one thing to see there are the ruins of an old church, which again lie about a twenty minute walk from the nearest bus stop. The ruins are situated in a small park and are not visible from the road we were on, so we almost walked right past them. Luckily, at that moment there was another group there and the driver kindly pointed us in the right direction. Later on our way back, that same driver, with a minibus full of students, slowed down next to us and offered us a lift. We think they were originally headed for Orosi, where we had been to the day before, but when we told them that we were going to Cartago, the driver offered to take us there instead. The students were from a school in San Ramon, and they were on day trip for their tourism studies. They were very a great group of people and were interested to know where we were from, and where we had been to in Costa Rica. Although they had already visited Cartago that day, they were going again for our benefit, and we are very grateful to all of them for the lift and the brilliant company. It was such a pleasure to meet them and they really made our day.

Paraiso and the Orosi Valley

01/06/09

The first day we ventured outside of Cartago on the bus, we headed to the Orosi Valley, intending to stop off at Paraiso along the way, both places having been recommended by various locals we had spoken to that morning. We had been told that Paraiso was less touristic, but still very beautiful and worth the visit, so when we got off the bus, we were surprised to find that there was nothing at all to see. Paraiso is Spanish for 'paradise' so we had set our hopes high on seeing some wonderful scenery, but it wasn't to be found here. We made an effort though and spent some time wandering around, but apart from a main square, the rest of the town was very residential. We chose a street to walk down, and towards the end of it, we met a lovely young boy with his adorable puppy, aptly named Mini, who was just seven months old. For me, this pair made the stop in Paraiso worthwhile.

Back on the bus, we somehow managed to completely miss the centre of Orosi, and instead got off the bus a few stops later, about a half an hour's walk away. The landscape in the valley was beautiful so we were happy to make the walk back, until it started to rain. Vic didn't mind it so much, but I'm still getting used to the idea of actually enjoying a walk in the rain :) The main square consisted of a large playing field (we have seen these in most towns so far), surrounded on three sides by the school, a restaurant (where we had a great dinner later that day) and the church, completed in 1743, which unfortunately was closed. But we were still able to have a good walk around the grounds and we spoke to one of the builders working on a new and bigger church, who told us that the original church will eventually be converted into a museum. Along the way, we managed to attract the company of a stray dog, who would not leave us alone. Whenever we stopped, he would lie down and wait for us. Feeling sorry for him, I asked Vic if we could buy him something to eat, and so we got him a few bits of meat from a small butcher's shop. He got a bit excited when we started to feed him, and then another dog showed up, which was a bit scary, so I left poor Vic to cope with the starving dogs while I started to try and make our escape. We hadn't thought about what we would do once there was no food left! We managed to get away into the restaurant, and we were amazed to see the dog sit down outside, as if waiting for us again, but someone else caught his attention a bit later, and that was the last we saw of him. He was the first of a few dogs that have followed us around so far on this trip...we seem to attract them everywhere we go :)

San Gerardo de Rivas - Cerro Chirripó

Del 3 de Junio al 8 de Junio

El 3 de Junio llegamos a San Isidro del General. Es una ciudad relativamente grande y con poco interes. ¿Por qué vinimos? está a pocos kilómetros del inicio del ascenso al Chirripó que es la montaña más alta del país con 3820 metros y que decidimos subir. Por la noche, en San Isidro fuimos a un bar céntrico donde vimos el partido clasificatorio para el mundial ( Costa Rica 3-1 USA) y que según los locales "les gringoleamos". De alli cogimos/agarramos un colectivo para ir al pueblo de San Gerardo de Rivas en la falda de la montaña. Una vez mas carretera no asfaltada por la que tardamos unas dos horas para un trayecto de 25 kilómetros. Alli aprovisionamos sopas, pasta, atún, maiz y una cocina de gas portable para empezar el ascenso.

