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21/10/2017

Prusia

iconEasy
iconLess than 5km
icon4x4
iconMore than 5000
iconAccessible
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Que Buen LugarPublished in Que Buen Lugar · Nov 21, 2017
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As part of the Irazú National Park, Prusia has 16 km of trails to explore and enjoy from it’s abundant vegetation.

How to get there? With Waze

From San José take the Florencio del Castillo road towards Cartago, until you reach Tierra Blanca, from here it’s 2 kilometers to the northeast, road to the Irazú Volcano, take the junction to the left and continue approximately 4 kilometers. The access to this sector is currently in regular conditions. We took off without previous planning as usual, only with the idea of going for a walk to Prusia.

What to bring? Sportswear, trail or hiking shoes, windbreaker or jacket.

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Food? We packed almonds, raisins, and water. On the way, we stopped by a gas station to buy some more things to snack on and drink, in addition to buying batteries to use our newly bought GPS and start to play with it.

The road to get to Prussia is a little hidden and there is no sign to indicate to exit anywhere for Prusia, so we actually drove passed the entrance... we had to go up a bit further and turn around, you have to enter exactly through the same road as the Sanatorium. We arrived at the entrance of the park, the day was super sunny, although some people warned us that in some parts it is always drizzling so it is better to wear a jacket especially for the cold. We asked park rangers which were the longest trail ... they showed us on the map the trails we had to follow to walk around 4 to 5 hours at a normal pace, making strategic stops to take pictures and do picnics and such.

We started up the paved road until we reached the first trail on the right, It starts off with a good climb and the altitude (about 2350 masl) makes you easily tired. Then we came across a really cool forest with pine trees, which really stand out due to the almost reddish color of the trunks, they are very tall and when we tried to look up at the top, they look white as the sunlight flows through them, it looks as If they had snow-covered on top. As we continued walking, we caught a very rich smell and it was the eucalyptus forest, so refreshing. The detail in the changes in the vegetation and the landscapes that are seen along the road make it very neat and unique.

There is a point where you get to what is called the "beach" which is a spot where the ground has pure white stones. After that, you see a perfect spot to picnic or lie down for a while in the grass. There is a part where you can leave a bit the national park and pass through some private farms, there was a paddock full of beautiful cows we tried taking a good selfie with and being inside we noticed that the sight of civilization is pretty cool. In one of those farms there was a house with a sign "cajetas sold", we craved some sweets so we knocked but we did not have cash, only a bill of 10 thousand and they did not have a chance. So we ended up buying a coconut cajeta between the 3 and sharing it. It was delicious. From there we arrived at Finca Retes, which has several signs with the name and then we entered the national park again. We passed through a very awesome part where the trees are covered by vines, from there we went to the main street, where we had passed by the car, only about 200m away to get back to the entrance of the park.

As always we were starving, so we went to the first restaurant we found coming down from Prussia. We ordered a terrific typical dish and some fried cheese wraps. And as the saying goes, All good things come to an end.

Hike: 4-5 hours with picnic included. Difficulty: Moderate and the altitude (2600-3095 mm) can make breathing difficult.

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