Volcanos, Butterflies, Waterfalls and Pooping Oxen
Trip Start
Apr 04, 2005
1
41
43
Trip End
Jul 18, 2005
Siripiqui, Volcan Poas, Amistad, Costa Rica
Sunday, June 26, 2005
Anyway, yeah, we went to this tour guide and arranged the deal of a lifetime, a full 14 hour adventure packed day where we started out at before 6 am and shortly were headed to Alajuela to meet our tour bus for the first of 5 stops for the day, the Coffee Plantation. I got my picture out front with a guy with some oxen and an oxcart and when I pet it the thing pooped a lot and everyone laughed. But it was a good photo and the guy let me wear his hat in it. The oxcart here is a real symbol of how they work in a very old fashioned way, being one of the only countries in the world to still pick the coffee beans by hand. They take great pride in their work and come December when it is time to harvest the bright red beans, all workers end up working 20 plus hour days. It was really interesting and also beautiful to watch the morning sun shining off of the rows and rows of juvenile coffee plants.
The next stop was breakfast. Typical, gallo pinto with eggs, coffee, fruit and a fresca. Fresca Freddies was the name of the place. Good food.
Then we headed off to see the Volcan Poas, an active volcano in which the crater at the top is filled with liquid. Usually the photos of the water show it as a deep aqua green- blue, but due to very recent activity the water looked as white as milk, a poignant picture amidst the jagged rocky edges of the crater. There was a lime colored powder floating on the top of the water and steam rising and pouring out of the cracks in the rocks. The smell of sulfer was pungent and the view was absolutely overwhelming. I had never seen anything like that before and probably never will. The photos turned out cool.
Then we hiked to the nearby lagoon but unfortunately the clouds had set in and we couldn't see anything. The walk up was nice though, and Joe and I got a good opportunity to talk. I really like that guy. Then we met up at the museum, had a quick look around and then caught the bus to the next stop, the Catarata de La Paz.
At the waterfall, before we hiked down, there were 4 different little farms, butterfly, hummingbird, botanical and the serpentarium. We checked out all of those and it was pretty sweet. There were butterflies that just landed on me as I walked around and hummingbirds oblivious to our presence as they buzzed from feeder to feeder with lighting fast speed. There were snakes and frogs of all kinds calling the Serpentario their home. I'm glad we did that. Then we had lunch- a killer buffet and I ate too much.
We then started the descent to the bottom of the 6 tiers of the waterfall. This thing is just huge, falling over 3000 feet down the mountain before culminating in a big river at the bottom. As we hiked down the well groomed path and arrived at the first cascade the force of the water hitting the pool at the bottom created a fine mist and a wind that blew my hair straight back. We were soaked in minutes. We did this 5 more times, hiking down and down to eventually lay our eyes on the namesake waterfall La Paz. It was stunning, with another smaller waterfall shadowing it to the side and both sending torrents of water plummeting to the base to continue on down the river Amistad. Truly breathtaking.
Then the hike back up and onto the bus to go to our tour of the Rio Sirapiqui. We pulled up to a quaint farm after an hour or so and were greeted by two ancient locals playing the mariachis side by side. They loaded us onto the boat and with Jose Luis at the helm we started downstream where he had seen a 90 year old giant croc taking a siesta on the riverbank. His homing skills finely tuned, we located the croc after about 10 minutes, a huge blast from the past, looking Jurassic as all 20 feet of him lay motionless covered in dried mud. Jose Luis was able to navigate our craft REALLY close to the creature before he got irritated and walked towards the water, disappearing immediately beneath the murkiness.
Turning and heading with the flow of water we saw not only beautiful countryside and other animals including an ocelot, toucans, monkeys, a sloth, turtles, bats and countless singing birds. About 3 months ago the river was flooded and the evidence littered either side of the river. Huge trees, uprooted, created a maze that only a professional like Jose Luis could navigate without problems. The trees that were still standing had plastic bags and other debris high up in their branches, indicating the level the water had risen to.
As we passed by one of the houses, conveniently built on stilts to avoid damage from such floods, there were 5 young children jumping off of the rocks, swimming and laughing and playing in their underwear, waving and smiling as we passed. I was thinking how cute they all were and also how different it would be in the US. Kids playing in the river without their parents and with crocodiles none the less.... Scary. But they were having a blast and my thoughts drifted to other things. As the sun started to wane we pulled back up to shore, were greeted with yummy frescas and cookies then were off on our way to our drive through the Parque Nacional Braulio Carrillo.
There was a storm that was rolling through at the time and the strong winds had the rain and the trees blowing parallel to the ground. Quite a site to see, but I was alone other than our bus driver and guide as the others slept. At one point the top of a tree had broken off and was in the road and our very apt driver used his 20 years of experience to keep us all safe. Lightning flashed vividly and mind blowing thunder clapped in the jagged, tree covered landscape. It was just surreal, like something out of a sci-fi movie. We never got out as the weather didn't allow but the view from the bus was great. We emerged into sunshine just as it set and finished the drive, ending up in San Jose in time for the next bus to San Ramon and then home by 8:30.
So, wow, is that all, you say?? But of course not, as the going away party for Emma and Joe had started without us and was in full swing. It turned out to be a hell of a night and there was dancing and bonding and photos and yada yada, you get the point, Fun times! What a way to go out with a bang!
This was one of the best, awesome, and most action packed days I have ever had in my whole life. To my peeps, Emma, Joe and Eugene, thank you for the idea and for sharing with me an experience I will never forget. And thank you, too, for the pictures, for without those all I have is my words to describe what we saw and you and I both know that wouldn't do it justice.
