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The Poas Volcano is located north of Alajuela City, 56 kilometers ( 35 miles
) from San Jose City. Driving time: 2 hours.
Poas Volcano Half Day
The trip takes you along a country road with beautiful small houses with exotic
gardens and through many attractive coffee plantations. Near the volcano you
can see the caracteristic vegetation of a cloud forest with its bromeliads,
epiphytes and ferns. The road gives you wonderful views over the Central Valley
and the Central Mountain Range. On arrival at the National Park, the bus will
remain at the parking lot and a walk of 400 meters ( 1200 feet ) takes you to
the look out point of the main crater. You will have time to hike up to the
beautiful Botos lagoon and spend some time at the excellent information center.
After this you will return back to San Jose around 1:00 or 1:30 p.m.
No meals included.
Poas Volcano, Grecia and Sarchi
This tour can be combined with Sarchi and Grecia. After the volcano you will
stop for a typical lunch and continue to Grecia to admire the metal church of
the Lady of the Mercy. You will continue to the little town Sarchi, the handcraft
capital of Costa Rica. Here you can see the traditional painted oxcarts and
this is the best place for souvenirs. After having time for purchases you will
return to San Jose around 3:00 or 4:00 p.m. Lunch and the entrance fee to the
National Park are included.
Lunch included.
Wear sneakers, blue jeans and pullover or jacket, rain gear..
Please bring sunscreen, binoculars, cameras, raingear, comfortable shoes for
walking.
Poas is an andestic-basaltic stratovolcano 2.708 m high. It
is impressively beautiful and is one of the three volcanoes on the continent
that are accessible along a paved road that almost reaches the crater edge.
Subconical in shape, the upper part has three caldera depressions.
The main crater is an enormous hollow almost 2 km in diameter and 300 m deep.
At the bottom of this crater there is a thermomineral lagoon some 350 m across.
When it occasionally dries out, the sulphur emissions become more intense and
produce acid rain that damages the vegetation and the fields on its sides. To
the north of the active crater, there is the von Frantzius cone, the oldest
eruption point, which today is inactive, on the peak of the massif. To the southwest,
there is one cone called Botos, which is currently occupied by a very beautiful
cold water lagoon some 400 m across. The volcano experiences plumiforme cyclical
eruptions similar to those of a geyser, which consists of columns of muddly
water together with steam that rise from a few meters to several kilometers.
These eruptions have made Poas famous as the biggest geyser around the world.
The park has four main habitats. One area around the crater
is devoid of vegetation or with only a few adapted species like the paddle fern
( Elaphoglossum lingua ). The area of the arrayans ( Pernettya coriacea and
Vaccinium poasanum ) is covered in dwarf vegetation that does grow over 3 m
high. The stunted forest can be seen along the path between the main crater
and Botos lagoon. It is almost impenetrable and is made up of very twisted trees.
The cloud forest, very moist and shady, surrounds the Botos Lagoon and the part
behind Potrero Grande. Here, most of the trees reach 20 m high and are almost
completely covered of mosses, Hepaticae and other epiphytic plants
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