Volcán Poás

This weekend my roommate Jessica and I had a volcano-filled weekend. There are several in the San José area or relatively close, so we figured we should see them before we go. It's weird to be thinking about things like that, but we only have three weekends left now, so it's time to start checking off the must-do's before it's too late.

We left the house at 7 on Saturday to buy tickets downtown for the 8:30 bus to Volcán Poás. It was a pleasant bus ride through some towns, including Alajuela where the airport is, and up into the mountains. We stopped in Poasito, a gorgeous mini-town whose main form of income is tourists coming to see the volcano.

We got into the park and walked up to the top around 11 AM, and incredibly the sky was still clear enough to see the crater! Check it out...

The crater is surrounded by rock and is filled with green stuff, presumably some acidic brew. It smokes almost all the time! We got to witness it with blue skies and enough clarity that you could see the greenage of the nearby mountains that surround it.

After we got our fill of looking we went for a hike to the lake that used to be an active crater and now is filled up with rain water. The water still has an acidic pH due to its origins, so it's a really bright color and hardly anything lives in it. What a beautiful sight!

In addition to the view of the lake, we enjoyed some nature on the way there and back. The trail there was very cool and filled with all kinds of interesting plants.

We took our time to enjoy it and be silly!

We returned to the crater about an hour later to eat our sack-lunches, only to find that it was completely obscured by the clouds that had rolled in. All you could see was a think white fog, not even the rock surrounding it was visible, let alone the crater itself. Apparently this is very common, although you wouldn't know it listening to the tourists who had been planning to see it... We felt very lucky for the clear and beautiful view we had!

We bummed a ride back down to the town where we did some shopping and had some very healthy snacks: fruit juice, chocolate covered marshmallows and fried cheese! They were delicious though.

Instead of paying the $8 to take the direct bus back to San José we opted for the indirect option, which meant stops in Poás and Alajuela. We saved about $5 and got to see some more beautiful scenery, like this pond in Poás!

We returned to San José around 6 or 7 and had a few cervesas and a home-cooked dinner to renew our energy reserve before another early morning and another volcano!