Volcan Poas & Alajuela Day 2

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Costa Rica 2013: Day 15: Alajuela Day 2:

We verified where we were supposed to pick up the bus to Volcan Poas and headed out. I don't think the map the hostel gave us is quite accurate, as the block where it shows the bus terminal for Volcan Poas is located seems to be at least a block or two off. Oh well, we found it. Also, according to what I read on the internet, and what the hostel told us, the bus is supposed to arrive there from San Jose and leave at 9:15am, leaving San Jose at 8:30. When we found the bus, it had been siting there a while and had no passengers from San Jose. It did leave at 9:15 however. The trip costs 1,165 colones, one way and takes about an hour and a half, depending on how many times the bus has to stop for other vehicles and careless drivers. Just like the outgoing trip, there is only one return bus at 2:30pm, so you DO NOT want to miss it. We left Alajuela and wound our way up into the mountains North of town, passing through several tiny villages, such as Dulce Nombres (Sweet Names) and Fraijanes. We made a short 15 minute (although I think it was 20 or 25) stop for refreshments and use the restroom. As we were only 10 kilometers from the park, I'm not sure why we had to stop there.

We stopped at the entrance, got off the bus, paid our $7 or 3,500 colones entrance fee and then got back on board. The visitor's center has a nice souvenir shop (although the prices are a bit higher than many places), clean plentiful toilets, and a decent cafe/cafeteria. We both got coffee as soon as we arrived, then headed up the trail to the overlook for the main crater. The path was a gentle slope with pretty foliage all along the way. When we reached the overlook, we were greeted by a pretty awesome sight. Just below us, and close enough to actually feel the heat (which was welcome since the temperature was a bit on the cold side), we could see the main crater. It had a sulphurous pond with a constant cloud of steam rising from one end, and steep sides. All of the area around and down one side was solidified lava with no vegetation. After a couple of good photos, we decided to take the trail to the lagoon overlook, the lake left from a previous crater. The trail was probably less than a kilometer long, but all up hill. It was also kind of neat because parts of it were almost completely covered above with vegetation, making it feel like a fairy tale. At the overlook, we enjoyed the view, took some more photos and decided to try the 1.8 kilometer trail back to the visitor's center. Although a lot longer, this was a least a mix of up and down hill. Along the way, besides the everpresent foliage, we spotted at least 3 types of little birds. One of them had yellow thighs, not feet, thighs, as in the drumstick part. Weird!

When we finally reached the vistor's center again, it was around noon, so we decided to eat lunch there (it was the only place to eat), before venturing back out. Manoli decided to try a empanada, sort of like a meat turnover, and I had a deluxe ham and cheese sandwich. I thought my sandwich was pretty good, but Manoli didn't care too much for her empanada. She did finish it before me and was still hungry, so she bought a small bag of fruit pastries. The food wasn't very expensive, especially when you consider it was the only place to eat. After finishing lunch, we still had over an hour to wait, so we walked back up to the main crater, mostly to warm up. The temperature, in late May, was in the 50s at best. Half an hour or so before the return trip, we headed back to the parking lot to wait for the bus. The return trip was uneventful and a little quicker than the trip up, mostly because we were going downhill and we didn't have the small traffic jam we'd run into on the way up. I never did find out why we sat still for 10 or 15 minutes.

We returned to Alajuela around 4pm and walked back down to the hostel to ask about where the best place was to eat dinner. We wanted to have typical Costa Rican food for our last night. The hostel guy recommended a place not too far away called Soda Tapia, so around 6pm we headed out to dinner. The restaurant is located in a modern mini-mall or shopping center. They offer a good variety of breakfasts, lunchs, sandwiches, and beverages at reasonable prices. Manoli ordered a gallo pinto with eggs and I ordered what they called almuerzo, which is usually called casado, with a breaded fish fillet. We both enjoyed our meals and the guayabana "smoothies", and neither of us could quite finish them. After dinner we walked back to the hostel and got packed up for our return flight tomorrow morning.

I hope you've enjoyed sharing our trip with us. I am already looking forward to next year, when we'll probably do an Alaskan cruise for our 40th anniversary.

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Photos

Alajuela Bus Terminal
Alajuela bus terminal for Volcan Poas

Alajuela & San Jose
Alajuela & San Jose from the road up to Volcan Poas

Volcan Poas Park Entrance
Paying our park entrance fee

Visitor's Center
The visitor's center, gift shop, and cafeteria

Trail to the Lagoon
J.C. on the trail to the lagoon

Lagoon Overlook
Manoli and the overlook at Volcon Poas lagoon

Trail From Lagoon
The 1.8 km trail from the lagoon

Little Bird
A tiny bird in the cafeteria

Volcan Poas Valley
Looking down the valley from the crater

Soda Tapia
Manoli at our dinner at Soda Tapia