Tuesday On to the Volcano Boqueron... and a big surprise!

After languages classes today and a minimal time for lunch we opted to have Wendy's delivered. Now you try ordering 7 people's orders over the phone and explaining where you are located.

Even with Veronica, the Spanish class coordinator's help the procedure took 20 minutes and about that same amount of time for the delivery via motorcycle. Everybody was thrilled to have US fast food. It wasn't their first fix but it was mine.

Our afternoon's cultural activity took us to Boqueron where we visited the 1920's coffee plantation with a beautiful view where we enjoy our cafecitos con postres amidst the gorgeous tropical plantings and then continued on to the volcano park. Unfortunately time did not allow for ziplining over the plantation. DRATS but impressive volcano awaited us. We opted for the easy trail and that was enough of a hike for our group but the views that awaited us were well worth it. We even watched the clouds envelope the volcano. The cooler temps were also a delight. Unfortunately I couldn't transport the beautiful raspberries the local women were selling as they would arrived home squished.BOO

I have inserted Raisa's Volcano blog entry here regarding this outing ... ENJOY
Volcano
"Hola! This is Raisa and I will be talking about my favorite experience that I have had on this trip.
When I woke up today and looked out the window at the large green, partly hidden by clouds, volcano out my window, I was ready. I was a little nervous at first because I, for some reason, thought that it would be really hot up there, but I was wrong.
We started our adventure by traveling in a van for an hour or so up the side, the curvy road side, of the volcano. I fell asleep for the first part of the drive, no surprise there. We eventually arrived at this coffee plantation/ plant where we had the chance to see how coffee was originally made, the process that it went through, and enjoy a cup ourselves. Many of us had either the coffee shake or cappuccino shake, which were both delicious. We also spent time taking photographs and enjoying the scenery, which was amazing.

I really think that a few of us were able to take a deep breath and relax. Some were disappointed because there was a zip line that they were not able to go on because of time constraints, but in my opinion I think that the volcano would have been better. Maybe I just say that to not feel bad about not going on the zip line.
On the rest of the drive up the mountain, which was about fifteen to twenty-five minutes, the scenery was great. We saw coffee plants and a few of us commented that the trees and scenery almost looked like they belonged in Africa. When we reached the top of the mountain it was so nice! And when I say nice I mean it was nice and cool, which was amazingly refreshing! At first we couldn´t really see anything because what appeared to be fog was surrounding us. We later found out what it really was.
We took the easy path up the mountain, which didn´t really matter because the forestry and plants were breathtaking. The forest was lush, green, fertile, and eerie. Like one of those old movies where someone is traveling through the woods and you are expecting something to happen. Many of us took this advantage to take some photos of the shrubbery. But what really was amazing was when we reached the top of the volcano. We looked into the pit, which looked like we were looking down a mountain, and it was amazing.

It was lush on the inside because the volcano is dormant and it has been over fifty years since it erupted. What we thought was fog at the start turned out to be clouds, to our delight! We were literally in the clouds while at the volcano. A few of us took this opportunity to video tape the experience of seeing the clouds moving right around us. It was just breathtaking and words cannot describe it.

For me this was by far my favorite part of the trip so far. I really felt at peace up there and the only thing I could have asked for was possibly a hammock up there to sit and just enjoy the cool air, forest, and be even more at peace. I think many of us really enjoyed the experience of going up the volcano!" -Raisa

Well our excursion ended just in time as a rainy season downpour greeted us home only to drench us. The evening held quite a surprise for me... you will have to check out the next entry to find out about a very eventful historic evening... - karen