After 18 hours door to door we reached our hotel in San Jose, Costa Rica, That said, the journey was fine with 10 hours flying time between Gatwick and San Jose.
There are only 9 people on our tour including ourselves so a nice number. Our tour guide, Ed, is a very lively Costa Rican and has so far displayed a good and interesting knowledge of his country on our first day. With our driver, our group is 11 in total.
Our first day, Sunday 2nd, consisted of a visit to the Irazú Volcano, the old capital of Costa Rica, Cartago, and the National Museum. We were very lucky with the visit to the volcano, one of many in Costa Rica, as the weather was clear and 27 degrees centigrade which is not always the case as Costa Rica is just coming out of the wet season so low cloud and thunderstorms still occur at this time of the year.
From the top of the Volcano, which is still active, we could just make out the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica.
We then went to Cartago for a traditional Costa Rican lunch, rice and beans, which for those following this year’s “I’m a Celebrity” does not sound too appetising. The dish we had is called a Casado and can be rice and black beans with chicken, beef or fish plus sweet potato and salad. We tried the fish version and with a local beer, Imperial, was really excellent.
The main Catholic Church in Cartago was famous for it black Madonna which legend says has miraculous healing powers. Not just the Madonna but the church also has water with healing properties. The local people still seem to believe this as they were queuing to touch the stone and ask for their ailments to be cured. They then made a donation of a small silver jewellery piece of the part of the body that was healed so there were cases full of legs, lungs, arms, heads and whole bodies.
Finally we visited the National Museum that charts Costa Rican history from migrants coming from Asia across the Bering Strait, through Christopher Columbus, the Spanish to modern day. An interesting journey when you hear about most of the indigenous population being wiped out by common diseases from Europe, the slave trade and a country that had disbanded its army. There are many interesting animals and bird here some of which were shown in the museum like the Zoplite Rey ” King Buzzard” below.
We leave for the Caribbean coast and Tortuguero tomorrow morning through the Braulio Carrillo National Park and will make part of the journey by boat.
Looks so different to the images I have of Costa Rica. That buzzard looks like a creature from “Fantastical Creatures”! I also love volcanos, so love the picture! Enjoy!
What a great start to your trip, and I think you’ll fall in love with Tortuguero. For us it was the highlight of our visit to Costa Rica, being totally unlike anywhere else we’d been. Don’t know if there’ll be any turtles around at this time of year?
Thanks David. The turtles have left and their young have probably just finished making their way off the beach. We have seen some pretty amazing wildlife since arriving today and we have all day tomorrow to discover more. Every day involves an early start. Tomorrow we take a boat trip at 5.30am looking for early morning hungry animals. Let’s hope the crocs are not looking for us.