CHAPTER VI 



WEST AND NORTH OF CARTAGO 



The Continental divide in the central portion of Costa 

 Rica is formed by the mountain or mountains called La 

 Carpintera lying about three miles west of Cartago. The 

 greatest altitude of these mountains is given as 5695 feet by 

 Pittier. The railroad crosses the divide through a pass be- 

 tween La Carpintera and Irazii which also accommodates 

 the Carretera Nacional from Cartago to San Jose, the high- 

 est point being El Alto. To the south side of the tracks, is 

 a flat swampy place among the hills, with some standing 

 water filled with grasses, knot-weed, rushes, etc. It is known 

 as the Laguna de Ochomogo and apparently occupies the 

 floor of an old crater with very irregular and broken-down 

 walls. It is the site of the first battle of the first civil war 

 of Costa Rica, when, on April 5, 1823, adherents of the Mex- 

 ican empire of Iturbide, from Cartago and Heredia, met in 

 arms the republicans of San Jose and Alajuela. Padre Fran- 

 cisco Quintana, crucifix in hand, induced the combatants to 

 separate, but the republicans subsequently occupied Car- 

 tago and the capital of the country, hitherto at that town, 

 was removed to San Jose. In the second civil war in 1835, 

 Ochomogo was again the scene of a Carthaginian defeat by 

 the forces of President Braulio Carrillo. 



P. first visited the laguna on July 7, 1909. It ought to be 

 a good place for dragonflies but careful search along its edges 

 discovered only a single species, the tiny A^iomalagrion has- 

 tatum, which we have described in connection with Cartago. 

 A strong wind was blowing from the east during most of this 



