I failed dismally to try to get my photos to appear in some kind of order, I went to a lot of trouble to group them together and then down load them together but as you can tell it did not work. I will just tell you about the day with references to the photos and I think you are all bright enough to figure out which text goes with which....

The day started`out with Lucy not being able to tell time and the face lick was 4am...anyway back to bed and up by 6am and went for my run, had breakfast and I was raring to go......My kind friend next door had given up her day off and in her vehicle we drove towards the Irazu Volcano. We went through the outskirts of San Jose and pretty soon we were in the country and climbing. When we left it was sunny and very warm but I was expecting severe weather changes the higher we drove.
The photos taken in the mist are on the way up and then the cows chewing their cud on a Sunday morning pick nick by the side of the road. The place we stopped was this little road side store this was a mini version of Coombes Market (This is a huge market on the island where I live very popular with locals and tourists and they have goats that graze on the roof). Behind this store was the lady's house and I thought it was a neat picture of her garden with the roosters on the table and her washing on the line.
In no time at all we arrived at the gate to the National Park of the volcano, we parked in the parking lot, maybe another 20 vehicles and one tour bus there, but there was no sense of over crowding. We were now at high elevation but the weather as you can see was bright and sunny. I hope you find the below described article about the volcano interesting. The first crater we came across was filled with the dark lunar type sand but in the centre vegetation was growing even in this barren and desolate place. Another short walk led us up to the view point of the crater with the silky green water in. What an incredible view it was, the surrounding sides were mixed up with different volcanic rock and you can see on the left hand side some of the rocks had slid down into the water. My friend told me that we could not have scripted better weather many times she had visited` here without being able to see the crater!!!!! Really the camera does not capture the beauty and the splendor of this area and I was surprised to see so much vegetation around the outer sides of the other volcano. We walked over this area and it was like walking on another continent and yet there was such lush vegetation growing right out of the rock and side. I particularly like the close up photo of the bud (if you double click on it to enlarge it you can see the rain drops). We then drove up even higher to an observation area where the views looking down into the crater were awesome.
It was as if higher powers had fine tuned this visit because as I was taking pictures down into the crater you could actually see, feel and almost hear the clouds closing in and with in seconds the crater disappeared, a magical and mystical feeling.
On the way down the side of the road up to the observation tower were these family of pozote's, they are like a small furry mammal cross between a raccoon, badger, neat, pappa pozote was watching his flock from the perch in the bush!!!!!!
Of course it wouldn't be a perfect day if soccer was not involved!!!!!Coming back down the mountain road, still in the clouds, was this little pitch with a game in progress. I begged my friend to stop and took these pictures even with a referee and I can attest to the fact despite the protests he did get the call right!!!
Home by 4.30pm...what a day this is my first close up of a volcano and it is a day that will stay in my memory forever....
Sorry this was so long but hope you can get some sense and share what an incredible experience this was......Now are those Rockies going to win a baseball game tonight????