This weekend was similiar to two weeks ago. I again visited a popular volcano near San Jose. This time it was Volcan Poas.

The bus left from San Jose at 8:30 am, but I decided to stay overnight in Alajuela, which is about 11km from San Jose and is where the San Jose Airport is situated. The bus passes through Alajuela on the way to the volcano. The guy at the hotel spoke pretty good english and he mentioned that he lived in Toronto for a couple of years going to school. There were a couple of nice cathedrals including one that had been completely restored after being damaged in a 1991 earthquake. I ate pizza at a Irish-American-Italian-Tico restaurant which had a nice balcony table which was one of the few times I've been above the ground floor in Costa Rica.

The bus arrived in Alajuela at 9:00 and it was an extremely clear day on the drive up the volcano. The guide book warned me that the volcano would almost certainly be covered in clouds by 10 am, but when the bus arrived at 11 am it was still sunny. The Volcano is in a national park and it is probably the most popular park in Costa Rica because it is so accessible. It was only a short km hike up to the edge of the crater. This volcano is slightly more active than the previous one I visited and there was some smoke rising from different parts and the smell of sulfur was strong at times. Apparently they have to close the park sometimes if the wind is wrong and the toxic gases are blown towards the people. There was a big lake in the crater which is normally a bright blue, but for some reason it was white that day.

There was another trail that went to an old crater. This crater had a lake in it which was still slightly acidic and was deviod of most life because of this. The trail went through dwarf cloud forest and there was lots of moss and flowers on the trees. The volcano is lower than the previous one I went to so it wasn't nearly as cold, especially in the sun. There was a very tame montane squirrel, which only lives at high elevations, that came right up to my feet to beg for food. I also saw a number of hummingbirds and other birds. There was also a museum that explained the history of the eruptions of this volcano and other interesting facts.