First, we had a day of excursions planned, but everyone was worried for Costa Rica to win, because the people fill the streets and cars cannot get through, so we were worried we wouldn't be able to get back home.
We set out anyways for the Volcán Irazú early in the morning before it got to cloudy to see all the views. It was so cool to see a volcano! It's a National Park as well, so there were trails for a bit, then all we did was walk in ash. I saw the crater where lava comes out of, and then we went to a peak above that to get a better look into it and we were inside of the clouds! It's freezing in one of those! We could see it all around of us like everything was white, kind of like as if it were foggy, but it covered all above you and you could feel it on your skin. We also saw a new kind of animal called pizote, which is a coati in English. I've never heard of or seen one before, though.
1) the cloud from below... 2) the crater... 3) inside the cloud!
On the way down, we stopped to take pictures with a statue of Jesus, like the one that is famous in Brazil, and there was a guy selling fruit called pejibaye, so I decided to be brave and try one. It tasted like a pumpkin or squash, so in my opinion, it's a vegetable, but I ate all of it anyways.
Our next stop was the oldest church in Costa Rica in Orosí. We got to see the museum and inside of the church. They did a mass-baptism of babies, because as we were going into the church, I saw at least 5 of them dressed in fancy white outfits with people taking pictures. We also saw a really bouncy foot bridge there that we crossed. I freaked everyone out by bouncing up and down on it. I figured it had to be structurally sound with all the people crossing it. On the other side was a food stand that sold empanadas. I shared one with chorizo in it with a friend.
Cartago was the next city we went to that has a replica of a catholic basilica. They also have the ruins of another construction of the same church. The legend has it that el Virgen de los angeles told the people where to construct the church, and they didn't listen. Instead, they constructed it in a place that just happened to be where some tectonic plates met. The church was destroyed twice by earthquakes, so they moved it to another spot, and there it has stood for over 100 years. The legend says if they would have listed to el Virgen the first time, it would have never fell.
While there, a bunch of ticos were going crazy for the fútbol game already in the town center. They had a concert and everyone was dressed in red to support the team. We wanted to get back to town early before the game so that we could watch it to, so we cut our visit a bit short. When we got back to San José, there was no room to watch the game. All of the places were packed and people were blowing horns and yelling and singing. We ended up watching the game at a friend's house. They went into 2 overtimes and then had shoot outs and ended up winning! Everyone was so excited and now all of the streets are full with people celebrating! I couldn't catch the bus or take a cab home because there was too much traffic, so some girls walked me home and we were blowing horns and yelling the whole way home while cars were honking and doing the same. When I got home, my house family was so excited about everything too and they made ice cream sundaes to celebrate. It's very exciting to be a part of all of this.
Well, I missed a lot of details, but this day was soooo long and I'm sooo tired!
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