Turriabla

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Where I stayed
Interamericana Hotel
(Turrialba hotels)

Flag of Costa Rica  , Province of Cartago,
Thursday, March 5, 2009

We left from San Jose mid afternoon with a friend we met in the hostel and headed east towards Turrialba. The bus ride was very beautiful, mountains, gardens and little villages scattered the horizon. When we arrived in Turrialbe we took some time to walk around and get our bearings. We found the town to be filled with pleasant people, informative road signs(non-existent elsewhere in Costa Rica) and pretty scenery. After checking out a few hotels, we settled in at the interamericana. nice enough, right price, hot showers. We were very hungry, so we got out our little stove and cooked up some beans and garlic. I mashed up some avocado, onion and spices. We joined the two together in some corn tortillas for an excellent lunch. After the meal we headed out in search of the post office. We walked around a bit and then asked a wonderful woman for directions. Minutes later we were mailing our letters. Unfortunately, I mailed away our 'to-do' list in a letter to my sister(oops). After that we went to a very inexpensive Internet cafe to check in with our friends Scott and Junko who we were hoping to meet up with soon. Later that evening, we had dinner with Alex and made arrangements for the following days adventure. As it turns out, the volcano is actually pretty far away 1.5 hours by car, (we have no car) so...we decided to go to Guayabo National Monument, a pre-Colombian site, on the way to the volcano and try our luck from there. Although it was raining, we headed out the following day. The bus ride was straight up a windy path. We passed many homes and a few schools. By the picking up many people on their way home from school or work along the way. It was a fun mix of all sorts of people. we stood for much of the ride, but didnīt mind. When we arrived at the park it was closed for the day and still raining... The park rangers we nice enough to let us set up our tent under a small pavilion so that we wouldnīt be swimming in the a.m. A light dinner and a game of scrabble later and we were sleeping like babies a little after 9... The next morning it was still raining, but we entered the park with excitement. There were amazing ruins of an ancient civilization. The ruins were surrounded in rainforest lush and we were privileged to see a beautiful blue hummingbird flying around. We were VERY wet when we finished our tour and waited patiently for the bus to scoop us up. Considering the rain and the lack of transportation, we decided against visiting the volcano at the present time. It is actually the least visited volcano because it is so difficult to get to. Back in Turrialba, we checked into the interamericana for another night while we waited to meet up with our friends. that night we visited the local Barber and Dan had his first ever clean shave with the straight edge. the barber shop experience was also fun, an old man practiced his English with us and told us all about his job and pension and such. he also told us that in the mornings at the shop they practice their french over bread and coffee! We had another nice meal with Alex that night and played Spanish scrabble with Alex and another traveler from California. The next day we caught a bus to san jose and then made our way to the airport to meet scott and junko...
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csliberatore
csliberatore on Mar 9, 2009 at 10:20AM

Love your travel style.
You are hearty travelers and seem to be enjoying the people so much.
I like the way you adapt to the pending situations and share them with
us. Thank you so much for sharing.

MOM

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