Our last full day in Costa Rica started early. We arose at
dawn as we were to be picked up by a tour guide at six am. We had arranged a
guided tour of the Poas Volcano through our hotel concierge. We were picked up
at our hotel by a guide driving yet another Toyota Hiace van. After
introductions and a stern warning from the guide that it would be very cold at
the volcano summit, we proceeded to drive to three other hotels to pick up more
passengers for the tour. When we were finished picking people up, we had a full
van of about twelve passengers.
We set off towards the Poas Volcano National Park, which was
only about an hour’s drive out of San Jose, in the Cordillera Volcanica Central
Mountain Range. The Hiace would take us all the way up to the 8,800 foot summit
of the volcano on paved, two-lane roads, and deliver us to a viewing platform
that would allow us to peer down into a bubbling green, blue, yellow, and grey
crater lake.
As part of the tour we made a long pit stop at the Doka
Coffee Plantation, about halfway up the mountain road. We would get a short
tour of the facility after a breakfast buffet of scrambled eggs, rice &
beans, fruit, and some of the freshest coffee I’ve ever tasted. The plantation
staff had brewed large carafes of all their standard flavors. There were only
five or six flavors to sample, but each one was better than the last. I
contemplated skipping the volcano tour and just sit in that dining hall for the
remainder of the day sampling that coffee. I don’t recall what “Doka” means,
but it might as well be Spanish for “divine”.
Alas, I knew that a deviation from the tour would not be
well received, so I joined the rest of the group for a tour of the facilities.
We were shown some of the nearby fields, how the beans were processed and
dried, and then of course, we ended the tour in the gift shop. Gift shops
usually make me feel sad and exploited, but since this gift shop offered a
multitude of coffee beans in easy to carry packages, I have to say I didn’t
mind being maneuvered into that particular gift shop.
After we purchased about ninety bags of coffee beans, we
climbed aboard the Hiace and set off for the volcano. As with all mountain
roads, the route was steep and winding. The driver was very slow and steady,
and since it was a clear day we were able to get spectacular views of the urban
development of the big city of San Jose down in the valley. When we were
driving through San Jose, I mostly noticed the crumbling buildings, the cheap
building materials, and the poverty. But from 5,000 feet up a mountain road the
overall mass of development looks sort of majestic and purposeful and very
nearly attractive.
As I am enjoying the view of the valley, our driver turns
into a bend in the mountain road and in an instant we are completely engulfed
in dense fog. Visibility is maybe ten yards. There is nothing left to see. But
this is okay because only a moment later we arrived at the parking lot for the Visitor
Center at the summit of Poas Volcano.
We stepped out of the Hiace and were met with a blast of icy
wind. Olivia and I threw on our extra long sleeve shirts and rain jackets, and
followed our tour guide along a quarter mile paved path to the viewing platform
at the summit.
With each step towards the summit, the wind seemed to get
stronger and stronger, and a light drizzle of rain began to fall. My long
sleeve shirt and rain jacket were helpful, but not quite enough to block the
misery that comes with being cold and wet and continually slapped in the face
by bitter cold rain drops. Although, there is something exciting about
experiencing a quick change in climate conditions. Even if you are going from
seventy degrees and dry to forty degrees and sodden.
When we finally arrived at the viewing platform, both Olivia
and I walked directly to the railing and simultaneously peered down over the precipice
and saw…more fog. As I was getting constantly bombarded with rain in my face, I
decided to try rubbing my eyes and refocusing to make sure I was not seeing a
mirage. This was pointless, but I didn’t want to be totally helpless. But even
after I cleared my vision, there was still nothing to see but fog. And no emotional
response except for that dull misery already generated by wind and rain.
For the first couple of minutes our entire group tried to
withstand the cold and rain and wait in hope for some sort of magical clearing
to occur. We could feel the power of the wind as it consistently swept over the
summit. It was easily blowing at more than twenty to thirty miles per hour. It
seemed that it would almost have to clear the fog at some point. But the fog
was too dense. And we were too weak. Olivia and I braved the bitter cold for as
long as anyone in our group. We must have stood there at the edge for nearly
twenty minutes. But we never saw the bubbling green, blue, yellow and grey
sulfurous crater lake.
We tucked our tails and scurried back to the parking lot.
Our guide led us to a small cafeteria and another gift shop. I had no interest
in the gifts, but I was keenly interested in the warmth and shelter provided by
the gift shop. We ordered hot beverages from the cafeteria and meandered around
the gift shop until the chill was removed from our bones.
