Monday, July 8, 2002

Aaaah again. Waking up to the sound of birds not the whine of an air conditioner (it’s a lot cooler in the hills, the rooms are fine with just open windows). After a nice breakfast (there are more guests so breakfast is a buffet with no waiting!) we head out to Volcan Poas. I thought that we were already late because it says to go as early as possible, but we hit the entry gates at 8:30 and it opens at 8:00 so that’s pretty early. The guard warns us that we can’t see the crater right then because it’s fogged in and Mark seriously considers turning back but I convince him that we came this far, we might as well see what we can. We put on our jackets–it’s cold up here–and head to the visitors center where we read about the volcano. We check out the trail and decide the stroller will work better than the backpack, so we exchange them at the car and head out. When we first went to the crater it was indeed nothing but fog, but then the breeze picked up and it cleared a little. Yay!  And then, about five minutes later it really really cleared and we could see everything. Yippee!  Payback for the horrible drive yesterday.

After we got our fill of pictures we went on the hike to the other crater that’s now a lake.  The stroller bumped and bounced over the rocks like it was made for it, because, well, it was! I love that thing.  Anyhow, the lake was nice and we saw a cool bird with yellow knees and a squirrel that looked like a regular squirrel. I didn’t realize until I got home that it was its own species, the Poas squirrel. I could have gotten a great picture, too! After the hikes we cleaned up the muddy wheels of the stroller in some nice clear water puddles (wouldn’t want to be tracking stuff all over the airport, after all), and spent all of our remaining colones in their pretty nice gift shop. We decided to have lunch on the way to Zoo Ave, so we headed back down.

Past beautiful landscape, we were looking for a recommended restaurant but we never did find it. They grow strawberries in the hills so there were many stands, it was just like home! We decided to eat at the Peruvian restaurant we kept passing on our way to our hotel, and that turned out to be a good choice.  After lunch, we went to Zoo Ave. Again Mark amazed me by getting us there. Who knows how he does it.

The zoo is very nice and the exhibits are well-designed. Genevieve enjoyed the peacocks the most, it was all we could do to keep her from grabbing the male one as he ate. She also liked seeing the monkeys again one last time. I liked seeing the scarlet-billed acarari up close–I couldn’t get a picture of the ones I saw in the wild because they were too far away. I didn’t see their coati although I would have liked to.  And then it was time to go.

Once back at the hotel, we went into the swimming pool. Ooooh, cold cold cold. Their pool wasn’t heated and the day wasn’t very hot. Fortunately, Genevieve was happy enough to go in the hot tub instead, which wasn’t too hot for her. After the pool, we returned to our room and saw not one but two caterpillars. Different ones this time, a black one and a green one.  Genevieve really liked that.

We then had our last dinner in Costa Rica. Talk about slow!! This time it was a full hour between ordering and eating. Genevieve did not take that well at all.

Off to bed, we’ve got a very early start tomorrow.

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