This morning, we woke up, packed up, and headed over to Selena for breakfast. After breakfast, we began driving toward our hotel in Alajuela. The opposite side of the road (headed toward Manuel Antonio and Jaco) was packed with traffic likely due to Holy Week. However, the city of Alajuela was very quiet, with most storefronts closed for business. We arrived at the hotel at around 2PM and decided to drive the 26KM road up to the 8,000 ft Poas Volcano.
Although the drive is only 30 minutes, our surroundings rapidly changed from an urban environment, to a rural/agricultural environment, and finally to a scenic landscape near the entrance of Poas Volcano Park. There were many cars on the road and parked on the side of the road, likely due to Holy Week and so many people not having work. It was interesting seeing families picnicking on the side of the road and enjoying the expansive views. After about 30 minutes of driving, we reached a barricade in the road preventing people from continuing driving. The sign near the barricade read “Closed due to volcanic activity.” Hek and I parked on the side of the road and walked past the barrier until a ranger screamed after us to return to the other side of the barrier.
On the way down Poas, we stopped at the Starbucks Coffee farm and enjoyed a snack in the beautiful setting. We then drove to San Jose, where all storefronts were closed and there was a traffic jam due to an Easter service at a large church in the city. We decided to turn back toward Alajuela and stopped by the Hard Rock Cafe in Alajuela where I had a chicken fajita dinner. After dinner, we stopped by Fiesta Casino for a few minutes and then headed back to the hotel to sleep before our early morning flight.
