With Dawn & David
March 17th–March 25th, 2016
  • Here we are!
  • Life is good!
  • Barceló San Jose, our first hotel
  • Cinthia, our expert tour guide
  • ¡Vámonos!
  • The new soccer stadium
  • We snacked beside the pool.
  • Open to the hotel gardens
  • which were stunning.
        • All meals were ‘buffet’ or ‘cafeteria’ style.
        • Local specialities
        • Our niece Dawn & her husband David, our traveling companions
        • A 19th century president of Costa Rica
        • We passed a farmer, with his colorful oxcart, similar to the Italian donkey carts.
        • David’s ready for adventure.
        • Poás Volcano. We were lucky, it is usually shrouded in clouds.
          • Just in case…
          • Giant leaves
          • On the trail to the crater lake.
          • The dormant crater has turned into Lake Botos.
          • Ten minutes later the main crater was indeed shrouded in clouds.
            • The money has a famous mural of Costa Rican enterprise.
            • Our next stop was the Doka Coffee Plantation. (We are not coffee drinkers, but it was fun anyway.)
            • Water wheels like this power many of the old mills and plantations.
            • Our guide to the plantation
            • A coffee bean before processing and roasting
            • Bananas, another big Costa Rican crop.
            • Old belt driven machinery processes the coffee beans.
            • Bags of coffee, ready to go on freighters around the world.
            • A butterfly garden was on the plantation.
            • Newly hatched and spreading its wings for the first time.
            • Plant seed pod
            • Fallen Angels. These were all over.
            • Blue morpho butterfly on Dawn’s shoulder
            • A passion flower, a vine that just grows naturally in the tropical climate.
            • Our group, minus the photographer
              • The next day at a wildlife rescue center. Nick, doing what he does best.
              • Native macaw
              • Blue & gold macaws