Hola Costa Rica

Yesterday, after a 22 hour journey, I arrived in Costa Rica! I was expecting to meet a driver from the hostel on arrival in San Jose, but I was pleasantly surprised to see my friend and fellow assistant research officer (ARO), Kate! Having discovered the bus was only $1 rather than the $24 cost of getting the hostel's transfer service, she'd cancelled my lift and come to collect me :) She came with Gilbert, who she'd met at the hostel who'd taken it upon himself to look after her (and all the other hostel guests).

The other guests told us about a nearby volcano you could go and see so we ventured there today. We caught a bus to Alajuela then another to the volcano, Poas. The volcano was in a national park in cloud forest. It was a beautiful place but cooler than the town. I was surprised at how quiet the forest was, we only heard a few birds and saw a couple of birds and squirrels (one without a tail!). The main crater of the volcano was very impressive. We smelt the sulphur before we saw it. I didn;t know what to expect, but what we saw was a large stony crater, with a pool of water in part of it. A plume of steam was rising from the water. You could also see where the larva had flowed in the past as it had left a scar on the landscape. The volcano is still active and it last erupted in the 1950's but it's believed to be safe for a while! As well as the main crater, there was a large lake (in another crater), that was a beautiful blue-green and surrounded by lush vegetation. We also walked a trail through the forest, which consisted of densely tangled buttress roots and blackened vines. There were also many bryophytes growing on the trees and roots hanging down from above. We arrived back to the hostel just before it began to rain heavily for a few hours. It's supposed to be getting drier in San Jose now, but rains are still frequent (and incredibly regular) in the afternoon.
I am flying to Puerto Jimenez tomorrow, from where I'll make y way to camp. It sounds like the rainforest has its own climate and seasons, so I expect it'll be very different!
From then I won't be able to access the internet for a while, and also my phone doesn't appear to want to work here. The phone shop was closed when I tried to get a SIM today so unfortunately I'm fairly uncontactable for the moment!