Rincón de la Vieja translates to “Old Woman’s Corner” or “Old Woman’s Nook,” a name it very much lived up to when I started to hike it and had to turn back to do the easier trail because I started to feel like the old woman.
In actuality, the volcano is not named for its ability to transform those that climb it into the elderly, but instead for a legend surrounding the volcano conceived by the Curubandé tribe, indigenous to Liberia in the Guanacaste Province. The story goes that long ago there were two rival tribes in the Guanacaste Valley below the volcano. The chief of the Curubandé tribe had a beautiful daughter named Curubandá, a girl known throughout the valley for her extensive knowledge of medicinal plants and the healing magic of volcanic mud and hot springs.
Curubandá fell in love with the son of the chief of the rival tribe (because, of course, she did), Mixcoac, which caused all kinds of drama with Curubandá’s father. Her father is furious, but instead of forbidding his daughter from seeing her lover, he plays it cool and invites Mixcoac to a party he’s throwing near the volcano. He then gets Mixcoac drunk and throws him the volcano!
Curubandá, who, unbeknownst to everyone, is carrying Mixcoac’s child, gets wind of this news and is devastated (as anyone would be) and proceeds to flee into the forest surrounding the volcano. She then hides out at the top of the volcano until she gives birth to Mixcoac’s son, who she also throws into the volcano so he can be with his father! Curubandá then spends the rest of her days living at the top of the volcano where people from all across the valley would travel to be healed by her.
People would say, “I am going to Old Woman’s Corner,” as it was said she lived in a remote corner of the forest, and so that was what the volcano became known as. Even now, they say, if you listen hard enough, you can hear the weeping of Curubandá as she mourns Mixcoac and their son, both of whom were swallowed by the volcano.
