Volcanoes in Costa Rica

It is not possible to go to Costa Rica without the proper music! Actually at the Caribbean Coast that should be Bob Marley, but since everything goes, and there is a good blend (like, right now I listen to Indian music at Cafe Rico (where I have eaten the best Indian food outside India!), by the former named coast by the Caribbean Sea), I take a chance on Yeah Yeah Yeahs, because I just think that the girl is cool, and they will always remind me of CR.                                  

Unfortunately Costa Rica is not the most cheap place, it is like living in Europe, and with bad salaries. I do not really understand how people get along here, and how they can buy stuff. The cost of living is expensive, even in the super marked food is priced like Europe. But for all I know it is probably a small group in the population that do all the shopping. It is the most developed country since Mexico, and it is also statistically the most dangerous one. There are more crimes being done here than the rest of Central America, or so I have been told. I will check it out. It is very influenced by USA, it seems to me that fruit companies and fastfood chains has taken over a lot (I see something that is USA everywhere). I hope that in the future tourists will not find a MacDonalds on top of a volcano or in another tourist friendly national park. I HOPE they will be able to live up to their slogan: Pura Vida, because they are doing so far (apart from all the US fastfood). But the pressure from tourists that really need their air conditioning on their 2-3 weeks visiting CR, in their summer homes or in hotels (to gawk at the bountiful nature and the animals), is big, and so pristine rivers are in danger of being dammed to produce the electricity needed. In the meantime, a Tica (Costa Rican) lives his hot, humid life without air con. I have visited a home here, they are hot, but made with high ceilings, and underneath the ceiling it is open space with just a net to provide air throughout. This is the mahogany tree houses, they are similar to what I saw in Belize, I do not know how the adobe houses are, but I imagine they are similar to those I have seen in Mexico.                                

My 3rd day in CR I decided to go to see the volcano Irazu. It is a big volcano with a main crater of 1 050  m. in diameter and 300 m. deep. It is the highest volcano in the country, 3 432 m., and it is possible to see both the Pacific - and the Atlantic Ocean from here on a clear day. I could not see anything for the rain and the fog. Irazu means "thunder" in the native language of the natives that used to live by it. A catastrophic eruption in 1723 destroyed a city, then capital of the country, Cartago, and an eruption in 1963 covered San Jose in a thick layer of ash. People used to think that Irazu blows every 30 years and was called "the deadly keg of powder".

 In CR there are more than 112 volcanic formations. They belong to the Pacific Rim of Fire, and 7 are considered very active. The volcanoes are responsible for the very fertile soil that covers the territory of CR. They have all caused some major damage in the past. The most active volcano is Arenal, and Poas has the widest crater of  diameter 1.5 km, the 2nd widest in the world. In 1950 it was decided that the land around the volcanoes should be protected, so many of them are within a national park. Irazu has its own national park. The CR volcanoes are stratovolcanoes, which means that the magma that fuels them is thick, viscous, and so filled with gasses that when they erupt the magma blast violently into the air. In the eruption of 1963 the clouds of smoke erupted, and ashes kept showering over San Jose and other parts for 2 years. People had to go out with a hankerchief and every day 13 cm. of ashes was swept down. 24th of August 2000 Arenal erupted, killed 1 person and injured 2. 600 people were evacuated from their homes.

To go to Irazu you can take a bus from where the National Theater is. It leaves 08:00 in the morning and you go back with the same bus 12:30 so you will want to buy a round trip for 4000 colones (US$ 8 (much more than you pay to travel in Nicaragua. The bus ride takes 2 hours. On top there is a small cafe that sells pretty good hot latte (you will need hot coffe because it is really cold up there. At the coffe shop they sell different suveneirs, among other things a note book made from banana paper. I think that this paper would be better to use to spare the rainforest. Under; a lonley, familiar dandelion has found its way to the top of a volcano in CR.