There was civilization but not much color. Last night Gerardo stopped over to talk about today. It turned out he would come get us at 10:00am and we would go to Irazu Volcano. It is also possible we will be stopping and having coffee with friends of Gerardo. I decided I better get busy and make something to take along so I made a batch of chocolate drizzled coconut macaroons and a batch of the French Toast Roll Ups. They are great with a cream cheese filling and dipped in cinnamon sugar. They come out of the oven nice and crispy.
Irazu is considered an active volcano, the highest active volcano in Costa Rica. It hasn't erupted since 1994. There are two main craters and it is located 31 kilometers from Cartago. The road was amazing for here and the scenery was really great looking out to Orosi, Paraiso, Cartago and Tres Rios. We stopped along the way to take pictures and look around.
Heather read on a very, very clear day, which is rare, you can see both the Pacific and the Caribbean.
As you know, Gerardo does not speak a lot of English but he is getting very good at understanding our broken Spanish. At one point as we were driving along we wanted to know the Spanish word for cow. We pointed but he didn't know what we were pointing at. Heather started saying moo, moo and he got the message and they were both laughing like mad. After that every cow we came across he would moo.
Heather and Gerardo.
They only let so many cars up at a time because of limited parking so we were stopped and waiting for a while. We were talking and Gerardo mentioned the big dreamcatcher I am working on inside the birdcage holder. I thought it was a good time to say I need fishing line and wire. Heather didn't have any cell service to use her translate program so we were trying to mime and use sign language to get the message across. He understood! Apparently he has both at the hardware store. I will make a trip there tomorrow.
After we left the volcano area we descended most of the way back to Cartago and stopped to visit with friends of Gerardo. They are farmers and have cows and chickens and geese and cats and dogs. Also an assortment of wonderful plants. Here I am in front of a 3 year old Rosemary bush. There were several of them around.
As we were looking around the yard I noticed the chickens and geese and I also noticed feathers. Gerardo went with me into the fenced chicken yard and helped me pick up feathers. At the same time he kept taking pictures he was sending to family members. I am sure they got a good laugh over the crazy gringa lady. I got lots of beautiful feathers that I will wash and use. I want to make a dreamcatcher for them as a thank you and I will use their feathers.
We were invited inside for coffee and we were served a wonderful lunch. Refried beans, tortillas, potatoes and an egg torta. You put everything in the tortilla and eat it. They also used a giant version of the Costa Rican Coffee Maker. There were 7 of us having coffee and she made it all in one batch. There were also several kinds of cookies.
When we were finished Gerardo said we should go with Isabel. Turns out we were going to bring the cows in for the night. They spend the day in the field and come near the house at night. It was lucky they knew the routine because we wouldn't have known what to do if they had headed in the wrong direction or decided they didn't want to go.
These are not milk cows, they are work cows. I went into the house and told Gerardo I tried to milk the cows but no milk but they didn't understand I was just joking.
It was almost 5:00pm by the time we got home. A full day that we thoroughly enjoyed.
Another one of the craters. When it erupted in the 1960's it lasted for 4 years and ash and soot went all the way to Cartago and San Jose.
Tomorrow afternoon Jose will come and get us and we will take Heather to an airport hotel as she flies out early Tuesday. It has been a good visit and is over all too fast.
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