Looking the Volcano in the Eye

Poas Volcano, COSTA RICA
Jan.30, 2015

The little casita in Leo & Shelly's back garden is out in the country, amid farms, coffee and sugarcane plantations.

Coffee trees!

It would be utterly peaceful if it weren't for Leo & Shelly's five dogs.  The ringleader - the smallest dog of the bunch - barks incoherently whenever I am in its site, or it thinks I might be in its site, which sets off the other four dogs, and then all the dogs in the valley.  He's a "big" bully with nothing to say who stalks around the yard barking loudly (ie. beating his chest) to hide the fact he has nothing to say.  Reminds me of work.

However, I will easily settle for nearly utterly peaceful.

My Spanish impoves daily, thanks to nice Costa Ricans, my Spanish-English travel dictionary, and Duolingo [1].  However, the ability to catch what's being said, at 20 words/second, in response to my stuttering Spanish utterings needs work.  I wasn't sure if the fellow who gave me a lift back down the volcano mountain said:
a) when your boyfriend shows up, give me a call and my wife and I will take you guys to the best beach in Costa Rica,
b) if your boyfriend doesn't show up, give me a call and I'll make you my wife and take you to the beach,
or
c) none of the above.

Mom and dad -
I managed to look over the edge into the smouldering crator of a volcano without falling in.

I was pretty fortunate - to see it, not to not fall in.  The crazy storms hitting the eastern coast are being felt here too, with raging winds and cloudage.  And the clouds unfortunately all get stuck on the highest peaks, ie. the volcanos.  Poas Volcano is in a national park which also has cloud forest and some trails for local flora and fauna sightings.

I wonder why it's called cloud forest:

Halfway up the road to the volcano, and I find my head
in the clouds

I was begrudgingly trying to muster enthusiasm for the cloud forest trails after arriving at the volcano crator lookout and seeing:

Volcano Poas viewpoint

...when it felt like somebody suddenly turned the lights up.  The clouds parted, the angels sang and I ran (literally) a km back along the path to the lookout to see this:

Poas Volcano - main crater

I had walked 3km from my casita to the nearby village, ridden the public bus up the windy road for 45 minutes (think: yellow school bus with exactly that kind of (non)cushioning), walked another 10km up the volcano, and paid my two bits to see a smouldering crator...

The parting of the clouds lasted only about 10 minutes, but wow.

And yes, that's real smouldering (not clouds) coming from the lake.

Afterwards, I went back to the (super-sized) flora and (sadly lacking) fauna of the cloud forest with great enthusiasm.

Costa Rican fungus?

Moth or butterfly with translucent wings

Supersized fern

Poor Man's Umbrella

Poor Man's Umbrella - with watch placed on top of leaf (left side) for scale

My only disappointment of the day was not seeing the infamous resplendent quetzal birds.  Or any small untamed felines.

The stars are out now (the sun gets up at about 6:00am, the sun goes down at about 5:40pm. 11:35 hours of daylight at winter solstice, 12:40 hours of daylight at summer solstice), the dogs have finally shut up (first time!!  they must be starting to like me), the crickets are cricketing, there's a warm breeze, and my glass of Costa Rican wine needs refilling.