A good friend of ours, Gregg Miller, has visited Costa Rica several times. When he heard we were going, he was very excited, and told us (heck, he practically ordered us) to go visit his friends Macho and Nuria, in the town of Orosi:
After the visit, we went for lunch at a nearby restaurant, which had these interesting statues out front:
And yes, the male statue has a prominent bulge - I didn't hide it behind the bush intentionally, it just worked out that way.
After lunch, I took some pictures of the surrounding mountains:
...and as we drove up out of the valley, I stopped to take this panoramic shot:
Next, we visited the city of Cartago (w). Our first stop was the Ruinas de la Parroquia de Santiago Apóstol (Santiago Apóstol Parish Ruins) (w). There have been several churches on the site over the years, but they kept getting damaged or destroyed by earthquakes. The most recent attempt to build a church was abandoned, which means that what remains aren't "ruins" in the strictest sense of the word, since the church was never finished.
Here are closeups of the signs in the last picture:
As we walked around the ruins, we passed a dog that was barking loudly and incessantly. As I passed the dog, I turned to it and snapped "Callate!" ("Shut up!") - and damned if the dog didn't stop barking!
We then visited the Basílica de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles (Basilica of Our Lady of the Angels) (w) - being from the City of Our Lady of the Angels, we felt it only appropriate. It's quite an impressive building:
Out in front, there was a sign listing all the things you shouldn't do - no skateboards, no scooters (except the sign said "No escooters"), no this, no that, or the other, and don't do that, either. But what really struck me was the admonition "No love scenes."
And then we drove back to San Rafael for dinner, and that was it for the day.
Here's a map:
