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El Volcán

Another weekend, another adventure. These weekend excursions are yet another perk of staying with such an adventurous and fun-loving host family. How did we get so lucky?

Yesterday we loaded up the “buseta” and made our way to Volcán Irazú, one of the nearest volcanoes to our house. It towers over the city of Cartago at an impressive 3,432 meters and, as we found out, has its very own microclimate. We left a gorgeous, clear and sunny morning in La Fila only to find that on top of Irazú, it was cold, windy and wet.  “You see?” laughed our host mom, “It’s not only cold in Alaska!” Kevin regretted wearing shorts the moment he stepped out of the bus.

The chilly weather and blowing mist didn’t deter us, however. We walked around the rim of the main crater, which was huge and had a little lake in the bottom of it. Away from the edge of the crater we walked through black volcanic sand and a desolate area with little other than stunted shrubs and plants. The whole experience might have been more impressive if we had actually been able to see, but we enjoyed ourselves nonetheless. Following our volcano tour we got to hike around in some beautiful wilderness where we found the gigantic rhubarbesque plants you see in the pictures. With all of the massive plants and crazy biodiversity in that foggy forest, I half expected to see a dinosaur jump out in front of us.

On our way back home, we saw a group of Ticos pulled over on the side of the road pointing to something in the tree. A quetzal! Kevin whipped out his camera but was just a little too slow- it flew away before he could get a good picture of it. It was pretty amazing though. If you don’t know what a quetzal looks like, Google it. They’re gorgeous.

We finished up our adventure with cocoa, coffee and cake at the National Park's gift shop. It was the most expensive food we’ve eaten in Costa Rica, but we were all grateful for the chance to warm up a little!

Comments

Unknown said…
Holy cow, that leaf is HUGE!! And Megon that is such a cute picture of you! Sending lots of love from home, well, Washington, at least. :)
November 21, 2010 at 9:05 PM
kaklott said…
I just love reading about your adventures! Thanks for the call thru gmail. You'll have to teach me how to use that! My love to both of you! Mom
November 24, 2010 at 3:56 AM
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