Poas Volcano and La Paz Waterfall Gardens

Day 22 January 2, 2013

Poas Volcano and La Paz Waterfall Gardens

Finally a clear day on the mountains, so we headed out for Poas Volcano with Richard and two new guests, Enessa and Mike from Miami, Florida.  It took about an hour winding around the mountain roads to get to Poas.  On the way, we saw several old mud slides and some of the devastation from the last earthquake caused by the volcano.  The volcano had a minor eruption in 2006 and a 6.2 Richter earthquake in 2009.  It has a 40-year eruption cycle. Right now it is just producing sulphurous gases.

The main crater is 1 mile wide and 1000 feet deep. 

It was pretty incredible peaking into the crater of an active, smoking volcano and smelling the sulphurous gases.

After some wonderful coffee at Poas, we headed on around the volcano to the La Paz Waterfall Gardens on the northeast slope of Poas.  We met up with Elias, Maman, Candela and Lola at the lodge.  The lodge was gorgeous and the bathroom sinks ran water down rock waterfalls into the sinks.  We headed out into the park to see all the beautiful plants and birds.  Our first stop was to see the toucans. 

They had a big enclosure with lots of different birds.  They also had a large area full of hummingbirds. 

We walked through the butterfly garden where there were thousands of butterflies flying around.  There were so many of these huge Blue Morpho butterflies.  One even hitched a ride with Eric.

They had a nice traditional homestead with some coffee exhibits and even an ox cart.

They had several large exhibits of the large indigenous jungle cats.  This jaguar was so pretty, but huge.  

We stopped for a nice buffet lunch in the lodge.  Then we headed out for the waterfalls.

They have five waterfalls in the park ranging from 125 feet tall to 75 feet tall.  

The rainforest made such a beautiful backdrop for the waterfalls, but it was hot and steamy. 

It felt good when we got to stand in the spray of one of the waterfalls. 

We had a bit of drama off and on all day, with Enessa.  At one point in our drive to Poas, she asked who kept up all the landscaping on the mountainsides.  I thought I had misunderstood her, so she clarified by asking who mows the grass and plants the flowers and plants on the mountainsides.  Really!?!  Her husband had to explain that cattle eat the grass and all the plants grow wild here.  She complained constantly about how crowded the ride was in Richard's car and how there was no way she was going to ride all the way to Arenal the next day with Eric and I.  Richard graciously offered to take Eric and I another day along with him and his girlfriend, Angie.  When we were getting ready to leave La Paz, Enessa asked Elias if he had room in his car for someone else.  I ended up riding home with Elias, Maman and their girls.  I think I got the good ride.  Eric said Enessa wined and complained all the way home.  Luckily they are only here for six days and want to try to see the whole country in that amount of time.