Standing at the crater's edge.
Costa Rica lies on the eastern edge of the “Ring of Fire”, a collection of volcanic arcs and ocean trenches encircling much of the Pacific basin and characterized by highly volatile seismic conditions. As a result, much of the western coasts of the Americas, the Aleutians, and the eastern coasts of Asia are susceptible to tremors, earthquakes, the occasional volcanic eruption, and a general sense of unease (I live in California. It’s weird living on a fault line.). It’s crazy to consider that a country smaller in size than West Virginia is home to nearly seventy volcanoes, with six being active. Paos Volcano is one of these six; as recently as 2009 seismic activity in the immediate vicinity of Paos caused the deaths of forty people and virtually erased two tiny hamlets that clung to its lower slopes. And still the Paos National Volcano is visited by a constant stream of the curious, even though it’s occasionally shut down due to vast clouds of noxious gases and toxic steam vented by fumeroles, cracks in the rock that release super-heated sulfurous vapors.
Luckily it was open to visitors the day we went. Luckily too the wind didn’t shift and envelope us in poisonous gasses. As it was we got a pretty good view of the main crater at an elevation of nearly 8,800. We had driven up a series of windy roads to within a short walk of the crater; short though it was we were winded by the thinner air. Heck, just over two hours before we were at sea level! During our journey from Jaco to Poas the temperature had dropped from 95°F at the coast to the high 50’s at the crater’s altitude, a pretty significant shift. This kind of drastic variation in topography and climate is characteristic of the appeal of Costa Rica; beaches and mountains, rivers and rainforests, dry forests and volcanoes, dense urban areas and tropical jungle.
The volcano is slumbering, but it's not asleep.
It makes for a fascinating visit, to be sure. The crater was dramatic, nearly a mile across, with a stink of sulfer, the bare and suppurated rock faces scarred with the evidence of eons of upheaval. Apparently one of the most acidic lakes in the world, the accumulated rainwater in this crater is superheated and volatile, sitting as it is on a live volcano vent spewing sulfuric acid. The interaction of the lakewater and the profound geologic forces underneath create dramatic geysers, great billowing clouds of steam, and lava spouts.
OMNIVOROUS 