The ruins of an ancient village of the Guayabo tribe are hidden from prying eyes in the heart of the rainforest of Turrialba Volcano National Park. This archaeological site is the only extant evidence that Indian people lived on the territory of San Jose. The ruins are about fifteen hundred years old!

Safely hidden in the shadow of the volcano, the settlement in its heyday has about twenty thousand people. Based on the preserved traces, the people of Guayabo were a fairly developed nation. Scientists still can't understand why they left the inhabited territory.

In the center of the lost city on the site of the ritual square, lonely stone idols stand. These are huge black boulders that symbolize the superior beings: the jaguar god and the alligator god. Around the square there are the foundations of residential buildings and outbuildings, and paved paths, sometimes interrupted by overgrown paths. Funerary structures are of particular interest. Inside them, household items and decorations were preserved. The walls of these structures are decorated with ancient writing, hieroglyphs of the Guayabo tribe. Moreover, there were small earthen hills all over the city. These mounds are still a mystery to researchers.

Unfortunately, no records of European travelers about this settlement have been found. It is possible to evaluate how significant it was only by those visible fragments that have been preserved from ancient ruins.

The lost city is located in an equally mysterious jungle. In Turrialba Volcano National Park, you can find monkeys, badgers, foxes, ocelots, sloths, and exotic butterflies. Bright birds rest on the branches in the shade of bushes. There are more than three hundred rare bird species in the reserve. Reptiles and frogs of all colors and sizes run here and there in the emerald grass.

Powerful elms and high cedars as from ancient legends grow there. In their shade, there is glyceria, laurel, palm trees, ferns, and mosses. A delicate aroma of bright colors of magnolia, heliconia, cineraria, bromeliad, and figs spread through the forest.