Costa Rica News – Over the next few days we are going to introduce people to a few off the off the beaten path activities and locations to visit in Costa Rica. Everyone knows about the beaches, zip-lines, surfing and much more but honestly if you have lived in Costa Rica a while you are looking fr something fresh to discover.
It doesn’t matter whether or not you believe in ghosts, there are some places in which none of us would want to spend a night. These places have well earned their reputations as being so creepy, tragic or mysterious (or all three) that they definitely qualify as “haunted.” Sanatroio Carlos Duran is one of those places.
Many old TB hospitals have been said to be haunted after they closed. There was one across the street from my old house in New York, there’s one in Ohio and another in Kentucky. Costa Rica is not exempt from this strange occurrence.
The Sanatorio Carlos Duran was originally opened up to treat tuberculosis patients, mainly by providing a sunny location with lots of fresh air. It was chosen because of it’s remote location in Cartago, away from major population areas, because the disease was extremely contagious. After medicine advanced and TB became a curable disease the facility was closed in 1963. Later it was used as a prison and as a mental asylum. In 1973 eruptions from the Irazu Volcano caused damage to the site and it was closed for good.
The site is now opened to the public but you may not want to go after hearing of the ghostly activity there! Visitors claim cold chills, voices, and ghosts are experienced there. There are numerous reports of a nun appearing. It’s said that she used to work there and care for the patients, miraculously healing some of them! Others claim to have seen a pair of people in black robes that appear together and watch the visitors.
Are you brave enough to check out this spot? It’s become increasingly popular in the last years due to bands filming music videos there and TV shows such as Paranormal State and Ghost Hunters International featuring this fascinating location.
Info
11 miles before Irazu Volcano, take left route and straight to Prusia
Entrance: ¢800.
It opens from Monday to Sunday from 8 to 4
If you need more information call 2240- 3016
By Kerry La
