Las Pailas, a Casado in Curubandé and Poza Los Coyotes

Three parts, and the middle one is lunch. The walk is in the Pailas sector of Rincón de la Vieja, easy to moderate, past steaming fumaroles and mud pots that bubble on their own schedule, with a certified local guide who knows the volcano, the tropical dry forest and what lives in it. Lunch is at a family-run soda in the village of Curubandé, and it is a casado: rice, beans, fresh salad, plantains, a choice of chicken, beef, pork or fish, and tortillas made in the kitchen. This is what people in Guanacaste actually eat in the middle of the day. Then Poza Los Coyotes. A short trail leads to a small canyon the river has cut, the water is blue enough to look artificial, and what you do there is your choice: swim, drift the calm stretches on a tube, or jump off the rock into the pools. One day, and it covers the volcano, the food and the water without hurrying any of them.