La Vida Loca!

When we come back from the beach along the Pan American Highway we pass though Las Juntas de Albangares on our way up the mountain. It's an old mining town where some people still mine gold. The statues in the picture above depict the miners, and in another part of town there is an old mining train. It's a pretty typical Tico town, and there aren't any tourists who come here. It's the equivalent of a county seat, and so you have to come here to conduct any offical business, such as business permits or payment of land taxes.

It's pretty different from Santa Elena, where we live, which is a total tourist town. Jim describes it as ski town without snow, which is a pretty accurate description. Lately there have been so many tourists that there are traffic jams in town, with all the local buses and tour buses. I particularly like the sign on the bus that goes to the Cloud Forest Reserve; it says Cloudy Forest on the sign, which about sums it up.