JAN 21, 2013 POAS VOLCANO, COSTA RICA

Monday Jan 21, 2013  POAS VOLCANO & COFFEE PLANTATION

PURA VIDA - Life at it's best
We were all very excited and raring to start exploring Costa Rica.  Staying at the Barcelo San Jose Palacio, breakfast was at 645 in the Aphora restaurant, an excellent buffet and wonderful Costa Rican coffee.  Elston Valentine, our Tour Leader, was there right on time at 720am and we were on the highway by 740am.  It is a beautiful 45 passenger Mercedes bus (only 5 in CR) and spacious, luxurious cream leather seats with seat belts for safety (and a rest room on board for emergencies only).  Otherwise we tell Elston "I need a happy stop!".  Marcus our driver had put a bottle of water in the back of our seats - so away we went under a beautiful blue sky with no sign of clouds.  Since the opportunity to see the volcano is only 30% due to the cloud cover - it would be amazing if we were lucky enough to see the summit without clouds!  We start heading North towards our objective of Poas volcano - the sky looks clear!!

Costa Rica used to be an island isthmus and peninsula until with the shifting of the
Caribbean and Pacific tectonic plates it eventually became part of South America.  Costa Rica is fairly small and would fit into Lake  Michigan.  75% of the world's biodiversity are represented in CR - more than in USA and Canada put together - this has resulted in a high increase in tourism into Costa Rica for visitors over the last few years.

There are 4 mountain ranges in Costa Rica, 2 of which are volcanic. The Central volcanic range free of clouds, and the Poas volcanic formed this mountain range - East to West  starting with ?Durreil pa isazcu 11000 feet, Poas.  There are three volcanoes still active in Costa Rica today.  The Western end of Palamaca Mountain range.  Interestingly, the highest mountain in CR was formed by tectonic action NOT by volcanic action. There are 7 provinces in CR and we today are in the central province in ALAJUELA.  Here there is a National hero monument honouring Juan Santa Maria in 1856 (rifle in one hand and torch in the other hand) for acting against invaders (William Walker from Tennessee) from USA who was trying to bring back slavery to Costa Rica.

Walker wanted to take over Central America after independence in Costa Rica in 1821.  James Buchanan did not support Walker.  Walker and his mercenaries had already managed to take control in Nicaragua (on Costa Rica's Northern Border) where the political situation was unstable - so Walker had taken possession of the Nicaraguan army and named himself chief of Nicaraguan Army and also President of Nicaragua.  As Walker tried to move into Costa Rica, the filibusters had taken over one of the largest cattle ranch haciendas in Costa Rica.   However it took only 14minutes for Costa Rica to oust the filibusters and send them back across the border to Nicaragua (Rivas).

As we drove through the beautiful countryside, with mountain ridges everywhere, towards the Poas volcano, we passed through the town of Alajuela where the streets were very narrow and very much a challenge for our bus driver Marcus.  The higher elevations (3 to 5,000 feet) in CR are ideal for Coffee plantations along with temperatures between 75 and 80 degrees.  As we drove along and the bus started climbing towards Mt Poas we could see evidence of the coffee plantations.  Apparently beans grown at this elevation are firmer and roast well, versus lower elevations where the beans are softer and can taste bitter when roasted.  Best yet - volcanic soil is the best soil for gourmet coffee which is what CR has in abundance!  Brazil, followed by Columbia, are the two largest coffee growers in the world.  But apparently Brazil has quantity but no volcanic soil- so CR prides itself on the quality of its' coffee bean due to their volcanic soil. In 1943, an Englishman visited the interior of Costa Rica and was really impressed with the coffee beans but it was not being harvested at the time because the local farmers sad there was no market for coffee.  He made a deal to load coffee on his boat and take it back to Europe, which he did.  This was the beginning of coffee exports from Costa Rica to Europe, which was unknown before this time.

As a side note - when Costa Rica students went to Europe to study they developed a love of soccer and today Costa Rica is a massive soccer nation versus the neighbouring countries of Panama and Guatemala where the major sport is baseball!

We reached POAS National Park just before 9am - we very fortunate with the weather and were still seeing clear blue skies.  Off the bus we were given 90 minutes to enjoy the POAS volcano and area before our departure at 1030am.  (But first we gave our lunch order for the restauarnt to prepare: rice, beans, plantains, veggies with choice of grilled mahi mahi, steak, or chicken (vegetarian burrito also available).  POAS belongs to the 500 "Ring of Fire" volcanoes around the Pacific and there are only 580 volcanoes in the world.  In Costa Rica there are 120 volcanoes and there are up to 100 earthquakes every day usually not more than a magnitude of 3 and deep underground so not typically felt by the populace.  Costa Rica is sitting on top of the Caribbean and Pacific tectonic plates which are continually moving, the Pacific plate subducting underneath the Caribbean plate - the Caribbean plate being the most active.

POAS erupted in 1906, but the largest eruption was in 1910 sending ash 8,000 metres into the air.  The temperature of the green water in the lake at the bottom is about 56 Celcius (decreasing each year) with a PH of 1 - very acidic which is believed to be a sign of a very active volcano. This volcano has been undergoing significant testing and has been found to be the only one of its' kind and it is expected that in the future there will be a "POAS" type of volcano.  We were so lucky - we arrived at the crater rim just before the clouds arrived .... but only just!!  From the parking lot to the rim of the POAS volcano was about a 20 minute walk  on a good path, all uphill, quite a gentle slope. As we arrived the clouds from the Caribbean in the East were just starting to roll across the rim - perfect timing!

