Turrialba, Costa Rica - Days 30 & 31

Tuesday, March 12

It’s moving day! Andi and I woke up early to get a jumpstart on packing our belongings. Today we say good-bye to the Caribbean beach town of Puerto Viejo and are moving to a new airbnb situated in a small rural town called Santa Cruz, just outside of Turrialba. During this trip, Andi and I wanted to visit Costa Rica’s “coffee country.” Its famous coffee growing regions are located high in the Talamanca Mountains, along the Poas, Irazu and Barva Volcanoes so that’s where we’re going.

The first thing Aden said when he woke up this morning was, “Did the tooth fairy come?” He was so excited to see if she left him anything for his first lost tooth. The Costa Rican tooth fairy had a bit of an issue locating Aden’s tooth this morning (Dad Tooth Fairy didn’t tell Mom Tooth Fairy that he put Aden’s tooth in a ziploc bag on top of the refrigerator for safe keeping) but fortunately for Aden, she was able to sneak a few colones into the ziploc bag without him noticing. “Three colones!” Aden exclaimed. He was more than thrilled to have three 100 colones coins. (For reference, 300 colones = $.50 cents)

“Just the boys” (as Aden likes to say) ran into town to fill up the SUV with gas and get some more cash. Andi and Aden returned with donuts for the kids, and Andi said later the chip reader on his credit card wasn’t working. The card is worn and the ATM machine wouldn’t read his card. Uh-oh! Hopefully we find another bank during our travels today that accepts it.

Our family said good-bye to our airbnb hosts and they gave us some just-picked bananas from their tree as a nice parting gift.

We had a 3 1/2 hour drive from Puerto Viejo to Santa Cruz. I was dreading the construction and semi traffic, but it wasn’t too bad today. Along the way, we stopped at a local soda for lunch. Andi, Tory, Aden and I were the only customers in the restaurant and the husband and wife owner/operators (or maybe it was a sister and brother?) were really friendly. The woman said we were the first Americans she’d ever met.

It was our last chance to try jerk chicken since we’re leaving the Caribbean side of Costa Rica now, so Andi ordered a Caribbean chicken casado (meat, rice, beans, salad, and plantains) and a jerk chicken casado for us to share. Tory ordered a hamburger again. Verdict: The jerk chicken was spicy, and still different than we pictured. I couldn’t recognize the cut of meat — it almost looked like a pork chop. Caribbean chicken, by comparison, is sweeter and more saucy.

We made it to our new airbnb around 3:00pm. This house is unique in that it’s situated in a small rural town in the mountains and it’s made from two shipping containers! Tory has been excited to stay here since Andi showed her the pictures online. She likes the big coconut lounge chair the best.

Tory and Aden found a few random kids toys (a small bear and a few Lego pieces) and they have bunk beds in this house, so they were excited.

We spent the rest of the evening lounging around our new place. The kids played toys and watched Netflix and I caught up some blogging. Andi made sloppy joes with zucchini for dinner and Tory and I also did some school since we didn’t get to it earlier in the morning.

This is a smaller, rural town so there’s not a ton to do in this vicinity. Turrialba National Park is nearby, but we learned it is temporarily closed due to recent eruption activity in 2016 and 2017. It’s safe to be in the surrounding area (like at our airbnb), but no one is allowed near the volcano. I’m hoping to visit another nearby volcano, Irazu, tomorrow, and use this as an educational experience for the kids.

Wednesday, March 13

Neither Andi or I slept the best last night. We both swatted a few mosquitos away from our heads during the night, and even got up once to turn on the light so we could kill the pesky bugs that kept waking us up. If it wasn’t the mosquitos, it was the dogs barking. The neighbor’s dogs barked all night long it seemed.

To make matters worse, Aden came down the stairs this morning with tons of bug bites on his face, arms and hands. Poor kid! He looks miserable. The red dots are definitely bug bites and not chicken pox or hives. I questioned for a minute whether it was Hand, Foot & Mouth but there are no spots on his feet or in his throat and he’s acting completely fine - not sick at all. I gave him some Children’s Benadryl to help calm down the inflammation.

There’s no toaster in this house which made breakfast interesting for our Nutella toast-eating kids. Andi toasted some slices of bread in the oven, but the first ones burnt. Tory gave him all kinds of grief for that mistake.

Today we planned to visit Irazu Volcano which is 1 1/2 hours away from our airbnb. After breakfast, we got dressed and loaded into the car to go. The first 15 minutes of our drive was a flat, easy road through Santa Cruz and the neighboring town of La Pastora. Then, we turned right onto a dirt road that climbed up the mountain …and climb is what we did. Holy crap! The road felt like we were climbing to the top of a roller coaster. My stomach felt like it was falling out the back of my body. Not to mention the road was dirt and super bumpy. We drove for about 20 minutes and then pulled over to find our bearings. From the backseat, Tory and Aden said, “We don’t want to go to the volcano anymore!” but it was too late to turn around. If we did, that meant that we’d have to drive the same road down that we just climbed up. I got out of the car and snapped this picture from the side of the road — this view though!

We got back in the car and continued our ascent up the mountain. Waze, the app we use for directions here in Costa Rica, said we had 45 more minutes until we arrived at Irazu National Park. All we could hope is that the road would flatten out or turn to blacktop at some point. It was a hellacious drive! Hands down, the worst road we’ve traveled in Costa Rica.

Just before Irazu National Park, we turned right onto a blacktop road which led us into park. Andi paid the entrance fee, and we found a parking spot in a small lot by the two craters that are open to the public. There were a few school buses in the parking lot and lots of young children running around wildly. Unlike U.S. National Parks, there were no maps or information centers that we saw to learn more about what we might see here. Without an idea where to start, Andi and I followed the paved sidewalk to see where it led.

Irazu Volcano reminded me of Yellowstone, actually. It was quite the wonder to see. To the left of the main sidewalk was a vast, open area of black dust. Later, Tory and I learned this is actually the Diego de la Haya crater. Farther down the sidewalk about 300 yards was the main crater. This crater is filled with a brilliant blue-green lake. The color of the water changes from blue to green to crimson red depending on how much sulfur dioxide is in the water. When we visited, the water was dark blue in the center and a lighter greenish-blue on the outer parts.

Irazu Volcano is the tallest volcano in Costa Rica standing at 11,260 feet. It was cold and windy at the top!

After seeing the main crater from this vantage point, we decided to go back to our car to see if there was another part of the national park to explore. As we walked along the sidewalk, Andi jokingly said, “I was thinking we should take that same bumpy road back home, what do you think?” and Tory lost her bananas. I wasn’t sure what got into her all of a sudden, but her attitude was threw the roof! Sometimes when you’re traveling with kids, you have to park it right where you are — even if that’s in the middle of the sidewalk on top of a volcano — and give your kid a time-out. Thanks to Andi for snapping a photo and keeping it real!

Tory and I had a chat to see what was the matter, and apparently she was upset because Andi said we were taking the same bumpy road home again. I assured her that Dad was kidding, and that we wouldn’t be taking that same road home again. We’d find another way back to our airbnb. “But who will we ask for directions?” Tory asked. “We don’t speak Spanish.” Oh, sweetie. We will figure it out. I told her not to worry. Sometimes Andi and I forget that our kids are five and seven-years-old, and they are totally out of their element here. All these different things we’re exposing them to are amazing opportunities, but sometimes those experiences can be overwhelming. This morning was one of those instances.

We hopped in our car and drove to another vantage point. It’s unbelievable to think we were standing on top of a volcano — not looking out at a volcano in the distance. No, we were standing on the volcano. Wow!

Instead of taking the bumpy dirt road home, we decided to re-route through Cartago which was perfect timing to grab lunch. Cartago is the largest city in this area, but not necessarily a popular tourist destination. I think we were all in need of a mental reset. Without much of a plan as we drove into town, I noticed a sign that said Gastro Park so we turned the car around and decided to stop. The minute Andi and I walked around the corner of a big, black shipping container wall, we turned to each other and said, “Yes!” This is exactly what we needed: some good food, maybe an adult beverage or two, and some ice cream to turn this day of adventure in a new direction.

We love these type of “foodie” food courts because we all get what we want. Andi ordered a cheese pizza for the kids, I ordered tacos pastor, and Andi ordered greek meat skewers. After lunch, Andi and the kids shared a rolled ice cream from a place called Rollos Heladeria.

Andi and I each drank a glass of wine and watched the kids play on an outdoor playground. What a great find this place was! It came at the perfect time of day.

After lunch, we drove downtown to Cartago’s Central Market. I love the hustle and bustle of big open-air markets like this — it’s a great way to get a feel for a city. We hoped to find some fresh, local produce there for dinner.

Driving downtown was busy, but we found a parking spot in a lot about two blocks away from the market. Even something as simple as parking the car in a busy city is an experience when you travel. We weren’t sure what the protocol was, but Andi figured out how to get a parking pass from the lot attendant.

The Cartago Central Market was a bit of a bust. There were rows and rows of vendors selling fruits, vegetables, candy, pet food and even a few sodas (restaurants), but none of the produce looked that great. Maybe it was because we visited in the afternoon.

We left the market without buying anything and walked down the street to the old town square. Andi and I found a park bench to sit on while the kids chased the pigeons around the pavement. One woman had corn in her hand she was feeding to the birds and she sprinkled some on her toddler’s lap so the birds would gather around him. He screamed with terror while she snapped a few pictures on her cell phone! I thought it was kind of mean.

We went to the bank while we were in town. Fortunately, the chip on Andi’s credit card was working and we were able to pull out some cash. Last stop was the Pali grocery store for meat and veggies before we walked back to our car in the parking lot and then made the 1 1/2 hour drive back to our airbnb in Santa Cruz. Turns out that if we would have stayed straight on the road we took back home, we could have avoided the whole bumpy dirt road climb up the mountain this morning. Thanks, Waze, for trying to save us a few miles in distance traveled. The route back was longer in distance, but a much smoother ride.

All in all, today was a great travel day. How often do you get the chance to stand on a volcano above the clouds, drink a glass of wine in the sunshine, and see historic buildings in an old city? We’re feeling pretty lucky for the opportunity to see a different side of Costa Rica.