Alajuela is a vast province of Costa Rica, that stretches all the way from the Central Valley in the South to the Nicaraguan border in the North. Although agricultural development has changed the landscape of Alajuela which used to be fully covered by tropical rainforest, this region nowadays is accessible through a network of easy to drive road swirling through beautiful landscapes filled with cattle and agricultural crops. The Alajuela region is the main provider of vegetables to the rest of Costa Rica. But not everything is artificial in Alajuela. Six of Costa Rica’s most beautiful National Parks are located in Alajuela: Caño Negro National Wildlife Refuge, Arenal National Park, Poás Volcano National Park, Juan Castro National Park, Guanacaste National Park, Rincón de la Vieja National Park. As is noticeable in the names of the parks Alajuala is home of three of the most impressive volcanoes of Costa Rica: Arenal, Poás and Rincón de la Vieja. But Alajuela has more attractions of a different nature. On the central plaza of the town of Zarcero you can admire a all kinds of figures that are cut out of cypress, thanks to the creativity of its inhabitants. More serious handicraft can be found in Sarchí, close to the town of Alajuela. This town is the home of one of Costa Rica’s folkloric symbols the colorful wooden ox cart. These ox carts were used for centuries in Alajuela and the rest of Costa Rica to transport coffee and other crops to the town markets and even to the ports on the coast. You can imagine the hardship of a trip like that, since Costa Rica had hardly any roads in the epoch of the ox cart. The purely functional nature of the ox carts got a artistic twist thanks to the imagination of a worker of a coffee factory at the end of the nineteen hundreds. His colorful geometric patterns inspired many to repeat them and soon Sarchí became famous for its painted ox carts. Of course as in the rest of the world, also modern means of transportation made the ox cart in Costa Rica obsolete. But in Alajuela you can still find a lot of ox carts. Sarchi has become the center of production for miniature versions, skillfully painted in the traditional way. In Alajuela close to the Sarapiqui river in the agricultural hamlet of La Virgen del Sorocco you can spot rare butterflies, hummingbirds and special bird species such as the black-crested coquette, tanagers and the coppery-headed emerald. Close to the Poás volcano you is one of the most beautiful waterfalls of the province of Alajuela: Catarata de la Paz. The town of Alajuela houses the museum dedicated to Costa Rica’s national hero Juan Santamaria, who gave his life by throwing a torch on a shed were William Walkers filibusters were hiding. On Costa Rica’s International Airport close to the city of Alajuela that proudly carries his name, a statue is devoted to him, depicting him, mortally wounded but determined to launch his torch. His heroic actions meant the end of Walker’s attempts to control Central America. If you want to grasp the essence of Costa Rica, it will be sure that a big part of it will be found in the Province of Alajuela.