Costa Rica - Volcanoes

It's a Volcano Weekend...
Ticos (people from Costa Rica) are non-plussed by the ash - I'm fascinated by it.  You can taste it and feel it on your hands.  It gets on your clothes and your car and as you walk around you leave a trail of footsteps.  The street cleaners are in overdrive but it's useless.  It's a constant.  Turrialba has been spewing non-stop since my last trip and it doesn't look like it's going to stop any time soon.

Costa Rica is part of the ring of fire, which arcs from the bottom of Argentina, through central America up through California to Alaska, over to Asia, down through Japan and into SE Asia. Turrialba is one of many in Costa Rica and is getting all the press at the moment because it's making life in San Jose interesting.  On my drive into work every morning I listen to the ash forecast, formerly known as the weather forecast.  Where it falls depends on the wind patterns for the day and unfortunately the dry season includes strong winds, spreading the fun far and wide.

Later today I'm relocating for one night.  I'll be half-way up the mountains north of San Jose to get closer to the Barva volcano.  It's  the third tallest in the country at 10,000 feet.  Early Sunday morning, weather permitting, I will hike to the summit.  Barva has been inactive for thousands of years so it's farmland and pastures on the southern slope and jungle at the top.

It's lightly visited and unpopular because it is extremely difficult to get to.  If you don't have a 4x4, you have to park in a small town at the edge of the jungle and walk a few miles to get to the entrance of the park.  As luck would have it, I don't have a 4x4 this trip.

There are dozens of eruptive sites but I plan to get to this one, which contains a lake.

A colleague has lent me a backpack, rain poncho and compass.  I'll take plenty of water and food and do my best.  Unfortunately I don't have the Dodo here to push me onwards and upwards.  I'll let you all know how I make out tomorrow.....