Day 2 - Feb 11 - Irazu, Cartago & Lankester

Day two was windy, cold & rainy.. Storm all over the country except far south where we are headed! The kids did great despite the unexpected weather. We started our day with a visit to Irazu Volcano, which is known for feeling like a walk on the moon's terrain! Rocky, black ash cover the ground. Three big craters can be viewed and on a clear day, both oceans, Lake Nicaragua and a green lagoon inside the crater can be seen! (We weren't so lucky though.)

From there, we headed to the town of Cartago. Cartago was the colonial capital at one point. We visited their beautiful basilica de Nuestra Señora de Los Angeles & learned the story of how it became the sight of so many pilgramages. We got to dip our hands in the holy water too. We had a big lunch in Cartago with yummy desserts & homemade popcicles! Afterwards, we visited Lankester Botanical Garden, & got to see some pretty amazing tiny orchids & learned about vibrant colored bracts! Lankester was founded in the 1950s by British naturalist, Charles Lankester. The gardens boast internationally acclaimed of epiphytes where we learned about the intricacy of an orchid.

Bennett pointing out his lost tooth during the bus ride. Alonso said, "Well, that's a first & of course it was Bennett!"

This rock & statue is the original spot & artifact where legend tells of an indigenous woman who found this statue and carried it to her home for it only to disappear. She did this 3x over until a priest declared the site a holy place & ordered a church be built around it. The legend dates back to 1635. The basilica is now a famous place to worship and make an annual pilgrimage.

Bennett (always the good sport) demonstrating why this plant's common name is "old man's beard"

After a cold day of travel, we arrived at beautiful mountain cabins in San Gerardo de Dota. We were welcomed with heaters cranking and warm water bottle heaters placed in our beds! Consequently, I was unaware of such and thought an animal had crawled in my bed - which seemed quite plausible, really. : )

Trogon Lodge - named after the genus of birds the Quetzal belongs to.