Orosi, Costa Rica – Surrounded by Heaven Itself

I stepped out of the bus at Orosi, and the first thought that came to me was: “Oh my God, I’ve stepped right into a scene straight out of a novel.”

This is what Orosi feels like. A small town in a small valley, surrounded by majestic lush green mountains on all sides. The streets are narrow, and the houses small and tightly packed. The weather is perfect, with a bright sun tempered by light breeze and ever-rolling clouds. The pace of life is slow, and there’s an aura of peace and serenity that seems to saturate the air.

One of the cheapest Spanish schools in Costa Rica is here, Montana Linda. It’s also associated with a hostel that goes by the same name, and this is where you’ll find the handful of foreigners in town hanging out. Other than that, it’s all Ticos (what Costa Ricans call themselves) all the time.

There was a festival in town on the weekend. It didn’t seem like much in the beginning: a couple of vendors setting shop next to a stage in the town center, opposite the main church, and next to a half dozen food vendors. Very small by anyone’s standards. But what the festival lacked in size, it made up for in volume. There was non stop action on that stage from morning till late at night for 3 days straight. Musical acts of all types, and dance companies from all the towns nearby.

Then there was the main event on Sunday: prior to mass, everyone in town lined up the streets with great anticipation. Slowly, the Virgin Mary Wagon appeared on the horizon. It consisted of a small pickup truck, carrying a tall glass enclosure in which a statue of Mary stood proud. Flowers adorned the rest of the truck, and as far to the sides as the narrow streets allowed. As the Wagon approached the church, the church bells rang in frantic rhythmic beat, people started cheering and clapping, and a few rocket-sounding fireworks exploded right in front of the church. The Wagon then backed up to the gate, someone proceeded to unlock the glass enclosure, and Mary was slowly removed and carried into the church to be present for mass in person. Most of the town followed Mary into the church. The streets were empty, except for the few non-believers who spent the time washing their cars instead.

An hour later, mass was over, Mary was carried back into her glass enclosure, and that signaled the beginning of the day-long parade across town. The Mary Wagon upfront, followed by a handful of four-person bands, interspersed with various dance groups, and followed by kids wearing bizarre-looking masks, then four Goth-looking teenagers on stilts.

The other leg of the parade took a different route through town, and consisted of a 4x4 pulling a long wooden wagon loaded with kids. The kids were simply ecstatic to be riding on this wagon through town. They passed the hostel a few times during the day, and every time they would scream and holler louder than the last. Oh .. the simple pleasures of life.

Yesterday, Keli and I drove the van up a dirt road on the side of one of the surrounding mountains, and found the perfect spot to spend the rest of the day and night. It was stunningly beautiful. We were all alone, literally embedded into the side of the mountain, surrounded by coffee plants and banana trees on the slopes on three sides, and with an uninterrupted vista of further slopes and far away lights on the remaining side. The shades of green colors were endless, so rich, and created a three-dimensional panorama so crisp, complex, and beautiful that there wasn’t even a point in trying to capture it by camera. Then the sun started to set .. the green colors started to meld, and our attention turned to the clouds. How the oranges and reds are reflected in so many different shades based on how thick each cloud is, and where it’s positioned relative to the setting sun. Then, as the sun went even deeper into the earth, the clouds reluctantly gave up their fantastic display of colors, and slowly switched to the varying degrees of sliver and grey as the moon replaced the sun being the source of light for those ever-changing sky murals. We drummed, we sang, like there was no one else on earth. It was a beautiful, beautiful night.

We’re staying here till the end of the week, taking a few Spanish lessons while we suck in even more beauty out of this little town. After that, who knows where the wind will take us ..