I could have woken up early again to bird, but I really needed the sleep. After breakfast, we began our trek to Cartago to meet with the Director of the Department of Social Sciences. Along the way, we drove through Zarcero, a quaint town with a notable main square that is famous for its topiary and home to a successful organic cooperative. The area is dominated by dairy farms, which matches the topographical similarity to the Swiss country-side. Step hillsides make farming difficult, but the plentiful rainfall guarantees high quality forage for livestock.
Moving east from Zarcero, we descended into the Central Valley, which cradles the main cities of Costa Rica: San Jose (the capital), Heredia, Alajuela and Cartago (the former capital). As the temperatures rise, the agriculture switches to coffee and sugar cane. Cartago is a sleepy college town 25km east of San Jose famous for its two churches, Nuestra Senora de Los Angeles and Santiago Apostal. The former is a major pilgrimage site, while the latter are ruins of church destroyed in 1910 by a major earthquake. Both have impressively complex back-stories.
Arriving at 1pm, I got settled in my hotel, Casa Mora, just a block from Nuestra Senora. The building has a lovely interior emphasizing wood craftsmanship. We then headed around the corner for lunch, before driving to ITCR for our meeting.
Again, this was conducted in Spanish. Thank god for Eugenio, though I was significantly better than with Don Juan. The meeting was very productive and I left very encouraged. Among many things we discussed, was the possibility of a capstone project where each team had students from both universities. What an amazing learning experience to work on a project in a foreign country collaborating with locals! I am very excited to see if we can actually pull this off.
After the meeting, Eugenio drove me back to the hotel and we parted ways. He is such an amazing asset for the Soltis Center and Texas A&M. My inchoate ideas would have withered without his assistance, but I think we are on the verge of creating a unique learning experience for the students in my department.
Despite sleeping in, I didn't actually sleep well, so I threw myself into bed for a long nap. I woke up after the sun had set and contemplated just staying under the covers, but thought I should walk around Cartago at night to get a feel for the place. My feel was decided boring. I ate a pizza at Ostero's, a neat joint a few blocks down from Nueva Senora with TV's playing Hollywood movies. Otherwise, the place was quiet. It might not be where I would want to spend a lot of time, but it looked like a town that would minimize the trouble our students could find.
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