Even though the viewing of the bubbling volcano crater lake
was a wash, our tour guide ensured us that there were still some exciting
things to see while we were in the Poas Volcano National Park. He was referring
to the last scheduled stop on our tour, the La Paz Waterfall Gardens.
We drove a short ways down the mountain; just far enough
below the summit to escape the shroud of fog. We entered another parking lot,
but this one was much more pleasant as the rain and bitter wind were replaced
with warm and dry sunshine.
Our guide led us through the entrance to a large resort
hotel. Built into the backside of the hotel was a small zoo. We walked along a
concrete path and viewed various Costa Rican animals in cages along the way to
the waterfalls. We saw toucans, parrots, a hummingbird den, a butterfly den, a
frog den, sleeping sloths, lemur monkeys, and a large jaguar that was stalking
back and forth in his glass cage looking absolutely ready to pounce on any one
or more of the children that were persistently tapping on his glass wall. I almost
wished I could set him free and watch him maul one of those kids. Nothing too
vicious, just some light mauling for the jaguar, and a little lesson for a
callous child or two.
Beyond the little zoo cages, the concrete path ended at the
edge of a steep gorge. At the edge was a series of metal stairways that
descended a couple of hundred feet down to some viewing platforms. When we
arrived at these viewing platforms, we actually had a clear view of multiple
large waterfalls. There were five of them and the largest had something like an
eighty foot drop. We took a few photos and enjoyed the view for a moment then
headed out. Along the pathway way out, we were naturally guided into yet
another gift shop before we could vacate the premises. And after ample time to
select some gifts, we hopped back into the Hiace and headed back to San Jose.
We arrived back at our hotel around four pm. We scheduled a
couples’ massage in our hotel spa and spent ninety minutes getting our tired
and worn muscles rubbed down and worked over. After the massage, I spent a
solid forty minutes in the steam room in a sort of euphoric trance.
Afterward, we had dinner in the hotel lobby bar. We split a
pasta dish and a crepe, and drank Imperials until we could no longer keep our
eyes open.
The following morning, we packed our bags and caught a taxi
to the Aeropuerto Internacional Juan Santamaria. The airport was total chaos.
There was a large group standing in a line, so we immediately joined the line
without thinking too much about it. We just sort of assumed it was a customs
line. But after standing there for a couple of minutes and the line didn’t
move, we peeked around to the end and realized it was just a large group of
tourists waiting for each other to fill out their customs paperwork. Not sure
why they were standing in a line. They were obviously idiots.
We got out of line and found a security officer and asked her
what we needed to do to get to our gate. She was brisk, but helpful. She showed
us the customs forms and told us to fill them out. We had to rummage around the
terminal to find a pen, but after a short scavenger hunt, we located a pen and
got our forms filled out. I’m not sure what we would have done if we couldn’t
find our own pen. I guess we would have had to walk around begging other
travelers. As Olivia was filling out her form I looked back at that first line
we were in and realized that those people were in line for a purpose. They were
waiting in line to gain access to one pen. There must have been thirty of them;
just waiting for access to a pen. Stupid. This bothered me for a second. But
then I began to think it was nice to see people being patient and civil. And at
least I didn’t have to waste my life away in a line like that.
After we submitted our customs forms and made it through
security, we looked for a place to eat lunch and were quickly discouraged when
we traversed the entire terminal and found only three restaurants. Each of
which had long lines waiting for service. As we were completely zapped of
energy from our travels, we quickly decided we had no desire to wait in line
for any airport restaurants and agreed to split a pre-made Quizno’s turkey and
mustard sandwich that was being sold at mobile kiosk.
It was a depressing final meal for a trip to Costa Rica. A
place with cloud forests and rain forests; a place where the Rocky Mountains
meet the Andes; where the Pacific Ocean is only a stone’s throw away from the
Caribbean Sea; a place so rich and diverse in plants, animals, climate, and
terrain that it could only be called the “Rich Coast”. But I suppose that a
place that embraces so much diversity can’t help but embrace a turkey and
mustard sandwich from Quizno’s. We shrugged our shoulders, cut the sandwich in
half, toasted to each other, toasted to Costa Rica, toasted to the Pura Vida, and
toasted to our turkey and mustard sandwich. Then we boarded our plane and went
home.
