Sunday, September 7, 2014

Day 10

This will be short, since I've had a long day off the Regatta and am ready to go to sleep. We left early in the morning for a trip to the Poas Volcano in Costa Rica. It was a two and a half hour drive through beautiful rolling mountains and mist, valleys and streams, towns with little shabby houses in tight rows, all protected by fences, walls and sometimes curving barbed wire. There were also larger new homes. Many roadside sellers of strawberries, papayas, pineapples.

Costa Rica reminds me of Hawaii, it is so green and lush, always on the verge of rain. We walked a short distance to the rim of the caldera and looked over the rim to see nothingness, just a vast white cloud filling all the space. I was sure the weather wouldn't change, so we made our way downhill, but back in the bus, we realized that the cloud had lifted shortly after we left, revealing the active volcano down below. But even though we had missed the main event, it was still beautiful walking through the rain forest.

On the way back, we had a Costa Rican lunch, and saw a two-toed sloth hanging out by the roadside and a family of monkeys playing in the trees. We also saw thriving plantations of coffee plants, and I intend to buy Costa Rican coffee at Peet's when we get home.

Our tour guide told us a lot of great stories about picking coffee beans with his family growing up and he really filled us in on life in Costa Rica. It seems like a truly successful country, peaceful and prosperous, with a big emphasis on education at all levels. I think I'd like to come back to this country sometime, and explore all of its corners.

Here are a couple of pictures:
Lush and Green

Volcanic Nothingness

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