Trip to Cartago: Volcano and Basilica

On Tuesday we went on a trip to Cartago which is a providence to the east.  We saw the Irazú volcano which was beautiful and then went to a Basilica which was incredible as well.  In August over 2,000 people walk to this basilica.  To put this perspective Costa Rica has a population of 4,000 people.

Turrialba volcano that we saw while standing on Irazú.  We got lucky and were able to see two other volcanoes in the distance as well.  Usually it is too cloudy.

My professor is the one being goofy in the background and the man in plaid is a famous Costa Rican volcanologist and is called in for every natural disaster in the country.

Notice the difference between this volcano and Arenal, this one has a giant crater (Arenal was still pointy) and Arenal was in a rain forest so the vegetation grew back a lot faster.

The original barrier got destroyed during an eruption.

Sitting on the edge of the crater.

It was cold.  He is standing beside the ruins of an old lookout that fell apart during one of the eruptions. 

The volcanic ash was warm.

Poor man's umbrella

We has lunch at this look out and it felt like we were in the clouds.

The lookout.

The basilica

People bring little metal figures of the body parts that they are praying for so there were hundreds of different body parts.

The figuring of the Virgen de Los Angeles that was found in this sight hundreds of years ago.

Drinking the holy water

Stain glass of the indigenous woman finding the little statue.

Eating ice cream afterwards.