POAS VOLCANO FROM SAN JOSE Next Tour

Location The Tour from San Jose About the National Park Plants of the Poas Volcano

LOCATION

The Poas Volcano is located north of Alajuela City, 56 kilometers ( 35 miles ) from San Jose City. Driving time: 2 hours.

THE TOUR FROM SAN JOSE	Next Tour

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.

ABOUT THE POAS NATIONAL PARK	Next Tour

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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