Having been befriended by Juan, a very friendly taxi-driver, yesterday, we used him again today for our trip up into the mountains and to the volcano - cheaper than a guided tour and far more pleasant than being herded around like a flock of sheep! An almost 100 km round trip, but starting around 900 m above sea-level and ending at the lookout point over the active crater at just over 2500 m. Quite a steep and winding road up to the volcano, with many spectacular views, enormous coffee plantations on the lower slopes, then strawberry fields (forever?), then pine and fern forest, some of it quite stunted because of acid rain caused by the steam and gas continuously flowing out of the active crater lake.... We accused Juan of taking us on the special tourist scenic route, so beautifully neat, tidy, unlittered and almost manicured the whole road was and not a slum or untended shack in sight. But no, he maintained that this is how it is in Costa Rica!
A pleasant km or so walk from the park camping ground to the lookout point, and there she blew in all her glory, the active Poas crater, filled with toxic hot water, supposedly one of the world's most acidic lakes, steaming away and giving off its toxic fumes, so that the area immediately around the crater is bare and the nearby forest extremely stunted. Impressive proportions, the main crater about 1.5 km wide and 300 m deep,,, The last major eruption, sending ash 8 km up, was in 1910, but there is constant activity - Poas was the epicentre of 6.1 magnitude earthquake in 2009, killing at least 40 people in nearby areas and there was also minor eruptive activity then, while the lake often erupts in a geyser-like fashion. All very impressive! (And smelly too, the sulphurous fumes catching the back of your throat... After suitableapprecative grunts and oohs and ahs and picture taking, athletic Ros continued on a circuit to an even higher, but now inactive crater, which last erupted in 7500 Bc, while Juan & David ambled back to the visitor's centre for a well-earned coffee. Then down back the road, taking pics of rhubarb-like "sombrillo de pauvre" - "poor man's umbrella", before stopping for lunch at a big coffee plantation. All in all quite a day!
A pleasant km or so walk from the park camping ground to the lookout point, and there she blew in all her glory, the active Poas crater, filled with toxic hot water, supposedly one of the world's most acidic lakes, steaming away and giving off its toxic fumes, so that the area immediately around the crater is bare and the nearby forest extremely stunted. Impressive proportions, the main crater about 1.5 km wide and 300 m deep,,, The last major eruption, sending ash 8 km up, was in 1910, but there is constant activity - Poas was the epicentre of 6.1 magnitude earthquake in 2009, killing at least 40 people in nearby areas and there was also minor eruptive activity then, while the lake often erupts in a geyser-like fashion. All very impressive! (And smelly too, the sulphurous fumes catching the back of your throat... After suitableapprecative grunts and oohs and ahs and picture taking, athletic Ros continued on a circuit to an even higher, but now inactive crater, which last erupted in 7500 Bc, while Juan & David ambled back to the visitor's centre for a well-earned coffee. Then down back the road, taking pics of rhubarb-like "sombrillo de pauvre" - "poor man's umbrella", before stopping for lunch at a big coffee plantation. All in all quite a day!
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