Poas
Poas is one of the four active volcanoes
in Costa Rica. Nearly a mile across, the
Poas Volcano crater is the most active crater
in the world. Unfortunately, the crater and
crystal blue sulphur pools were covered in
low cloud during our visit. En route we saw
the vast area covered in black plastic for
the cultivation of the miniture ferns for
export.
In January, 2009 there was an earthquake
which destroyed a village and 200 homes resulting
in 27 deaths. 35 kms of roads were damaged
and the bridge to La Paz Waterfalls collapsed.
La Paz Waterfall Gardens Nature park
This is the only privately owned park to
be nominated by the readers of La Nacion
Newspaper (the largest newspaper in Costa
Rica) to be one of the “Seven Natural
Wonders of Costa Rica”. The Park
has also been featured on the Discovery Channel,
Animal Planet and over twenty International
travel and nature programs.
The park ranges in altitude from 5,200 feet
to 4,200 feet with over 3.5 kilometers of walking
trails, five waterfalls, cloud forest and
rain forest and 10 animal exhibits including
the Butterfly Observatory, Hummingbird Garden,
Serpentarium, Ranarium (frog exhibit), Tica
House, Trout Lake and bird watching areas.
Exhibits and activities include - an aviary
has 40 species of birds, toucan feeding,
marmoset monkeys, insect exhibit, butterfly
observatory and butterfly gardens, butterfly
laboratory, two-toed sloths, Capuchin (white-faced)
monkeys, black-handed spider monkeys, hummingbird
garden with 26 documented species, hummingbird
hand feeding in the mornings and afternoons,
serpentarium (snake exhibit), Jaguar, pumas,
ocelots, jaguarundi, margays, casita de la
paz with petting zoo and ox cart, ranarium
(frog exhibit), orchid exhibit, heliconia
exhibit, bromeliad exhibit.
