Costa Rica - Day Two

Dec 28th by Mark		Dec 28th Pictures
Today we are going to a coffee plantation, a volcano, a waterfall/animal park and take a short boat ride. The tour is called the The Best of Costa Rica (4 in 1) tour, provided by TAM Travel. Our tour bus showed up 30 minutes late. We were beginning to wonder if they would show at all. Got to relax, we're on vacation. We started off cruising through town, pass the Intel plant and many other manufacturing locations. There is an surprising amount of industry in San Jose.
Our first stop is at the Doka Estate Coffee Plantation. We enjoyed breakfast of eggs, rice, beans, and fruit. Of course, there was plenty of fruit. After breakfast, we were given a tour of how coffee was roasted. I think because we were running behind, the tour company didn't provide us any information about coffee plant growing or cultivation. It was a nice coffee planation.
Once we are back on the bus, we head towards Poas Volcano. It has one of the largest active craters and a molten sulfur lake. When we left San Jose, it was a little overcast, but as we went up in altitude, the clouds became much thicker and the rain much harder. At the volcano, everyone had on their raingear - it was going to be a wet one. And, by the time we reached the volcano viewing area, the clouds were too heavy to view the crater.
After that wet adventure, we moved onto The La Paz Waterfall Gardens. It is about 45 minutes between the volcano and the waterfall gardens. Although it was still sprinkling, there was much less than before. Once at La Paz, we got our tickets and walked outside. The had an area which attracted quite of few small birds, including a Baltimore Oriole. If you can help me identify the small green bird, I would appreciate it. I'm pretty sure the small yellow one is a warbler.
At the bottom of the hill, the first large enclosed area has an aviary. Lots of large birds and a couple of monkeys.
The next area was the Butterfly Gardens, which were very nice. The first section had mounted butterflies. I certainly wish we had more time here.
After a small monkey area, we arrived at the Hummingbird Garden. The hummingbirds have become so accustomed to human, you can get very close. We say many varieties of hummingbirds. They great thing about my new Nikon D-40 camera, is I can take hundreds of great photos quickly.
After a less than inspiring cafeteria lunch, we looked at a few snakes then walked down the hill some more. At the box was an traditional ox cart, which all the kids quickly jumped on. I didn't stick around to see if they got to go anywhere.
The Frog Pond was just around the corner. They had a few frogs, but not too many. Of course, I can't use my flash, so some of the images are a little blurry.
We continued on down the pathway to the waterfalls. There where lots of people and we had to wait many times to take pictures, but we were with a tour group. Along the path, I think there were three waterfalls.
After leaving the waterfalls, we where on the bus for at least 90 minutes, if not longer. This took us to the Sarapiquí River for a short boat ride. On the boat ride we saw iguanas, howler monkeys, assorted birds, and teenie-weenie bats.
After the boat ride, we had a 120 minute bus ride back to San Jose. In hindsight, we should have done the Combo Tour, which is the coffee plantation, the volcano and La Paz. All-in-all, a very good day. Tomorrow, we drive to Monteverde.