Tuesday March 13

POAS VOLCANO

Our tour guide's name is Juan Jose. Our bus driver's name is Jose. There are 3 women named Frances. Very unusual. Only one Anton, of course. The group is mostly American, but we have a half dozen Canadians making our voices heard. It was annoying when the tour guide would pause and calculate the American measure (ie gallons) without telling us the original metric measure. We quickly rectified that.

Our first stop this morning was the Poas Volcano. We had a winding drive uphill and we could feel the temperature steadily getting cooler. The volcano is a little different than normal in that it doesn't spew lava. Rather, there is a pool of sulfuric acid in the caldera, and once in awhile the magma under it heats the water so much that it spews into the air and splashes down. Not today, however. They warned us that there would only be a 30% chance of even seeing the caldera and nearby lagoon. However, we think they are probably inflating that number to give tourists false hope. Even though it was sunny in San Jose, by the time we reached the top of the mountain (9000 ft), we were engulfed in a misty cloud and nothing could be seen. Although we did quite enjoy the 2 hikes that we took and the lovely vegetation. The flowers have been a highlight on this trip.

After spending 2 hours at the volcano, we headed down the mountain to a lodge type restaurant where they put on a show of indigenous dancers (it looked more like people dancing in their underwear) and fed us lunch. Our tour guide had set the expectations quite low, telling us it would be beans and rice, but it was quite a good meal.

Our final stop for the afternoon was a tour of a coffee plantation. Quite amusing and informative, with free samples of coffee and chocolate. And a gift shop, of course.
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