Irazú Volcano in Costa Rica

[kyonides]

Well, today I want you to meet the Irazú volcano located in Cartago, Costa Rica. You might have heard about volcanoes before, especially if you have been in places like Hawaii or Italy, where you can also find them and even watch them erupt for a while (like a couple of days or weeks), but you might ignore how this little fellow changed Costa Rican history long time ago.

In 1963 everything seemed normal, even JFK visited Costa Rica in order to utter one of his famous(?) speeches. Comically, it seems the Irazú did not like him at all. It started erupting ashes that very same day, forcing that American president to leave as soon as his political goals were achieved.

First of all take a look at the culprit!  

Yeah, guys, it might look beautiful and dangerous for sure!

Oh, I forgot to tell you that the following photograph was taken later on, in the 80s it seems. Still, it lets you get the feeling of how was life back then.

Then people soon realized that they needed to clean up the streets on their own! Even if there were some vehicles to do the job, it was just too much to be ignored by townsfolk.

You might now think I am just exaggerating here. The truth is that the Irazú volcano erupted so many ashes that it filled a river causing it to flood the surrounding area, burying a whole town and killing hundreds of people and animals. It was a real tragedy back then. Local channels still possess a copy of an old news report video taken back then, spoken in English. Later on it would be translated into Spanish and it is kept as a true relic of times long forgotten.