Poás Before Lunch: a Mile-Wide Crater and Gallo Pinto First

Back at your hotel by 1 pm, which is the reason to take this one: the whole of Poás inside a morning. Pick-up is at 6:30 from hotels in San José, then the Pan-American Highway, with Alajuela on the way and the monument to agriculture, the monument to Juan Santamaría and Mango Park visible from the minibus. Breakfast is a proper one: gallo pinto with egg, cheese and ripe plantain, yucca chorriada, tortilla aliñada, and gallos filled with meat, cheese and picadillo. After that the road climbs through coffee plantations and farms growing ferns, flowers and strawberries. The temperature drops as you go up, noticeably. At the viewpoint the crater is a mile across and open below you, which is what an active volcano looks like when it lets you stand this close to it. Cancellation is free up to 48 hours before the start rather than 24.