Last Days in Costa Rica

Time to start heading to Panama. Rodrigo convinced me to stay an extra day and go to Volcan Poas National Park. So glad I did. The crater is another natural wonder of Central America. It was mesmerizing to sit and watch the steam rise out of the acidic lake with an occasional eruption of black material a couple hundred feet into the air. The last major eruption was in 2017 with some additional significant activity as recent as 2019. I also did a nice hike to beautiful Lake Botos. Poas is often covered in clouds, so I was lucky it was such a beautiful, clear day.

I spent another night at Carlos' property looking out over the city with a beautiful sunset. The next day, after some hardy hugs and heartfelt goodbyes, I headed to Puerto Viejo and my favorite campsite at Playa Grande. Very relaxing morning with granola, strawberries, and coffee. Visited with a nice woman from Uruguay who has been living in Puerto Viejo the last few months. She's a musician and she told me that she had visited the music school at the Cahuita community center that is sponsored by the Playing for Change organization. So I headed to Cahuita to check it out. There was a class of young adults learning about Calypso music. Later the Calypso band played some music and I sat and listened. If you don't know about Playing for Change, google it and check it out. They sponsor music schools around the world and produce great videos of musicians playing together in different places in the world.

Time to move on. I've had great experiences in Costa Rica, but the road calls.

 “I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list” – Susan Sontag