After getting ready and packed, we called Dan, and caught up on the diary (would-be blog). Following breakfast and checking out, we headed toward Vulcan Poas and the Poas Volcano Lodge. Like our drive to Arenal, this would be an all day drive in the rain; and to make it worse, there were patches of fog so thick you couldn't see much beyond the hood of the car! However, during the breaks, there were great vistas of the surrounding mountains.   

Our first stop was Zacaro, a beautiful town surrounded my mountains (okay, tall hills), and like all towns, the large Catholic church was the center . Unlike others, Zacaro has beautiful sculptured shrubbery (topiary) in the park in front of the church. After a stop in the church, we played tag in the park, never catching Brennan. He ran off the energy that had been building up after three hours in the car. 

Still on course and not getting lost. We have found that it is easy to find most towns, but it is a lot tougher finding your way out. We made stops in Sarchi looking for wooden souvenirs (their specialty). No luck, but we did get Brennan a colorful hacky sack.  

Nearby is the town of Grecia, famous for its metal church.  This church is red/burnt orange and sits at one of the highest points in town and can be seen for miles. When we told Brennan that it was all metal, he wouldn't believe it until he actually touched it. It is really beautiful, both inside and out. This would be our lunch stop, but we were too low on colones so we had to make one last ATM stop .  

We had to look at a half dozen places, actually were seated in one, before we stumbled onto a little soda, well off the church square. The host, cook and cashier were one and the same.  There were four tables, one occupied by a guy with a large suitcase (we were only a few blocks from the bus station). Brennan had maybe the best fried chicken EVER; Grandpa, the beef casado (typical meal of an entree, beans, rice and fresh salad); Grandma lost, she had maybe the worst chicken fajitas EVER, (actually chicken nuggets).  This was by far the cheapest meal of the trip.   

Onto the Poas Lodge. The last 10 miles were all up, not only up, but curvy up. When we got there it was raining hard and it was coming down at a 45 degree angle. These winds had to be gusting at 50 mph. The windows in the lodge were rattling, as they would all night. Brennan said it was a "hurricane".

The Lodge is owned by two Texas brothers whose parents live in Grecia . It sits just a few miles below the entrance to Poas National Park. It is pretty non-descript on the front facing the road, but the back is all picture windows looking down into the valley and mountains beyond. They have a restaurant that is reported to be very good, but with our late lunch, we ended up snacking for dinner.

We were in and out of the cloud level and from our window the millions of lights of San Jose below would open up until the clouds dropped a few feet, then open up again -- pretty cool. In the room, we played cards and did a face-time call with Bligh. Not being complete hermits, we went up to the lodge lobby where a fire was going in the large stone fireplace and played some more cards. This is a large living room atmosphere with couches and comfy chairs.  

With an early wake-up for our flight home, we headed to bed pretty early.