Once we got our car at San Jose airport we headed for La Paz gardens near Poaz volcano.
However, we overestimated sensibility of Costa Rican road system and soon found ourselves
in a clearly residential neighborhood. Not having
a good idea what the main road might look like around here, we pressed on and
started climbing. After a series of wrong turns
it became obvious that if our road led anywhere, it
wasn't the Poaz volcano and so we stopped and turned around.
This being our first day in the countryside, we tried to stay in
the relative safety of our car as much as we could, so as not to
overexpose ourselves to various groups of bandidos that had undoubtedly been
awaiting our arrival for weeks.
Fortunately, the only life forms that we saw around us were peaceful looking
and unarmed cows so we ventured
out and shot our first photos of Costa Rica.
Soon we left the mountains behind and approached an area torn by deep
and densely overgrown ravines
which gave us hope that we would soon see the La Paz waterfall
which was our first planned destination.
La Paz is actually a big private garden...
...which sprawls across a lush and well manicured valley...
...populated with hundreds of tropical flowers.
Our first stop was the butterfly garden...
...with several local species resting on tropical plants or flitting around us.
Next stop was a large aviary...
...with macaws...
...toucans and other prominent members of the the flying kingdom.
Just outside of the aviary we found several sweet water dispensers
that were frequented by hummingbirds.
Needless to say that the garden had plethora of tourist traps
deployed in strategic locations - such as this traditional bull ride.
The central theme of the gardens was obviously water...
...which followed you around with a loyalty of an old dog.
To get to the waterfalls we had to leave the manicured part of the garden
and venture into the wild rainforest.
Fortunately, all the trails were well maintained, so there was little danger
of stepping on some unsavory reptile.
Of the three La Paz waterfalls, this was the top one...
and this was the middle one - both being a short hike away from the garden.
The third one was a bit further and lied at the bottom of a deep ravine.
There was a trail leading to it, but we thought that two was enough for the day.
The trail ended with a souvenir shop and you could use an old shuttle bus to
get back to the gardens.
After La Paz we headed for the Poaz volcano which was just a short drive away.
Compared to the ordeal of getting to the gardens,
the road to the volcano was wide and well paved.
Most of the Poaz volcano area lies in a lush rainforest - just like the one we just left.
When we got to the crater, we were disappointed to see a thick fog beclouding it.
Only when I pointed the camera straight down could I catch a bit of its side.
But here we learned the first rule of Costa Rican meteorology: be patient.
The weather changes every 15 minutes, so after some loitering we got much better views.
On our way from the Poaz volcano we also observed that local folks love to have
a Sunday picnic in ditches alongside their roads.
We dubbed this festive activity a ditchnic.
These guys actually had pretty decent views of the San Jose valley from their ditches,
but earlier we saw some ditchnickers feasting in completely unappealing areas.
The trip back was a smooth sailing -
going downhill, we were bound to end up in Alajuela.
The road passed through low lying fields punctuated by
a souvenir shop here and there.
The only excitement on our journey home was brought about by
an unexpected stretch of a dirt road a few miles before Alajuela.
By 5 o'clock we reached our hotel in Santa Ana.
Santa Ana is a suburb of San Jose, about 4 miles away from the airport.
This is a gas station and business plaza on the corner of our block.
This (relatively posh) apartment complex was just adjacent to our hotel.
We took it to be a sign that the area is relatively safe and walked around pretty freely.
