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Famous 5 colones bill! |
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The most famous painting of the theater is an allegory to the
two most important export products of the country, coffee and bananas. Aleardo Villa ( italian painter ) was
not very familiar with our country, so he made a few technical mistakes that
made the painting funny and unique. The bananas in the bunch are up side down.
The coffee plantations are painted at sea level, what is wrong. The coffee bushes
are too small and the women are typical shobby, very elegant nord italian ladies,
very different from our coffee pickers. The oxen have the yoke on their necks.
Imagine the poor oxen strangled by pulling all that weight. Normally the yoke
is tied up to the horns and head. Although he made some mistakes, it is a nice
painting and was chosen as a motif for our 5 colones bill. The bill is out of
circulation but it can be purchased outside as a collection item. |
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La Fortuna and the Arenal Volcano area |
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Arenal Volcano |
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The Arenal Volcano National Park is on the northwestern region of Costa Rica, between the Tilaran Mountain Range and the San Carlos planes. It is located 3 ½ hours northwest from San Jose ( 128 kms: 80 miles ) by car. It is located 7 kms away from La Fortuna town.
It is part of the Arenal Conservation area called " The Energetic Heart of Costa Rica". The Arenal Volcano is a living laboratory because of its complex biological processes development, that forms from folk vegetation to a primary forest.This was the most active and impressive of the volcanoes in Costa Rica. This almost perfect shaped volcano was covered with vegetation before 1968. Just before the big eruption during the year 1968, the people noticed that the cows could not drink water from the Tabacon River because of the rising temperature. After this, the volcano erupted violently covering more than 7 square kilometers ( 4.2 square miles ) with lava. Since that moment the volcano erupted daily at different levels of activity until 2010. This was one of the greatest spectacles of a visit to Costa Rica. It was incredible to observe and hear an eruption by daylight or by night. Seeing the lava rocks glowing down the hill at night was something you unforgettable. Before the active period of 1968, a lavish canopy of vegetation covered the Arenal Volcano.
The Arenal Volcano has entered a quiet period since 2010. The volcano is still active but is not showing its precedent lava eruptions at the moment.
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