30 de Mayo, visitamos el Volcan Poas y el parque natural alrededor del mismo. El volcan esta a tan solo 37 kilometros de San Jose pero eso significa dos horas y media en autobus debido a las numerosas curvas y carreteras estrechas. El crater esta a unos 2.500 metros de altitud. Tiene unas bonitas vistas y se puede ver el mar caribe al fondo cuando no hay nubes. Lo malo es que huele bastante a azufre. El parque tiene una laguna de un extinto crater que se ha llenado con agua de lluvia aunque solo bacterias y algas pueden vivir en el debido a la acidez.

A las dos del medio dia volvia nuestro autobus hacia San Jose y lo perdimos por unos segundos. Literalmente corrimos detras de el durante cincuenta metros. Preguntamos a un guardia del parque como podiamos volver a la ciudad y nos dijo que ya no habia mas autobuses ese dia por lo que deberiamos caminar por el valle hacia Poasito o Fraijanes a unos 13 kilometros y desde alli coger tres autobuses (Fraijanes_ San Pedro de Poas_Alajuela_San Jose) Sabiamos que como cada dia iba a empezar la tormenta y teniamos que llegar cuanto antes al pueblo.Despues de veinte minutos caminando pudimos parar a una pareja de americanos que nos llevo al pueblo en su todoterreno. Entonces empezo la tormenta. Alli conocimos a una pareja de españoles, Miriam y Sergio, que tambien estaban haciendo autostop. Se vinieron con nosotros de vuelta cogiendo los tres autobuses necesarios. Al final fue genial haber perdido el autobus de vuelta ya que hicimos dos amigos que nos contaron historias de Guate y Mexico donde habian estado cinco meses. Esa noche salimos a cenar con ellos por San Jose.

29 de Mayo fue nuestro primer dia en San Jose. Para desayunar, me decante por el tradicional gallo pinto (arroz con frijoles, queso fresco con tortilla de maiz y huevos.) Gallo pinto con zumo de Guayaba y cafe por 2.500 colones (4 euros)

La ciudad es sucia, ruidosa y no muy segura. Hay algunos edificios bonitos como la iglesia de la Merced y el Teatro Nacional aunque la mayoria de los edificios coloniales han sido destruidos por terremotos.

En estas fechas hay tormentas tropicales por la tarde que duran unas dos horas. Es increible lo precisas que son, cada dia a la misma hora y duracion parecida. Como eramos novatos tuvimos que correr a refugiarnos en una cafeteria y tomar cafes durante dos horas.... ya no nos pillara mas de improvisto.

El lunes dejaremos San Jose para dirigirnos hacia Cartago que fue la capital colonial durante 300 años!!

San Jose

29/05/09

We spent our first day roaming around San Jose. There are some nice buildings to see, but a lot of the original architecture has been destroyed by earthquakes.
The city is very busy, very noisy and very dirty. We´re quite looking forward to moving on from here, but it was good to have seen it.
We got caught in the daily thunder storm on our first day, but managed to make it into a cafe before it got too bad. We had to wait an hour and a half before it had passed. Fun times :)

Volcan Poas

30/05/2009

Today we went to Volcan Poas, north of San Jose. Although it´s only 37km away, it took us 2 and a half hours by bus!!!

As well as the volcano, we went on a hike through the national park and saw a lagoon, which is an inactive volcano filled with rain water. Very pretty though :)

Although there wasn´t much to see on our hike, we were glad that we had made the trip...until disaster struck. Well, that´s maybe a bit extreme in retrospect as all ended well, but we missed our bus back to San Jose, and that was the only direct bus back for the rest of the day. We missed it by seconds and ran after it, hopelessly believing that maybe someone would see us and get the driver to stop, but unfortunately not. We reached the entrance of the park and were told that the only options we had were to either walk 10km to the next village and get three buses back to San Jose, or walk 13km to another town and get two buses. We couldn´t believe it! To top it off, the daily tropical storm was about to hit and we didn´t have a clue how long it would take us to get to a bus stop. Vic tried to hitch a lift with the few cars that passed us and luckily enough an American couple took pity on us and managed to get us to the correct bus stop, where we met a Spanish couple also trying to get to San Jose. We ended up taking 3 different buses in the pouring rain to get back, but the new friends we had met made it all worthwhile.

Flying to San Jose, Costa Rica

Hi all,

On Thursday 28th May we are flying to our first destination: San Jose, capital of Costa Rica. We don't know what to expect there but we are really looking forward to it!