One advantage to being in Costa Rica in the dry season is that a lot of the trees and bushed are in flower. This is just a snapshot of blooming roadside bushes as we drove up to Volcan Poas.

A view from near the top. I should note right away that there are no actual photos of Poas in this album. Though the weather is beautiful and clear in all of these photos, the actual caldera of the volcano was shrouded in fog, so we did not even pay the entrance fee for the park.

After abandoning our hopes of seeing the volcano, we decided to eat lunch. We turned off down a really rugged road (first time making use of the 4WD on the trip) to a little restaurant/lodge with an incredible view over the Central Valley.

This was the most exciting fungal specimen that we found that day, inside the restaurant: a bracket fungus on a log, which was then used as a support in constructing the building. Unfortunately, the fungus is upside down!

the resto's porch. I think it was called Lagunillas Lodge.

Since they had to *catch* the trout before cooking it for us, Chris and Bryn wanted to take a little foray.

rPoas6.jpg *

rPoas7.jpg

rPoas8.jpg

We ate trout a lot on this trip, but this trout--completely fresh and fried whole--was some of the best we had.