Well, went to Volcan Poás (the largest active volcano in Costa Rica) with my parents and my Mom’s Costa Rican best friend (wonderful, lovely woman – I really like her) this morning.

Unfortunately, we happened to hit one of the cloudy days, so couldn’t see the crater. I’ve got some pictures of the slopes leading down to the crater – what I could catch of them through the mist – but none of the crater itself that isn’t from a postcard or the little information booklet. On the other hand, got what I hope will be some nice pictures of some of the plant-life in the cloud forest around the volcano, and some of the coffee plant areas between Poás and San José, and the souvenir shop at Volcan Poás (which helps fund the Parque Nacional Volcan Poás) was quite nice, with very reasonable prices. I picked up a small wooden mask and a stone carving to hang up in my apartment, as well as the aforementioned postcard showing the craters of Poás and a lovely shirt with a jaguar on it (me and cats – any type of cats… my family can tell you I’m semi-obsessed with them) and a slogan to Save the Costa Rican Rainforests. Some really beautiful stuff there… of course, there was a lot of touristy stuff as well (the t-shirts being some of them).

We then stopped off at a restaurant on the way back for lunch, and I got a few more scenery/landscape pictures. Then Mom & Dad ran a few errands in San José after we dropped Mom’s friend off at her car, and we got back home about mid-afternoon. All in all, a very pleasant day.

And since I’ve now only got 1-1/2 days left here, I’m glad that even though we didn’t get to see the craters, it wasn’t a wasted trip. I had a good time.

Still in Costa Rica (and wishing I was staying longer)…