At 10.10am on Tuesday 27th, I arrived at the base of Volcan Irazu. A 2 hour bus had taken me here, the last half an hour climbing slowly up the hill from Tierra Blanca. At times we were level with the clouds, then suddenly we were above them. Then by the top, we were surrounded.
Actual cabbage fields on the way up the hill. Small tin houses with rusty satellite dishes.
We filed off the bus to pay the entrance fee. Fuck, it’s cold. I’m wearing 3/4 trousers and a vest top under my hoodie. I am under prepared. I will climb that volcano like a life or death mission to keep warm. Then I will sit in the coffee shop. Filing back on the bus in order to do the last part of the journey by road I try to soak up every bit of heat.
I zipped up my hoodie, put my workout playlist on, and started marching...on a flat surface.
I followed the balustrades until they ended. I got there in 13 minutes even with a few picture stops. Now there was nothing for it but to turn back. I still had an hour and 50 minutes to kill. I had mentally prepared myself for a hike, even made myself look forward to some real exercise. Instead I could wander aimlessly around for 2 hours.
Up here it was quiet, just the shouts of people and a few engines running in the car park. I took my music out, sat on a slope and began to wait.
Then I realised volcano dust makes things dirty and I stood up to try and make my bum less grey.
I killed 30 minutes in total around the volcano, and went to the gift shop where I got a hot chocolate. Nowhere to sit inside, mist gathered outside. This was an endurance test.
The tourists loved the white nose coati digging around in the bin. Confident as anything, when one couple sat down to eat it straight away went for their food. The man (so cliched) wrestled the food back off it.
Somehow I killed all that time. I found another path that went down to the large flat surface I had walked across. I read. I let the sun warm my back when it made an appearance.
And by 12.15 I was on the bus ready to leave.
Stopped in Cartago, the old capital of CR. There’s a beautiful basicilica dedicated to the angel that kept appearing as a doll in a stone. I’m paraphrasing.
Then there’s the ruins of an old church that was built, destroyed in an earthquake, started being rebuilt again and then destroyed again in another earthquake. So they left it as it is and it’s a lovely spot by the main square.
Back on the bus to San Jose. Parked up in a terminal I have never seen before but didn’t take me long to work out where I was and how to get back.
I have tried to write about yesterday. About the 28th. About the culmination of my Costa Rica trip. The reason I came here. After seeing Toucan Rescue Ranch on Instagram, I wanted to be sure I could go before I decided to actually go to the country.
But there aren’t really any words to explain how great it was. I burst into tears when they brought the sloths out. 5 of them. I cried more than once during their breakfast.
And the tour itself was nice. Such good work they do. I wanted to buy all the sloth accessories in the little gift shop, but I settled on a beautiful sloth painting on banana paper.
I came home. I went to park to sunbathe. I requested dinner from Nicoleta. I finished Hillary Rodham Clinton’s What Happened. I cried during that book too.
This morning I had to go to the bus office because the company I used to buy the tickets to Panama City screwed them up. I had to buy new tickets.
When I came back I made sure I had packed (I just spent £60 sending a package home by Fed Ex; I know there wasn’t much in there but why is my bag getting heavier?!) and I said goodbye to Nicoleta. I gave her a big hug - I will miss her, she’s the best host ever.
I’m sat on the bus to Panama City. So far they’ve showed the Life of Pi and they’re now showing Transformers. The air con isn’t working properly by the windows and not at all in the toilet. It was like a sauna in there and it doesn’t have a lock on the door so when I had got up the bus moved and I fell against the door which swung open with my weight and I fell out.
I don’t think anyone saw...
27th &28th Febrero and 1st Marzo
Listened to: I get knocked down - England theme song. It was on the radio and now it’s in my head.
Watched: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. Hooked.
Ate: Nicoleta’s cooking: fried courgette with garlic sauce and grilled vegetables. Divine!
Drank: fruit juice and water. Haven’t really felt like drinking since Monday’s Sangria.
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