Ochomogo is a location in the province of Cartago, Costa Rica.
It is in a mountain pass between the cities of
San José
San José or San Jose (Spanish for Saint Joseph) most often refers to:
*San Jose, California, United States
*San José, Costa Rica, the nation's capital
San José or San Jose may also refer to:
Places Argentina
* San José, Buenos Aires
** San ...
and
Cartago.
It was the site of the
Battle of Ochomogo
The Ochomogo War was a civil war fought in Costa Rica, the first in its history, and was fought shortly after the country became independent from Spain.
The most important event was the Battle of Ochomogo (5 April 1823) which was fought on Oc ...
(5 April 1823) between those who wanted Costa Rica to join the newly formed
First Mexican Empire and those who preferred independence.
Name
The name "Ochomogo" comes from the
Chorotega language
Mangue, also known as Chorotega,Daniel G. Brinton. 1886. Notes on the Mangue; An Extinct Dialect Formerly Spoken in Nicaragua Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society , Vol. 23, No. 122 (Apr., 1886), pp. 238-257 is an extinct Oto-Mangue ...
, and means "the first man".
He was a companion of the god
Cipactonal, one of the creators of the
Aztec calendar.
Location
Ochomogo is in San Nicolás, Cartago, Provincia de Cartago, Costa Rica.
Ochomogo is just south of the Autopista Florencio del Castillo, which connects San José to Cartago, and is on the northeastern outskirts of Cartqago.
The
Köppen climate classification is Cfb : Temperate oceanic climate.
The left-lateral strike-slip Ochomogo fault is about long, running between the south of San José and the southern slopes of the
Irazú Volcano.
The slip rate is no less than per year, and no more than per year.
At one time there was a plaque in Ochomogo that said "Continental division of waters".
This could mean that the location was at the center of America, but more plausibly meant that it was on the
drainage divide
A drainage divide, water divide, ridgeline, watershed, water parting or height of land is elevated terrain that separates neighboring drainage basins. On rugged land, the divide lies along topographical ridges, and may be in the form of a singl ...
between the Atlantic (Cartago) and Pacific (San José) slopes.
History
The
Ochomogo War in 1823 was won by the Republicans, and caused the capital of Costa Rica to be transferred from Cartago to Sane José.
During the
League War
The League War was the second civil war of Costa Rica, as a member state of the Federal Republic of Central America. It passed between September and October 1835 in the Central Valley of Costa Rica. Its immediate trigger was the repeal of the ...
in 1835 there was another confrontation in Alto de Ochomogo where the people of
Alajuela,
Heredia and Cartago fought the people of San José, who were again victorious.
A railway was built through the Ochomogo Pass in the 1870s to link Cartago to San José.
In 1948 the Ochomogo Pact (''Pacto Ochomogo'') resulted from a conversation in Ochomogo between
José Figueres Ferrer
José María Hipólito Figueres Ferrer (25 September 1906 – 8 June 1990) served as President of Costa Rica on three occasions: 1948–1949, 1953–1958 and 1970–1974. During his first term in office he abolished the country's army, nationa ...
, leader of the National Liberation Army, and
Manuel Mora, leader of the Communist Party.
They agreed to avoid a clash in San José between the conflicting forces, which would have led to a bloodbath.
This resulted in the end of the
Costa Rican Civil War.
In the night of 9–10 December 1963 torrential rain on the Irazú Volcano caused the Reventado River to widen to over , carrying a heavy load of rocks and mud.
The flood destroyed buildings, roads and cemeteries, including 400 homes, and over 15 people died.
Many of the inhabitants moved up to Alto de Ochomogo.
Notes
Sources
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ochomogo
Populated places in Cartago Province