Costa Rica

Costa Rica

G Adventure Tour

Alicia Cranwell, Alesha McCagh and I went to Costa Rica for a G adventure tour. Starting in San Jose, which was a ugly boring city, we met up with our tour group on the first night. First thing was introduction and meeting people. Then we went off to the supermarket so we could all have some local yogurt to help keep our tummy's happy. Our first Costa Rican food experience was a good one with some traditional food at a local Soda. A soda is the word for a cheap, traditional restaurant. I had a Casada, which is a mixture of things on your plate, like a piece of meat, some rice and beans, cabbage salad, plantains and salsa. 

The next day we left early and headed into the mountains. This is a picture of me and Jason (Our guide) in a traditional ox cart. Back in the day these carts were their cars, used for everything from transporting produce, people, even as an ambulance. 

 Poas Volcano National Park

Our first stop was at Poas Volcano. It had a huge crater and had sulfate gas flowing from it. It was the first volcano I had ever seen. Apparently the gas can make people sick and there was an ambulance waiting at the bottom of the hill just in case. Lucky for us the wind was blowing it away from us. A few days after we left it actually got a lot more active and was spewing out much more gas. This kind of happens a lot so the only reason its really a problem for people is that it can cause acid rain. 

This was a crater lake from an old volcano. 

 

This was a park that had shapes made out of hedges. There was a dinosaur, elephant, even a helicopter. The church at the end of it was really beautiful too. The only creepy thing was that there was a viewing coffin in the back of it. 

A Costa Rican family put on a traditional lunch for us. The lady of the house was a close family friend of Jason's. As the people there are so poor he came up with the idea of bringing his tours to their house for a free lunch. Of course we all gave a donation of about $10, which would help the family a lot. While we were there we were allowed to look around their house as we please, looking in their cupboards, bedrooms and fridge. We had a Casada and then made traditional coffee and made tortillas. 

La Fortuna

Monteverde

Quepos/ Antonio Manuel National Park