Wet volcano adventures

I woke up at 5am to catch the bus from San Jose to Heredia, where I would proceed to be confused, and miss the bus from Heredia to Sacramento, which is a few kilometers from the entrance to the park. So, not to be defeated, I got a taxi instead, which got me a little closer than the bus would have. I got to see some first-class crazy Tico driving on the way through Sacramento, which is a town simply strung along this single, steep, winding road that just barely contains two car widths. I was surprised that as we got higher, the houses actually got nicer, and a large number of the driveways were gated, and you could often see well-kept gardens inside. As we scaled the mountain, I was also surprised that what began as a mist increased with elevation until it was a full-blown drizzle where I got out of the taxi, the end of the paved road.

I took off up the road at a good clip, eager to get into the park and on to some real trails. There would have been some great views froms the road, I'm sure, if the clouds hadn't been there. A turquoise Geo Metro passed me on the road, one of the few cars, and it was parked at the entrance when I got there. Turns out that I had arrived just after the Geo, because my pace equals that of a car on a dirt road with that many holes in it. So I came to fall in with my three hiking buddies for the morning, the contents of the Geo being John, Adolfo, and Sandra, an eclectic bunch of folks. John is a tough old guy from some town in Southern CA, and he's in his third week of Spanish classes in a San Jose suburb. His host family is a young couple, the Tico Adolfo, always cracking deadpan jokes, and Sandra, a Swiss transplant to Costa Rica, who spoke a little English and fluent Spanish. I enjoyed walking with John, who hadn't known any Spanish before coming here, so we trade small sentences in Spanish. It turns out he does quite a bit of backpacking in the Sierra Nevadas, and has even hiked the entire southern half of California on the Pacific Crest Trail! (Dark picture. oops.)


There are just a few trails in this section of the park, and the main one leads to Lago Barva, in the crater of the volcano. Everything is just thick, green rainforest, and by this time it's raining pretty good, and the trail is muddy and dotted with puddles and mud patches. The lake is in a bit of a depression, and is completely ringed with vegetation. Yup, pretty gray.

We explored one other trail, and it was great to just be in this very rainy forest, instead of a drizzly, dirty city. The only animals we saw were a couple small birds in the bushes from a viewpoint along the trail. When we got back to the entrance, I was unhappily surprised by wet backpack contents. In the last half-hour or so, my backpack had finally given up, and let the water seep through to the main pocket. My guidebook got it right in the chest, and the bus schedule was done for. Of course, bodily I was soaked, although my feet had been bone-dry in my goretex hikers until (I think) the water leached from my pants to my socks. Happily, John had convinced Adolfo to give me a ride to the closest large town, Barva, where I could catch the bus back to San Jose. I was surprised that Adolfo was so reluctant, because up until then he had been incredibly friendly and welcoming. He said something about me being so wet, and that I would need to give them some money. So we went down the mountain, and in Barva, Adolfo asked for 5,000 colones (about 10 dollars), which I gave him, because I didn't feel like bargaining with someone I came to regard as a friend. But really, that's about as much as a taxi would have been, although I suppose a taxi couldn't actually get up that dirt road. I'm just a little disappointed, because it seemed like he didn't trust me.

All in all, though, it was a great trip, and I was glad to meet some people to hike with. I'm just chilling in Casa Ridgway for the rest of the day, and trying to dry out my books with some intense stares. Oh, and naps. Naps are important. Tomorrow I meet everyone in my program! Nervous?