University for Peace, Ciudad Colon Costa Rica

Today we took a taxi to the University for Peace. I read on their website that we could arrange in advance for a guided tour of the campus or that we could visit the Peace Garden. My intention was to visit the Peace Garden. The description and photos on the website looked inviting.

The taxi dropped us off at the University. We walked up to the guard shack and asked to see the Peace Garden. He told us we were in the wrong area and asked if we had called two days prior to arrange a tour of the campus. I explained that we wanted to view the "open to the public" garden. The guard picked up a communication devise and spoke in Spanish to someone, probably his boss. He asked if we had identification and said if we left it with him that we can have a visitor pass and walk around the campus. We handed him the photo copies we carry of our passports. He said classes were in progress and asked that we do not speak while walking about. We proceeded to visit the busts of various historical figures from around the globe. The campus has spectacular views of the valley.

After we were done looking at the campus we started our 7+ kilometer walk back home. We passed a fenced in pick nick area with swings, slides and a soccer field. I think that was where the Peace Garden was located, however it was closed. That was OK because we had a long walk ahead of us.

The walk was beautiful! We went through coffee farms, past large estates, horse ranches and fantastic scenery. We walked by the forest reserve El Rodeo. From what I understand it is not a continuous reserve, it has large broken up chunks of acreage of virgin forest mixed in with private grand estates. Once we were back in town we stopped at Casa 76 for lunch and had a delicious thin crust pizza.