Costa Rica Day 5

Written by Michael Pittek

Today was our last day in San Jose and it was a fun one. Today started off with breakfast at a restaurant where we meet the volcanologist that would be taking us on a tour of the volcano called paos. The trip to the volcano from the restaurant took around 45 minites. On the way we passed coffee bean plantations that were in the mountains, we later stoped to visit these plantations. When we arrived we began our hike up one of the trails to the volcano. After a short while we were at an overview of the crater. We were very lucky because there were no clouds at all and the view was amazing. It seemed to go on for ever and there was a strong smell of sulfur in the air. We visited another crater that was near the first. This crater was much older and was now filled with water and resembled a lake. We hiked back down to a museum and spent a little while there before heading back to the restaurant for lunch. After our meal we headed to the home of a man who made traditional masks. The masks were large and you could wear them over your entire body, some of them were over 4 feet tall. We talked with the man and his family and learned a brief history about the forgotten tradition. We learned that the man was one of the only ones in the country who still made these masks and they were no longer used by anyone. We than thanked the man for putting on a show for us and showing us how the masks were created and headed to the hotel for dinner. We are leaving for the rain forest in the morning, now we have to pack and we have a long 4 hour ride ahead of us. This will be the last time that we have internet acess and won't get to blog again until we return to the hotel in a few days.