Volcan Barva, CR

We hiked a volcano today! It was a long, curvy, narrow drive up most of it. The vast majority was paved, but it turned to dirt, rocks and potholes the final four kilometers. Even in an SUV, we decided to walk the last couple kilometers to the actual entrance of the park. Once we were out of the car, we could see an amazing view of San Jose. We hadn’t realize exactly how high we had climbed during the drive.

There were a couple path choices, we opted for the lookout view. The trail was actually much more mild than the road we walked to the entrance. It was a bit muggy, but we were plenty prepared with bug spray and sun screen. I think it was 1800 meters to the lookout. When we turned down the side trail to the lookout, it became really mucky in areas and the midday drizzle came. I hadn’t thought much about the altitude again until we arrived at the lookout. We were 2,906 meters up, and practically in a cloud. We couldn’t see much at all. 

 

On the hike back through the park and down to the car, we noticed a lot more wildlife. It’s  possible that the rain, now coming down quite steadily, scared the gnats away, and we were able to look around a bit more than before. We decided we prefer hiking in the rain, even through we were expecting it to be much warmer. We were rather underdressed. We survived. 

 

 

Oh, and we found a cow walking past a farm on the way to the car. 

We also had another incredible view of San Jose on the way down.