Volcán Poas and La Paz Waterfall Gardens

This past Saturday I went with some of the other ISEP groups on an excursion to Volcán (Volcano) Poas and a place called La Paz (Peace) Waterfall Gardens. We met at the University at 7 and took a tourist bus/van up to the volcano. It was chilly up there, being at a higher altitude, but it felt really good. It reminded me of Fall, which is something I'm going to miss this year (I still can't wrap my head around the fact that the weather's not going to change the whole time I'm here...). Anyway, we walked up to the viewing point, where we could see the whole crater and white steam pouring out of it.

Then we "hiked," aka, walked up concrete paths, to another viewing point where we could see this beautiful laguna. The walk itself was pretty cool--literally--and beautiful, as we walked through a dense green of trees, shrubs, and vines. The laguna was a pristine blue surrounded by lush green hills. We took several pictures, and after a while some white clouds moved in over the lake. Apparently we were really lucky to be able to see the volcano and laguna: usually it's too cloudy to see them, especially in the rainy season.

Next on our agenda was the La Paz Waterfall Gardens, which is sort of a resort and nature park. We ate lunch in this beautiful dining building, then had several hours to explore. We saw dozens of colibrís (hummingbirds) flitting around a whole row of feeders. Some flew so close to me that I could hear the buzz of their wings. From there we went into the mariposería, saw some cute capuchin monkeys, and then went into the aviary and we got to hold toucans! (See my facebook if you have one to see more pictures.) Next we saw lots of scary snakes (they were behind glass, don't worry), and then we walked down to the waterfall path. We saw several beautiful waterfalls from different perspectives. One we got to stand so close that we got wet, and looked straight down another one. All around were hills and mountains covered in trees and above the sky and clouds. The beauty of this country leaves me speechless sometimes; words and pictures don't even begin to do it justice.

Well, tomorrow is el Día de Independencia (their 4th of July). Decorations have been up since the beginning of September, and apparently the festivities start tonight. I'm planning to go with some friends to check it out, and also hopefully will be able to see some parades tomorrow! Check back later this week and hopefully I'll have posted about it.