Costa Rica Volcano. A Piece of the rock.

The desolate lunar landscape of the Irazú volcano sits 3,432 meters above sea level near the town of Cartago in Costa Rica. Walking the landscape of the Irazú volcano must be like walking on the moon.

There are about 112 volcanic craters in Costa Rica, which range from extinct to dormant to very active. Volcano Irazú sleeps. The last eruption was on December 8, 1994 was small. On March 19, 1963-the day John F. Kennedy arrived in Costa Rica-volcano Irazú had a large eruption that was something like a volcanic burp.

The volcano spewed ash on the Central Valley of Costa Rica for two years. Rivers filled with ash and flooded; roofs of homes caved in from the weight of the ash and city days were darkened.

Since the assent to the volcano is about 5,000 feet higher than San José, the climate is usually much cooler. What was once a forest of pine trees mixed with tropical foliage is now fertile ground for root crops such as potatoes and cabbage.

My father and sister were visiting for six days, so we decided to visit Irazú which would have been only a 45 minute trip from my home in San José if I had not missed the turn-off. Since we had to detour through the town of Cartago, we decided to visit the Spanish ruins within the city.

For years, the people of Cartago tried to erect a church dedicated to Saint James the Apostle. However, earthquake after earthquake kept destroying the renovations and finally in 1910 the parishioners threw in their trowels. The yellow walls of the ruins now sit toppled on one another; the crumpled cement and unfinished windows serve as a backdrop to a blooming city park.

Vacations are like a strange, exotic animal to my father-something he has only seen on the Discovery Channel or in picture books. When I was a child, my father took us on only one vacation that involved sight seeing. Instead of staying in hotels, we stayed at anyone’s house along the way that we could legally call a relative.

The one hotel we did stay in was disguised as a trailer park, and we arrived too late in the evening to go swimming only to wake up at the break of dawn to discover the pool was green instead of blue. I know my father would have been content to point out the Mount Rushmore Monument as we U-turned for home had my mother not been along.

In Costa Rica, I was the guide. As we drove through a cloud on our final assent to Irazú, my father looked like a pilot; the white clouds reflected of his sunglasses. The switchbacks were becoming so steep, I felt as if I was in a carnival ride in the back seat of the car while slamming between my sister and my daughter’s car seat. Even with our unplanned detour of touring the Spanish ruins, we arrived atop the mountain early in the morning. Clouds move in quickly on Irazú, but we had a chance to see the crater in clear weather.

There are four craters atop the mountain. Only one remains active. A log fence surrounds the edge of the craters which leads visitors to the vistas. The volcanic ash crunched under my feet as I walked. My pants and boots were powdered with dust. The air smelled of sulfur.

An empty, sunken crater was on the left. The landscape was filled with gray and black rocks. Plants pushed their way through the hard landscape-a testimony to the unstop-ability of life.

We walked on to the active volcano. Steep rocks slid into the crater as if glaciers had scratched their way down the slopes. Swirling tails of smoke moved in and out of the crater, dancing above the aqua green lake. I looked back for my father; he was taking pictures. He took pictures of the dead volcano and many more at every angle of the sleeping giant crater with the steaming green water. Costa Rica had turned my father into a tourist.

The view from the top of the volcano is incredible. I have heard that on a completely clear day, one can see both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. Quickly, clouds began to form. The mist from the clouds sunk in to the green water of the crater and in a few moments we could see no farther than each other. The volcano had disappeared.

After my family left, I was reclaiming the office that my father had slept in while he was visiting. In the far back corner of a shelf in my closet, I found a white plastic bag. Inside the bag was a big black and gray rock – a rock from the Irazú volcano.

Not only had my father become a full fledged tourist, he also had been so touched by the experience of seeing a this new place, this new land, that he wanted to bring a piece of it home. But I guess he had decided to leave it behind after we had a lengthy discussion about the highly trained dogs that could sniff out contraband like drugs, bananas, and ferns (and probably rocks).

I placed the volcanic rock in my garden. I decided I would return it to the volcano during my next visit. Maybe I will return it with my father, hopefully, before the volcano erupts again.

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Andrew Makarik

to@welovecostarica.com

Andrew Makarik is the main editor of WeLoveCostaRica, a fan of this sunny country. He is also a loving husband and a has a lovely daughter. By being a devoted family man and the biggest Costa Rica fan, he wants to make more people feel at home there. WeLoveCostaRica unites people and helps them find new home or a new travel destination. This website is a friendly community where everyone can find not only information, but also new friends and travel pals. Andrew is also passionate about IT and programming, so he himself maintains a friendly atmosphere in this cozy environment of WeLoveCostaRica.com.