Bajos Del Toro to La Fortuna Costa Rica

 We were all up early after a very pleasant evening.  Wandering around the Airbnb property, fun to see all the spectacular flora.

Then, trusting the Waze app, we set off to the Paos Volcano national park.  Leaving  Bajos Del Toro, our very friendly waitress last night told us “you have to stop and get a photo of our bull!”.  Mission accomplished 

First order of the day was to try to view the Paos volcano  it’s a national park and you have to buy timed tickets for entry.  There is no cell service there so you have to buy your tickets ahead of time online . The view at the bottom was not very promising, since there was too much cloud cover.

But we arrived on time after a harrowing drive on a washed out dirt road that Waze sent us on for an hour….

We sat thru an introductory movie at the Park Service amphitheater.

Then we walked about a mile to the volcano overlook, knowing that it was foggy/cloudy.  So this was our view.  

It was fun though.  The fog did tease us a bit, but we ended up leaving without any real view of the crater.

Lots of other folks in the same boat. 

Having a good time anyway! (The hard hats were a requirement from the national Park service since the active volcano has been known to throw rocks!)

Random, beautiful scenery Driving back from the volcano.

The La Paz waterfall, a bit chilly!

Stopped at a local restaurant that was recommended by our rental car guy. Absolutely wonderful and the total cost was six US dollars per plate!

Saw this strange animal on the side of the road, understand it’s a coati, A relative of a raccoon.

Random bridge along the way. I think every bridge we went across today was one lane.

Next up for the day’s activities Was a nice long waterfall hike!  There are several waterfall hikes in the area, we chose the Chinchona falls. It promised 4 waterfalls and a challenging hike. 

It did not disappoint!  

Since we were a little pressed for time, we only saw three of the waterfalls, and the hike was pretty difficult. 

Beautiful bird Duane spotted. 

We could’ve walked all the way down to this one, but we’re a little pressed for time

Lovely views. 

Sharon snapped a quick photo of us. 

The view as we departed.

As evening was approaching, we had over an hour to drive to La Fortuna, our home for the next 4 days of more geothermal exploring!