2nd Excursion- el Volcan Poas, La Paz Waterfall and gardens, and Coffee Plantation

This past Saturday, I went on a day-trip to the volcano Poas, just outside of San José. However, "just outside San José" does not signify an easy journey. I have found in the places that I have travelled thus far, that if you are not in the city or on a highway along the coast, the roads are rather bumpy, windy, and hilly here in Costa Rica. The outter limits of the volcano actually reach to the edge of the San José's city limits, due to the fact that the volcano is so old. However, the cone itself is kilometers and kilometers away, due to millions of years of erosion.

We reached a coffee plantation at the base of the cone about one hour into our journey. I was able to drink authentic Costa Rican coffee (the most flavorful coffee in the world!) while looking out over fields and fields of coffee plants. The plantation also had a store that sold coffee beans that smelled delicious!

Here is a view of the coffee plantation from the headquarters.
If you look in the back of the field towards the middle, you can see a rainbow!
Since I got here, I have seen four rainbows. 

This is me, drinking authentic Costa Rican coffee.
In the background you can see the coffee plants.
The taller plants in between are meant to shade the coffee plants. 

Afterwards, we continued to drive up the side of the volcano, but we drove right into the clouds. The umbrellas that we had brought along were nowhere near sufficient enough to keep us dry. We all ended up purchasing rain jackets that kind of looked like space suits at a shop along the way. By the time we reached the national park, the air was absolutely saturated. You could not necessarily see the rain drops, but the moment we walked outside, we were drenched. But who cares really, I am in Costa Rica!

We hiked to the edge of the caldera. We were not able to see much due to the fact that we were in a cloud. However, we could kind of smell the sulfur from the .1 acid lake below. Many people decided to go back to the visitor's center after that. However, a small group of us decided to climb further up the volcano to see anything else. The forest was very thick and dark. The canopy completely obscured the sky. I really appreciated seeing all of the different trees, plants, and flowers along the way. When we reached the next lookout, we really could not see much more, but the journey was definitely worth it.

This is a picture I took from the top of the volcano looking down
 at the cloud forest we had just walked through.

Afterwards, we drove  twenty minutes further to La Paz waterfall and gardens. We ate a delicious buffet lunch that included the best arroz con leche (rice pudding) I have ever had in my entire life! The gardens included a lot of flora and fauna. There is a preserve that holds monkeys, many different types of birds, frogs, snakes, big cats, and many more animals. I got the chance to have a toucan land on my shoulder and to shake hands with a monkey!

The same tree frog that you see on all of the brochures. 

The most amazing arroz con leche in the world!

This is me with a real toucan on my shoulder.
My eyes are closed because it had just nibbled at my neck!

This is a monkey that I saw.
In this picture, he is actually shaking my hand.

This is a baby jaguar, one of the big cats that Costa Rica is famous for. 

There was another long hike to La Paz (Peace) waterfall. There were several waterfalls, and due to the fact that it had been raining rather hard all day, the waterfalls were massive!

This is me, next to one of the waterfalls.
Notice the silver (spacesuit)  rainjacket.