This is an all metal church imported from Europe.

And since we had shorts on we stayed outside.

It was a slog from Turrialba to Grecia through mountainous windy roads and San Jose traffic but we arrived in the afternoon to the cabina number seven at Hotel Mango Valley which was a wonderful respite up in the hills above Grecia.

Hard to see in this photo, but the widest rainbow ever presented itself over the mountain.

Oh! Watch out for the sugar cane truck on the way up.

Yes it had to be done. We spent 4 days on the Caribbean without chairs so the Mecca of everything appeared ….Walmart. We won’t be caught short on the Pacific coast. But there is so much more….

The real deal!  From Spain!  THE PUERCO MEJOR.  Let the snacking begin…

“YIPY”

Fortress Walmart is all parking on the first floor.

But the main reason to stop in Cartago is the most religious pilgrimage in Costa Rica…Basilica Nuestra de Los Angeles

Hello visitor, you are about to go on a photo tour, a tour that will take you through many emotions. Terror, curiosity, love, hunger, learning, friendship and of course, cheese.

We were running late to La Finca Florita so we took the most direct route, the one best suited for mountain goats and dirt bikes.

Seems most things here are clinging to steep slopes or built on top of the local ridges. Roads make transportation possible, but only if you have a skinny vehicle as most bridges are one lane only. Many of the ravines these bridges cross are what you might call “imposing”. As in… did anyone cross this before a bridge was built?

Driving here you spend a lot of time waiting for the horse to get out of the road, followed by the limping grandmother, and then the small children, then the giant truck. You start to go and then and some guy backs out of his driveway. Finally you think you can go and someone in a scooter jumps in front of you and then you have to wait for the garbage truck.

Road conditions can be rustic, like being in Nevada. At last we impressed no one by driving our War Rig over the side of a cliff and turning around in the half-parking space at our Cheese destination and thus turning around and driving back out the goat path to a parking spot someone might consider “sensible” until someone later realized she’d have to walk up the hill…

By this time my lungs were aching for air…

Plantain comes in many wonderful forms pâtécones fresh made chips bagged chips and even on tico sushi!
And the church that shares a wall with our room…and we were lucky enough to wake up to church music Sunday morning…early.

This is the closest that Costa Rica has to ancient ruins – that have been uncovered and are available to tour. We had a tour guide take us along with our friends on the walk through the forest. They had a working aqueduct system still. The highest mound had the Chiefs house made of balsa.

This bird is rare to see.
They were nestled high on the mountain between two rivers and the Turrialba volcano which is still active.

We took a barely passable mountain path (called a road here) way up in the hills by Cartago outside of Turrialba where there are 375 dairy farms and the famous Turrialba cheese is made. We had our friends along for the tour given by Carla who milks by hand twice a day and makes cheese. They have a small farm but very good artisan cheese is made here.

Yes indeed that is Steve milking that cow. And some of the milk went in the bucket too! Carla was the true milkmaid filling the bucket in no time. She milks 9 cows by hand in an hour and a half.

The cheese is made with animal rennet and salt. They add basil or sweet pepper and cilantro to some batches. She was kind enough to let me try my hand at it and we got to take our cheese with us. It will be ready tomorrow, but still tasted good today while warm.

The horse appeared to be lost….

At last the panaderia!

Well, it is quite a process and not the least bit automatic.The machine looks like you just turn it on. But first you have turn the water spigot on and fill the tank. Then you turn the water spigot off. Then you turn the wash cycle on. When done you drain the water with another knob. Then you turn the water on again to fill the tank, then you rinse by turning the washer on again. Then you drain the rinse water. Then you put the clothes in the centrifuge section to spin them. Then you move them to the dryer. Got that?

The dryer is pretty normal but it takes three knobs and to turn it on you pull on the”no” knob not the “si” knob.

There is a lot to know about sloths. They are very interesting and quite slow for a reason. It’s hot here! These are rescued and orphaned sloths and most can not be released to the wild due to injury or a baby that can not be taught the sloth ways. Then we had a canoe trip down mosquito alley….and all that bug repellent is in the car….

And wild bananas too.

Joyce completely failed to step up and take photos of the experience, but we furthered international friendships tonight.  One of our fellow guests here at Coco Loco Lodge backed his coche up the wrong way and fell off the parking lot a good foot and a half into the lawn/swamp.  He was hung up on the concrete barriers with no purchase for his drive wheels – that’s where our War Rig came in (Google “Mad Max”, you’ll see what we’re driving).  Something useful for the giant rental we got saddled with instead of the 50-yr-old austin mini I’d otherwise prefer to do this trip in.  A half-hour of broken spanish plus the security guy crawling around under the vehicles with a very slim cable he found around and we were ready …  a mucho suave press on the gas pedal with some proper prep under his drive wheels and he scraped off the reef.  Possibly hardly destroying his car at all.  Well, he was able to drive away, probably everything is fine more or less.

Anyhoo… you know how us guys like to use tools and feel useful.  With success came lots of laughing and backslapping.  Pura vida!

Here’s a pic of our hut at night. Basic accommodation with a bathroom, shower and a fridge for $60/night cash money.