The rim was at 8871 feet (2640? metres) and looking down into the crater was amazing - it was smoking quite well and the smoke was flowing down the valley following the same path of the original lava path. We took lots of pictures then took the Escalonia Cloud Forest Trail uphill (now we really were puffing as we walked uphill!) a good 20 minutes in very wet and mossy trees so overgrown we couldn't see any sky overhead - there is no doubt that they spend most of their time in the ever present clouds!  At this point we could see the BOTOS lake from an earlier eruption than POAS - as a result there are lots of flora and fauna around BOTOS, whereas POAS is very barren and  desolate at this point being a much younger volcano.  It was a slow (pole pole) walk up and for many folks it was quite a struggle - their breathing being impacted by the altitude.

After taking photos and enjoying the views, and the walk through the trees with lots of green moss hanging down due to how much time they spend in the clouds, we walked back down passing many tourists arriving and walking up to the rim. We thoroughly enjoyed our POAS volcano stop and back at the POAS Park Gift Store and Coffee Shop we had a quick look at the goods for sale - many paintings, lots of woodwork and coffee ranging from $7 to $20+ per pound depending on where the beans were grown and processed, volcanic soil being a major factor! Of course there were also tshirts, dresses, caps, hammocks and bags for sale as well.

The Central Valley area, where POAS is located, is populated by 60 to 70% of Costa Rica's 4.7 million total population.  The views as we descended from the crater were amazing - never ending wide vistas stretching to the horizon.  There were huge greenhouses (made from thousands of yards of black mesh fabric)  growing anthuriums, leather ferns, and roses - mostly for export to Europe and North America. Enjoying the views we arrived at the restaurant for lunch sitting on the deck overlooking the spectacular Central Valley.  Lunch was excellent (all served efficiently by 3 hombres) and followed by excellent rice pudding flavoured with cinnamon, cloves and coconut and we were finished (except for coffee) by 12 noon and ready to continue the day's adventures.

Outside it was very warm in the sun, so after a short wander through the coffee bushes, banana plants and fruit trees we left at 12:20pm heading for the BRITTA coffee plantation nestled in Barva de Heredia on the slopes of the extinct Barva volcano.   In the coffee plantations, trees and shrubs are planted to protect the coffee bushes from the wind and sun - there are consistent winds coming from the East and the Caribbean Sea.  The beautiful PORO tree is seen often providing shade to the coffee plants with its' leafless branches covered in beautiful orange flowers - just glorious!

Our stop at Britta was surprisingly so much fun - the store and shopping was great quality -buy 4 get 1 free, buy 20 get 5 free, ship 10 packages coffee beans to USA for $80 including shipping - really well marketed.  But best of all was Maria and her male cohort who toured us around the plantation showing and explaining the coffee planting, harvesting and roasting process.  Did you know that the coffee bush has a beautiful flower (smells like Jasmine) that flowers for 1 to 3 days in April, and then the flowers drop and the beans start to grow.  But the coffee plant is a member of the Gardenia family - I never knew that!  For the short walking tour through the plantation we were joined by another busload of Caravan Tours people, so 80+ folks.  We ended up in a large demonstration shed where two guests were invited to do a coffee taste test after first being shown how to taste the coffee correctly.  By the way, coffee should taste exactly the same when it is cold as when it is hot and if it tastes bitter when it is cold then it is poor coffee.  Also coffee beans that are flavoured are poor quality beans flavoured to hide the poor coffee beans. Decaffeinated coffee beans from BRITT coffee use the water process for decaffeination, so no chemicals are used.  After the taste test Maria and her cohort also showed a movie and did a great routine explaining the history of coffee - they were both very funny.

Apparently many of the workers that come to harvest the coffee and flowers come from Panama and Nicaragua - and as in every country in the world the immigrant workers are not universally liked by the local population.  After planting, the coffee plants they start to produce after 3 or 4 years, and continue producing for the next 8 to 10 years.  Then the trees are pruned back.  The coffee plants flower in March and the harvesting starts in October.

We left BRITT at 3pm - the funny thing being trying to track down our driver Marcus when we were back at the bus and he was nowhere to be found for 5 or 10 minutes!

It had been a very full day and we all relaxed as we headed back to our hotel the Barcelo San Jose Palacio.  Along the way we saw well tended houses and gardens, and were amazed to see the beautiful exotic and tropical Birds of Paradise being used as a hedge!  The hedge was just glorious and in Canada we spend a lot of money for just one stalk of a Bird of Paradise at the local flower shop!

Due to the altitude of San Jose and the frequent breezes, it can be quite cool outside in the large and beautiful tropical gardens of the Barcelo Sa Jose Palacio hotel, requiring a sweater or jacket to be comfortable - and as a result not many folks swimming in the large pool.  Back at the hotel we sat outside and relaxed at the Grill by the pool and enjoyed an afternoon cocktail with chips (that was a misunderstood request!) before heading into dinner in the APHORO restaurant at 7pm.  The APHORO restaurant has an outside seating area as well as inside tables - the outside area being much nicer we felt, so we all sat outside for all of our meals.  Even though we were part of a tour group with buffet meals, we sat at tables of any size (versus one large table) and we found the food was very good at the Barcelo San Jose Palacio.

After 2 nights in the capital city of San Jose, tomorrow we leave for Tortuguero National Park on the East Coast - so tonight we were re packing bags to leave behind at the Barcelo which we will pick up at the end of the tour before we fly back to Canada.  This lets us travel with smaller bags and less hassle over the next 7 nights of our 9 night tour with CARAVAN.

It is of note that Caravan has been running this same tour for over 60 years.  There were 2 groups of 40+ passengers at the Barcelo while we were there - at this time of the year they have at least one new tour (and sometimes more) starting every day!  They must be doing something right!