This weekend I went to visit Volcan Irazu which is the highest active volcano in Costa Rica at 11,257 feet (3,431 m). This is just slightly smaller than the Volcan Baru (11,400ft/3477m) I climbed in Panama but this volcano was far easier to climb because there is a paved road that goes almost to the summit.

I went to San Jose on Saturday. I intended to go earlier in the day, but at 11 am I learned there were no buses between 10 and 2pm, so I arrived after dark. I explored the downtown area, where there were lots of stores and interesting restaurants. There was one large department store that was already fully into Christmas mode. There was fake snow falling in giant snowglobes and Christmas songs were playing constantly. I bought a Spanish-English dictionary there and the bag they gave me had a big Santa Claus on it.

The next day I caught the bus to the volcano. It was only $5 for the 2 hour trip up to the top of volcano, 2 hours to explore the volcano, and 2 hours to return to San Jose. The bus went through the city of Cartago which was the original capital of Costa Rica until it kept getting destroyed by volcanoes and earthquakes. There were a number of pretty churches, some in ruins. The bus continued up the mountain and the clouds held off at first giving a good view of Cartago and the valley. It was pretty cloudy though by the time we reached the summit at 10 am. There were quite a few Costa Rican families there having picnics and exploring the volcano because it is so accessible. It was very cold at that altitude and some people were wearing parkas and scarves. I guess they must have been looking for a good reason to use them in Costa Rica.

There was a trail that went along the craters edge. There were two craters, and the main one had a green lake in it. The last time the volcano erupted was in the early 60's when JFK was visiting Costa Rica. The ash released by the volcano covered a number of cities including San Jose and disrupted agriculture in the area. However, now coffee farms and other types cover much of the slopes of the volcano. The clouds would clear at times and would give a quick view of the craters. There was another trail about a kilometer that led to the summit of the volcano. Fortunately there was a big break in the clouds when I was on the summit and I got a fairly clear view of the entire volcano. Apparently, when it is completely clear, this is another place where both the Atlantic and the Pacific can be seen at the same time but I needed to arrive earlier in the morning. There was a restaurant back at the parking lot and by this time I was ready for a nice cup of hot chocolate.

Upon returning to San Jose I had a little bit of time before my bus left so I decided to take a trip to the nearby city of Alajuela. This city is the home of La Liga which is one of the two most popular soccer teams in the country( The other is Saprissa in San Jose). It also the home of Juan Santamaria, who was a hero in Costa Rica independence. There is a statue of him, a holiday for him and the airport is named after him.

The bus back to Bagaces was very relaxing. There was hardly anybody on it and, because it went directly to Bagaces, I could lie down on the back seats and go to sleep. In Bagaces it has started raining a bit more and they are completely reconstructing the road past my house getting rid of all the potholes.