Costa Rica: Monday (Lunes)

Poas Volcano

Our morning started with another excellent breakfast and some great conversation with another couple, Jim and Cathy. Both retired and Jim his early 80's, they exuded a certain vibrance and youth that was amazing. We all loved to travel and had shared some funny stories. More on them later.

Properly fueled, we got in our little rental and made the pilgrimage to Poas Volcano National Park. This park allows you to hike up to the lip of an active volcano. That's pretty cool! Because of the elevation, the views are often obscured by clouds, but the wind moves things along pretty well, and it's apparently just a matter of a few minutes between no visibility and good visibility. We got some great shots, but to be honest, the crater really looked to me like a man-made quarry, although with a sulphuric smell. There is also a lake at the top of the volcano; that was totally socked in with fog. No views of Botos Lagoon for us.

Best view we got of Botos Lagoon..

After that short hike we came back to the Peace Lodge to check out the La Paz Waterfalls, more animals, take more photos of the macaws and have more lunch, (fresh grilled trout). We also chillaxed in the hot tub and I went for a relatively short, but very steep run. It was caloric investment because later that night, I would indulge in a piece of cake. It's vacation, right?

One of the Waterfalls...

Well, while we couldn't SEE the lagoon, we could read about it...

This depicts the epic Toucan vs Horse battle of 1835.

Did I mention that there were lots and lots and lots of stairs?

Yep, another waterfall?

View from the hot tub... not bad!

Pretty bird, pretty bird.

Possibly one of the cutest creature on the planet... so sleepy!

Elevation profile for my run... down, down, down... up, up, up!
Down was on the road, up was on the trails at the Peace Lodge/La Paz.

We actually had dinner with the couple we had met at breakfast, Jim and Cathy. They were incredible people. We could have listened to their travel stories and life stories all night. They've been all over the world, from cycling in Tuscany to climbing Mount Kilimanjaro and safaris in Africa. Cathy is also a stage 4 cancer survivor who, after beating cancer at age 67 (I think), did one of her hikes up KIlimanjaro, run a couple of half-marathons, and many other feats which make people half her age feel lazy by comparison. They had some great stories, but one of my favorite was the time she got stopped by security at the airport in London because she forgot that she had an 18" short sword in her carry-on. That's happened to us all, right?

More to come!