Picture 1-Outside San Jose - Country side
Picture 2-Volcanoe Poas
Picture 3- Tired Sloth
Picture 4-City Centre Clowns
Picture 5-San Jose Graffiti Wall
From the things that we had read and from what people told us, it all indicated that San Jose the capital of Costa Rica was somewhere where you arrive and soon wanted to leave due to its crime and filth. We found out that this was not the case... we all really enjoyed San Jose. We started our walking tour at the contemporary art museum which was in an old rum distillery that still had a lot of the working parts intact and incorporated it into the charm of this revitalised area. The museum entrance fee was free that day. We then headed to a park to learn about the conquest and demise of an America pirate who tried to conquer Costa Rica. He was eventually defeated and killed by firing squad. We decided to skip the Jade Museum and ended up walking for a couple of hours up and down a pedestrian-only street that was a shoppers dream... everything lined the streets multiple times. We toured through the covered markets where you get lost if you don’t pay attention as it is a maze of vendors and stalls. We ended the afternoon going to the Pre-Columbian and Money Museum that explained the history of Costa Rica’s currency and the history of their flora, fauna and animals, which were often depicted on the country’s currency. We headed back to Pangaea Hostel for some drinks, supper and cards.
The next day we had organized a tour to Volcano Poas which has been inactive a number of years but still has remnants of smoke puffing out of the huge crater. The ride was 45 minutes long and gave us a good idea of what the transitional state of city to rural Coast Rica would be like and Shannon and I were surprised at how nice the roads and rural cities and towns were maintained... very unlike Peru or Panama. Costa Rica is full of rolling green green hills. So beautiful. We stopped at a coffee plantation and tired our first cup of fresh brewed Costa Rican coffee... superb! We arrived at Volcan Poas National Park and hiked up a paved walkway to the crest of the volcano to see... nothing but low lying clouds... you could not see anything but clouds. Disappointed we took another pathway that came to lookout where you could see a volcanic lake created by a dormant volcano crater and all we saw was the very foggy outiline which looked like a like... from reading ahead we knew there was a possibility that we might not see anything, but that if it got sunny the clouds may briefly clear but that you would have to act quickly. We saw the clouds start to shift and we could start to see more of the lake and so the four of us took off in a full out run back to the lookout and just as we arrived all the clouds lifted and we saw the beautiful crater full of coloured volcanic rock, a pool of blue green water, with a stream of smoke/steam rising from it. The pool was surrounded by past lava flow now charcoal colour, well worth the wait it was awesome. With lots of pictures and video, we happily piled back into the bus and headed back to San Jose where we puttered around the city and back to the hostel for some supper, beers, cards and a relatively early night as we had to catch a 6 AM bus the next morning to La Fortuna.
The next day we had organized a tour to Volcano Poas which has been inactive a number of years but still has remnants of smoke puffing out of the huge crater. The ride was 45 minutes long and gave us a good idea of what the transitional state of city to rural Coast Rica would be like and Shannon and I were surprised at how nice the roads and rural cities and towns were maintained... very unlike Peru or Panama. Costa Rica is full of rolling green green hills. So beautiful. We stopped at a coffee plantation and tired our first cup of fresh brewed Costa Rican coffee... superb! We arrived at Volcan Poas National Park and hiked up a paved walkway to the crest of the volcano to see... nothing but low lying clouds... you could not see anything but clouds. Disappointed we took another pathway that came to lookout where you could see a volcanic lake created by a dormant volcano crater and all we saw was the very foggy outiline which looked like a like... from reading ahead we knew there was a possibility that we might not see anything, but that if it got sunny the clouds may briefly clear but that you would have to act quickly. We saw the clouds start to shift and we could start to see more of the lake and so the four of us took off in a full out run back to the lookout and just as we arrived all the clouds lifted and we saw the beautiful crater full of coloured volcanic rock, a pool of blue green water, with a stream of smoke/steam rising from it. The pool was surrounded by past lava flow now charcoal colour, well worth the wait it was awesome. With lots of pictures and video, we happily piled back into the bus and headed back to San Jose where we puttered around the city and back to the hostel for some supper, beers, cards and a relatively early night as we had to catch a 6 AM bus the next morning to La Fortuna.
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