San Jose (the one in Costa Rica) 1/18-1/20

From Cahuita we took a bus to San Jose.  We knew that San Jose itself was not of much interest, but there was a volcano near by that I wanted to visit since I've failed to see it during my previous trips to Costa Rica; also all the buses were going via San Jose.

We stayed at Bekuo hostel.  When I booked it, the directions did not make it clear how to get to the hostel from the bus station, so I emailed them to check.  They answered shortly, and told me to get a cab; they also told me how to make sure not to get ripped off by the cab driver.  They even said that if the driver tries to charge us more than $6, tell him to wait, and come get one of them.  They really knew what they were talking about.  The taxi meter was going up and down all the way to the hostel, and when we inquired why that was the case, the driver gave us some rediculous answer about it showing the distance travelled, or something of a sort.  When we got to the hostel the meter was showing the equivalent of $11.  I told him that was not right; he replied "OK, how about $8."  I said that was not right either, and $6 was all we were going to pay.  He kept pointing to the meter, saying $6 is not enough.  So we took the hostel guys on their promise, and asked them to talk some sense into him.  As soon as the girl from the hostel came down he agreed to $6.  When she said she'd report him, he said "Why? I've agreed to $6!"

Besides the very helpful staff  (they helped us with a lot more than just the taxi driver) the hostel also had very nice rooms, a big screen TV with tons of channels showing our favorite shows, and another one with the gaming console.  Julie even played Guitar Hero for the first time.  

In the morning we went to see Poas volcano.  As I mentioned, I tried to see it twice before.  First time we arrived there in the early afternoon, and it was already covered by the clouds.  The second time we had to take a detour due to the washed away road, and arrived there even later when the park was already closed.  So this time as soon as the bus arrived to the park we ran straight for the crater, leaving the museum for later:  

That was a smart decision because 5 minutes later it disappeared behind the clouds.

It was windy, obviously cloudy, and rather cold.  We brought our waterproof jackets with us, but that only helped so much.  We set out on the trail that goes around the volcano, to a lagoon, and back to the parking lot.  The fact that it goes by the lagoon only became apparent when we reached the museum; as it turned out we had our lunch on the lagoon's viewing platform without realizing there was a lagoon - it was somewhere below the clouds.

The bus back was not leaving for 2 more hours, so we had plenty of time for the one-room museum, the coffee shop, and the suvenir shop where we had to entertain ourselves:

Back in San Jose we familiarized ourselves with churros filled with warm Dulce de Leche (вареная сгущенка), and took a couple of random pix on the streets to show that we were there:

The following is the name of some clothing store:

The next morning we caught a bus to Monteverde.

2012.01.18 San Jose