| We had a good breakfast at 7:00, packed the bus, and were on our way
to Volcán Poás around the north side of Irazú.
The road was winding but was paved the entire day – a big surprise for
me. We stopped at the Angel Falls overlook and also saw several hummingbird
varieties. There was also a large tarantula-like spider that everyone
let crawl over their arms and hands. Next we stopped at La Paz falls,
a double waterfall right next to the road.
Poás National Park is a well-organized and relatively new establishment.
We hiked on a paved trail to the main crater overlook. In its center
is an acid lake with a billowing fumarole. A dark hole in the center
of the lake with fumarolic minerals around it had built a cone to just
below the water’s surface. While we were there, the cone collapsed
and a line of yellow mineral rapidly developed. The sides of the
crater were built of pyroclastic volcanic strata and benches marked two
older, higher lake levels. The group was totally enthralled.
Crater elevation was 2574 m. The clouds were all below us and we
were in a bright sun. We lingered at the crater’s edge for a good
45 minutes. I pointed out some landslide scarps on the far wall and
speculated that they were earthquake-related. Dani checked up on
me and found I was correct.
From there we hiked a short distance to Lago Bodos, an older crater with a nice circular lake within. It is not affected by the nearby magmatic activity as its water temperature is 10-15° C. We hiked back to the van and drove down the SW side of the mountain, stopping at a nice, little, rustic restaurant. Lunch was excellent. Dani split open a coconut with a machete but it had gone past its prime. We saw several toucans flying across the road. Margaret joked that we had failed to included the possibility of an unstable swing set, which the students were playing on, in our risk management report to the College. The drive from lunch to Fortuna was a big surprise. I had heard Dartmouth horror stories about the long, pitted, dirt road, from the early eighties. To my delight the road is now completely paved but still very windy. We stopped at Sancero to photograph a pretty church with interesting arches in the hedges. A while later Dani spied Maxi driving back to San José. He had left Lauren at the El Tabacón hot springs where she was waiting for us. We went right to the spring where Lauren greeted us with big hugs. Her adventure was great and it looks like all will be fine. The hot springs were not at all what I expected. It was a huge
resort. We changed and got wet. There was a waterslide that
the group fell in love with. Surprisingly, Margaret was the most
addicted, going down 27 times! The students gave her the nickname
"Slip 'n Slide". Most of the students congregated at the bar end of the
pool and had a blast.
We ate a great buffet dinner at the resort and then drove into Fortuna
and got our rooms at Cabinas Sissy. Dani and I talked for about an hour in Spanish.
We all went to bed around 12:00.
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