To Turrialba...

Had an excellent weekend. Saturday, around noon, Laura, her sister and I headed to Turrialba to visit their family for the weekend. I work with Laura, and it was a nice gesture of her to invite a foreigner to the land to enjoy some local fare and a cultural experience. The trip to the house was about and hour and a half, but it was great scenery and solid conversations;learning new words and ways to phrase things. Upon our arrival, her mother and father were introduced, and then we had a top-notch "almuerzo" or lunch of chicharones (pork) rice, beans, platano maduros and some homemade fresco made from a sweet fruit called "cas." It was a beautiful sunny afternoon, and the mountains that surrounded us made for a great vista. After lunch we headed around town, and later went to mass with all of the family. It was a good way to start the evening. After mass, we went to a little bar in the mountains and enjoyed the night.
Today, Sunday, I was awoken by the sweet smells of something cooking in the kitchen; it was a traditional Costa Rican breakfast of gallo pinto (rice and beans with seasoning,) eggs, tortillas and coffee made through a chorreador. A chorreador is an unvarnished 12 inch wooden frame with a round hole at the top where a wire rimmed cloth filter or strainer is placed. Fine ground coffee was placed in the filter and boiling water was poured in filtering down to the coffeepot below; it was one of the finest cups of coffee I've had.
This meal was a great precursor for an enjoyable day visiting the ruins of the Guayabo people who were the indigenous population of Costa Rica from 1000BC to 1400AD. The ruins were an awesome display of creativity of civilization before modern tools and technology. The Guayabo had advanced aqueducts and village housing for the people. It was awesome to see another ancient culture through what they had left behind.

"Sunday is the core of our civilization, dedicated to thought and reverence. "
-Ralph Waldo Emerson