Description
Some days distill an entire country, and this is one of them. We set out early for Cartago, Costa Rica's original colonial capital, and climb through potato fields, onion terraces and dairy pastures to the summit of Irazu Volcano, 11,260 feet (3,432 m) above sea level. Up here the air is thin and crisp, the landscape feels lunar, and the main crater opens like a vast gray amphitheater. On the clearest mornings the horizon offers a rare gift: the outline of both the Pacific and the Caribbean from a single lookout.
Back down in the milder air of the valley, we visit the Basilica of Our Lady of the Angels, home of La Negrita, the patron saint of Costa Rica, to whom hundreds of thousands of pilgrims walk every August. Its white Byzantine-style facade is one of the most photographed landmarks in the country.
Next we descend into the Orosi Valley, a green bowl of mountains, rivers and coffee farms that looks hand-painted. We step inside the Church of San Jose de Orosi, built in the mid-1700s, still in use and regarded as the oldest in the country, with its adobe walls and clay-tile roof. We continue to the Ujarras ruins, the stone shell of a colonial church wrapped in gardens, and follow the shores of the Cachi Reservoir, where we pause for a traditional lunch overlooking the valley.
To close the day, Lankester Botanical Garden, run by the University of Costa Rica, welcomes us with shaded trails, bamboo groves, cacti and one of the most important orchid collections in tropical America. A day of contrasts: from volcanic chill to the fragrance of blossoms, from colonial history to living nature.
