Volcán Poás

What a great Saturday today was. We had to be up at school at 7 am, which was quite early. We first went ot a coffee plantation and did a small little tour. I got some fresh coffee with Irish Cremé that was great. AND!!!!!! Playing Cards! I forgot to bring mine, and have been looking for some. (These were only $3 and have cool Costa Rica pictures too) The ride was beautiful because we drive through the central valley and their version of the continental divide. I sure am getting more comfortable riding here. The greyhound drivers are CRAZY, whipping around these mountains. I do not think I would drive as fast as they do in my own car. We drove to Poás to find a foggy volcano. This volcano was different than I had expected. There was a crater with a sulfur lake, which is what we should have looked down into. I was expecting to be looking up at the volcano. Anyway, we were all a bit bummed, because you literally could not see a single thing. It was actually one of the weirdest things I had ever seen. It was like a wall of fog. We later found out that it was the smoke from the volcano, and it was just that thick. When we got to the national park, the ranger told us to wait at the bottom for about 10 minutes to get use to the Sulfur. He said that it was very high that day. I did not think that it would change anything, but we were all coughing as we walked up the volcano.

Once we got to the white wall of fog we walked up to another lake, that was a bit more visible. We walked back down and found out that the "clouds" had cleared, and they usually did every 10 minutes. So we waited, and sure enough, they did. It took a while to be able to see all of it, but it was so beautiful. That was the first active Volcano I had even seen. It was hard to grasp the size of it, because it looked close and far away at the same time.

Our guide for the day was so talkative. He talked the whole way up. I think many people were bothered by it, but I really liked it. He knew so much about Costa Rica. There are 292 Volcanos in Costa Rica, although not all are active. That is pretty impressive, considering the fact that it is about the size of West Virginia. Costa Rica is the #1 producer of pin apples, passing Hawaii a couple of years ago. The states have around 26 kinds of humming birds, while CR has over 60. Also, CR is the country with the most amount of protected land, around 25%, and also has around 5% of the world's biodiversity. Just a couple of the interesting facts.

We went to an AMAZING resort, that led to the waterfalls, or cataratas. We first ate at the buffet, which was amazing. the guide told us to try the rice pudding, which I am not very fond of, but decided to because he said it was the best in the country. He was right, it was AMAZING!!!! I told Cecillia about it and she said she would make it tomorrow night. There was a little Zoo thing at the resort too. It was nice, but I am not to much into the caged animal thing. They did have some crazy animals though. I got to hold a toucan too.

Next we walked all along the river and looked at the water falls. A bus drove us back to the resort, then we headed back to San José. I have dinner then bed, because I need to get some sleep. WHITE WATER RAFTING TOMORROW!!!! We leave school at 6, then go to a buffet breakfast, which could be very dangerous pre-rafting. I will try not do eat to much! Since all of my breakfasts have been toast, cereal, and guyaba jelly, it is a bit tempting though!

And food update: Sour cream and onion popcorn was a bust. You popped it, poured the flavor dust into the bad, then shook the bag..... no bueno.