Dateline: Aquiares. News: Smoking volcano

The last time Turrialba Volcano erupted was in 1866. The 19th century was a busy one for Turrialba, when the 10,958-foot volcano blew its top no less than seven times. The 20th century was quieter, if only for the Turrialba Volcano and its three craters. Sometime in the 1990’s we drove part way up and then hiked to the volcano’s rim to peer into its vastness.
Then in 2001 the central crater started spouting fumaroles. But visitors were still welcome. In January 2007 we drove with the Aged P’s to the very top and stood on the Mirador as wisps of smoke danced before us. On the way back we stopped at a lovely lodge and drank hot chocolate laced with tequila, a relatively unknown but delicious combination.
That has all stopped since January of this year when Turrialba Volcano spewed ash and created acid rain that forced the lodge to shut down, and 2 villages to be evacuated.
This afternoon the volcano was sending up snowy white smoke, surprising in its whiteness, vivid against the blue tropical sky. It is always a good thing to see a volcano before one’s siesta.

The News from the Isthmus

Bringing in the beans
Perhaps you want to know how the coffee picking is going in the Turrialba region, (very well)or whether the volcano is smoking, bubbling or rumbling; perhaps you’d care for a political gossip (the current president is now dating one of his myriad cousins – she’s much younger and very rich; her mother was so upset that her daughter was involved with the consanguineous womanizer that she has retired to sulk in her Paris apartment), but I suspect you want to know how CSB is enjoying his vacation reading, and the answer is, Very much thank you.
We did procure another Bill Bryson volume, I’m a Stranger Here Myself, and according to plan, CSB is amused.

The very first morning at the farm found CSB and Dad in their usual spot on the early morning patio. There is an excellent view of the volcano (see above) if the clouds are not in the way, which they are and have been, constantly and lamentably. They are drinking their coffee and solving the world’s problems as they read Le Nacion and Bill Bryson. Dad exclaims intermittently that this is such a lovely place and he is happy to be here; CSB remarks how pleasant it is to be back in their spot exactly as they were last year. Dad does not remember last year but he is sure it was equally lovely and that he had an equally lovely time.