After a full day of travel, we woke up yesterday in Costa Rica! We had one day in Alajuela before we would head to La Fortuna, so we hit the ground running. Poas Volcano, La Paz Waterfalls, and Hacienda Alsacia were the travel destinations for the day.
Seeing a volcano was one of the things I've been most excited about, and Poas Volcano lived up to the hype. After a short hike up, we peered into the crater of a volcano!
Because of its high elevation, Poas is often cloudy. We were lucky enough to have a beautiful sunny day.
We use a special needs stroller periodically. We opted to not use it for this hike. While the trail up was paved, it would have been challenging because of the incline.
After getting some treats at the cafe at the bottom of Poas, we headed on to La Paz Waterfalls. I've been using Verizon's international plan with great service, but we had zero service atop Poas. Thankfully, we had downloaded the map for the area offline. I highly recommend this if you're traveling international. On Google Maps, just click on your profile picture in the top right and then click "Offline maps".
The driving has been... interesting. With the added challenge of driving a stick shift van for the first time, the curvy hills and the intense inclines/declines have been an adventure. Add in some thick fog that comes out of nowhere, some traffic laws that are loosely followed, and scooters zipping around you in the city, and I can see why people have commented on driving in Costa Rica so much. Totally manageable, but just very different.
We had hesitated doing La Paz Waterfalls because it's pricey, but boy was it worth it. None of us were expecting the lush landscape or the plentiful animals, let alone the bigness of the waterfalls. Highly recommend.
Sloths are native to Costa Rica and have been high on our list of things to see. We were able to cross them off our list in La Paz. They lived up to their cuteness, and it was mesmerizing watching their painfully slow movements.
We meandered through the other animal areas and enjoyed a nice lunch buffet, before heading to the waterfalls. WOW! Alongside a nice trek, there were five absolutely stunning waterfalls!
We opted to take our stroller this time, and it wasn't as accessible as we thought it would be. We were glad we had it, though. Travel tiredness started kicking in, so it was a nice way to give Lainey some rest. There were too many stairs at the waterfall part, but there was a place to drop off our stroller, and they brought it back to the front for us. I'm not sure if it was the sounds of the waterfalls or the heights of the stairs, but Lainey was visibly uncomfortable and anxious during the waterfalls. Just something to think about if you visit with somebody on the autism spectrum.
We were all pretty wiped at this point, so we almost skipped Hacienda Alsacia. I'm so glad we didn't! Hacienda Alsacia is Starbucks' only coffee farm in the world. They use it primarily as a Research and Development facility to then aid the multitude of farms they source from around the world. Because we were tired, we opted out of the coffee tour, and instead rested in the cafe overlooking the coffee farm. It's just stunning and was the perfect way to round out the day. I worked at Starbucks through my college years, and Sara and I have many special memories associated with Starbucks, so the visit was extra meaningful.
After a days' worth of travel delays, my brother Samuel is joining the fun. On to La Fortuna today for a few days!
