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Volcan Irazu Borrowed our neighbors car and went up to Volcan Irazu. It was, as usual, totally socked in...but wait! It cleared up totally! Got our friends car stuck in 3rd gear on the way back and had to have the car towed back to San Jose. Crap! - (33) more edit 2007-12-26 - rec# 138

Finally made it! Took Deborah and our new friend Sonja up to Volcan Irazu. Deb has never been there and I've never seen it on a clear day...and it looked like it would be a clear day. Our neighbor is in Mexico for Christmas and told us than in exchange for driving her to the airport we could use her car when she was gone. We told her we would use it for this Irazu trip and to go pick up Deb's nephew at the airport on the 28th. So off we went... It took a little looking and asking to find the road to the volcano, be we were successful. When we got to the gate the guard informed us that it was "a little cloudy" up there. We continued. It was more than "a little cloudy". It was socked in like I've never seen it before. But there were a few holes that opened up and as we were getting ready to leave all the clouds blew away, so in the end, we had a perfect day. Later we walked up to the high observation point. Quite a hike! On the way back down somehow the car got stuck in 3rd gear. Elvira had left instructions about how to get the car towed back home if we had problems. Seemed a bit odd at the time that she would have mentioned it, but now it was becoming clear. We were to call 113 and tell them that we had an emergency and needed a tow. OK...turns out 113 is directory assistance. I asked a police officer if she had any idea how to get the insurance company to tow a car and she asked "what insurance company". (Is there more than one in Costa Rica?) My Spanish was poor enough and her English nonexistent so she called the new "Tourist Police" to talk to me. (Which was all in Spanish any way.) They stuck around for about an hour and in the end found some paperwork in the car that lead to the insurance company (is there more than ONE?) and got the towing set up. They were GREAT! Must have been a slow day in Cartago as there were two Tourist Police officers and about five regular beat cops hanging around working on the problem and watching the show. But they were GREAT HELP. I can't speak highly enough about their concern and assistance. Now Elvira will come back from her trip to Mexico with a busted car, thanks to us. We'll see how that plays out. Don't think I'll every borrow a car again. Those things are such a pain!