El ascenso lo empezamos el viernes día 5 de Junio a las 6:30 am. Son 15 kilómetros hasta el refugio donde teníamos que pasar la noche y descansar para al día siguiente desde alli hacer los 5 últimos kilómetros hasta la cima. No se por qué pero empezamos mal. Nos perdimos nada más empezay y en vez de coger el camino de la montaña (el de la derecha) tomamos el de la izquierda que llevaba a una reserva biológica. Despues de unas tres horas (y de cruzar el rio por un puente y meternos por dos propiedades privadas) nos dimos cuenta de que ibamos por mal camino. Como no había nadie a quien preguntar (aparte de vacas y cienpies no vimos a nadie en unas cinco horas) dimos la vuelta hasta que encontramos el kilómetro 4 del camino de la montaña a las 10:00 am y con hora y media de retraso. Desde alli todo fue bien hasta que media hora después empezó a llover. Llegamos a las 4:30 pm al refugio, todavía lloviendo desde hacía seis horas, asi que toda nuestra ropa seca, dinero, toallas y sacos de dormir estaban empapados. Esa noche nos prestaron unas mantas (en el refugio no había calefacción ni duchas de agua caliente.) Al día siguiente en vez de subir a la cima nos tuvimos que quedar en el refugio secando toda la ropa, dinero, toallas y ropa interior porque no teniamos nada seco. En nuestra habitacíon conocimos a una chico alemán, Daniel, que se ofrecio a hacernos un té caliente. El domingo día 7 por la mañana, ya con ropa seca, salimos a las 5 de la mañana hacia la cima. Llegamos dos horas después tras escalar los ultimos 200 metros roca a roca. Muy contentos y bastante frio alli arriba a 3.820 metros. Desde la cima nos quedaban 20 kilómetros más de bajada durante todo el día. La bajada se nos dio mucho mejor auqnue nos perdimos en el último kilómetro ya que los cuatro primeros no los habíamos hecho correctamente al subir y no había muy buena señalización. Muy contentos de haberlo conseguido aunque al día siguiente casi no podíamos movernos del dolor de piernas, pies y uñas. Esperamos que os gusten las fotos (Lauren escribiendo en el libro del Chirripó, Vic señalando un tronco caido en el bosque tropical durante el ascenso y Vic en la cima)

Cartago: 1st to 2nd June

01/06/09

After spending the first four days of our trip in San Jose, on 1st June we moved on to Cartago, which was the colonial capital of Costa Rica for almost 300 years. After the relative luxury of our hostel in San Jose, the accommodation we had reserved in Cartago was a bit of a shock, but it's all part of the adventure I guess :)

Cartago itself does not have much to offer in the way of sights or things to do. We spent most of our two days in the surrounding countryside, which is very beautiful and a breath of fresh air after the dirt and noise of the capital, but more about those later.

The two things of note in Cartago are the basilica, which is breathtaking, both inside and out, and the ruins of an old church, which house a beautiful garden. You can't go inside but you're able to view the garden from various gates around the outside. We visited the basilica twice and both times managed to catch a service, which in spite of not being able to understand, I really enjoyed. The first time we were there, we were surprised when towards the end of the service a family of four shuffled past us on their knees along the centre aisle towards the altar. We had never seen anything like this before and were checking for other peoples' reactions to this strange sight, but it seems to be the norm here, for it wasn't long before the family were joined by several other worshippers. It was an incredible sight, and like proper tourists we were at the back taking photos. Well, actually, the first day I made Vic take them because I wasn't sure if it was allowed. He took two photos, one good and one not so good, and later on in the day, I accidentally deleted the good one, which is partly the reason we went back again the next day, when we took more photos and a video :)

Aside from that, the time spent in the surrounding areas of the Orosi Valley, Paraiso, Cachi and Ujarras, and the various people we spoke to along the way, made the couple of days in Cartago truly great. More details and photos to follow in the next post :)

Cartago y valle de Orosi

El 1 y 2 de Junio estuvimos en Cartago, que fue la capital colonial durante casi trescientos anios. A la izquierda esta la Basilica de Cartago. Llegamos al final de una misa y nos sorprendio cuando la gente se arrodillaba al final del pasillo central y caminaba de rodillas hasta el final con las manos juntas. Vimos que incluso lo hacian algunas familias enteras. No se si esta tradicion vino de Espania y la hemos perdido o es originaria de Costa Rica.

Pasando noches en Cartago decidimos ver el valle de Orosi. Vimos los pueblos de Paraiso (nada en particular) Orosi con una Iglesia del S. XVIII y un museo con Oro esta en lo mas profundo del valle y las nubes cubren los árboles. Este fue nuestro sitio favorito del valle donde compramos un poco de mortadela (nuestro presupuesto no llega para jamón) a un perro callejero que no paraba de seguirnos. El dia 2 hicimos la otra parte del valle, los pueblos de Cachí donde plantan muchas frutas como mango, ayote y chayote y compramos unos mangos y manzanas. Además, Cachí tiene una gran presa de agua. El último pueblo fue Ujarrás donde vimos las "ruinas de Ujarras", una iglesia del S.XVI destruida por los terremotos. Esa tarde cuando volvíamos a Cartago nos recogio un minibus de una escuela de San Ramón. Unos treinta estudiantes de bachillerato de la clase de turismo del Instituto Julio Acosta García que nos preguntaron con interés sobre Europa y en concreto el Real Madrid. Muchas gracias a todos ellos por llevarnos de vuelta a Cartago!!!