Guarde la calma

A rare thing happened this morning, we found out that breakfast was included in our hotel rate. We had fresh fruit, the desayuno típico and coffee.

As a parting gift, Dennis had arranged for a taxi to come and pick us up at 9am this morning to take us to the Poás volcano.

Fernando, our taxi driver, was punctual. The journey took just over one and a half hours, first through San Jose, and Alajuela and then a winding and scenic route through to the Poás Volcano National Park.

After a short walk (no more than fifteen minutes), we arrived at the viewing platform. The Poás volcano is active, and it is recommended that you don’t spend more than twenty minutes there due to the sulphur dioxide and other gases which escape from the crater. As there was little activity, we stayed just over an hour. The crater is stunning; at almost 1.6 km across it’s also the largest active crater in the world. The more you looked, the more there was to see. The colour of the water, the rocks, the smoke and steam rising from fumaroles. Truly spectacular.

Another trail through the forest led us to the Botos Lake. The now extinct crater is filled with rain water and due to its volcanic origin, it still contains traces of acidity which means that few micro-organisms live in it.

We did see a couple of Poás squirrels – a species endemic to the National Park.

The best time to visit the volcano is in the morning, before the clouds roll in. And as we made our way back from the Botos Lake to our taxi, we saw that the Poás crater was now pure clouds.

On our way back to San Jose, we stopped at a coffee plantation. The café overlooked the coffee plantations; it was a beautiful view and a very peaceful place, surrounded by colourful flowers and green hills. And the coffee was excellent.

San Jose has an odd feel to it. It certainly is a big city by Costa Rican standards, but there isn’t a lot to do or see. Having done the main tourist sites yesterday, we decided to focus on the more local places today… after the obligatory daily visit to the cash point. We have this funny thing going on:

• Costa Rica is expensive so whenever you get money out, it goes (we seem to be spending colones like there’s no tomorrow)
• You can only withdraw a certain amount daily (this is never enough)
• You can’t withdraw more than a certain amount each week

We started with the Museo de Arte y Diseño Contemporáneo (MADC). It is a small museum, and ever smaller currently as they are refurbishing the main gallery. The temporary exhibition was excellent however. Simón Vega’s art explores the relationship between Central America, the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R during the cold war in a playful and parodic way.

By chance, we stumbled across a colourful doorway I had seen on the internet, and which I’d added to my ‘must-see’ list… having no idea where it was.

We took a leisurely stroll through Barrio Amón, a residential area with many trendy cafes, bars and restaurants. It’s only two streets away from the main pedestrian street, but it may as well be in a different town altogether. We had a gooey cinnamon bun and fresh limonadas (pineapple for me and mango for Andy) at Café Miel Garage. And we shared a tasty avocado and jalapeño sandwich at Kula Café.

Being only a few minutes from one of the railway stations, we had hoped to hop on a train a few stops but there was a massive queue (‘rush hour’, a concept we used to be familiar with), so Andy had to make do with taking photos of an old engine in the courtyard.

We followed the rails back to our hotel just in time for our group meeting. Today is change over day. We met our new guide, Brian, and with only three new travelling companions joining us (us being the original three from Mexico City), it’s just going to be six of us for the final part of our Central America journey.

Formalities over, Andy and I walked to the Beer Factory – a bar which has craft beers, and football on TV (Honduras beat Panama 1-0).