"It's a Sloth -- It's not going anywhere soon."

Today was a long, good day. I woke up early -- and we were enshrouded in the clouds. This is known as a "Cloud Forest." At some point, I will probably figure out why. Can't imagine it has anything to do with the fact that we are always in the clouds.

After breakfast (which was good -- any time you can have plaintains with breakfast you are in a good place to be), we took our tour to the Poas Volcano and the La Paz Waterfall park. I was a bit worried about the situation -- I wasn't in control, someone else was driving (see Stefano and Pompeii, re the Italy section of this blog).

However, after meeting our driver Fernando and our guide I felt much better. Our guide was Warner -- from last night's nature hike. It turns out the Bolger family was the only group on the tour. So, we essentially had a spacious van, our own driver, and our own naturalist tour guide. That's the way to do it.

Warner picked up where he left off last night -- he was very interesting and informative, without overdoing it. It's a long drive to Poas Volcano (mostly because of the twisty-windy roads. Fortunately, like tomorrow for Orphan Annie, the sun came out and the day turned out clear (until the late afternoon, at which point it didn't matter).

Warner gave us an economics lesson first. He observed that -- by staying at Villa Blanca -- 50% of what we spend stays in Costa Rica, instead of only 10% if we stay at a Hilton or the Four Seasons. He talked about the multiplier effect (without using that phrase), and how 20% of the people now work in tourism. We felt good about ourselves. Julia was listening, interested. Torie and Maddy? Well, they were playing their Gameboys -- which is fine, because it teaches them who the best players in Major League Baseball are.

(Brief sidebar: right now, I'm sitting near the bar in the lobby of the resort. . .and a Costa Rican fellow is impressing on two Americans at the bar how important it is to stay at hotels like Villa Blanca rather than the Four Seasons for the economy and the people of Costa Rica. That's message discipline. I think I know the talking points that the locals get here.)

Warner was also interesting talking about the forests -- 50 years ago, 70% of the land was covered with forests. Twenty years ago, it was 20% covered, because the government encouraged clear cutting for agriculture. Now, it's back to 32% covered, because people realize it is both better for the land, and there is money to be made in eco-tourism.

(Another sidebar: Everyone here asks how we decided to come to Costa Rica, and they want to know what we think. Clearly they are a sales-driven people. . .and that's in a good way.)

Then, at another point, Warner talked about how coffee farming has changed -- from the old way to a new, sustainable way (my phrase, not his). It's higher quality coffee, and by using tree cover overhead, it's better for the environment. Good stuff. As a non-coffee drinker, if I did drink coffee, I'd want Costa Rican coffee. As long as I didn't have to buy it at Starbucks.

Anyhow, we stopped in Sarchi at a co-op (i.e. souvenir stand) to see the famed locally produced furniture and ox carts. Some of it was interesting, some it is typical tourist trap junk (see Venice blog entry for the family fascination with this stuff), and we bought a few items. Still need a Christmas ornament (a family tradition -- buy an ornament while on a trip).

It wasn't a long stop, so we piled back in and headed for Poas. That's a long climb up the volcano (roughly 8,000 feet up). As we went up, we went from the coffee areas to the fern/flower growing areas, to the strawberry farms. Instead of looking up at the clouds, we were looking down at the clouds and the valley. The sun was out, but the skies had plenty of clouds.

Eventually, we drove into the national park and parked (what else do you do at a park besides park?). It's a 2000 meter walk to the volcano's edge. . .and suddenly there it is -- smoking, steaming, sulpher from the crater. Apparently the last big blast was 1910, but they closed it for two weeks last year. It was cool in several ways. The view is amazing (although we couldn't see the Carribean Sea today because of the clouds), and the temperature had to be mid-60s at most. Many people were wearing sweatshirts and long pants. Not the Iron Tourist family -- we toughed it out in shorts and shortsleeves.

Because of the sulpher danger, they only allow folks to hang around for 20 minutes or so. After pictures and wandering around a bit, we headed back down to the car.

Warner was talking with Carol (Torie and I were stopping for pictures of the rainforest). He was asking about us. Carol mentioned I worked in politics (and she used to). Warner then told the story of how he met John McCain.

Apparently the Senator came to Villa Blanca shortly before running in 2000 for President. Warner was running the zip line, and had no idea who McCain was -- other than this nice guy who couldn't really lift his arms above his head (if this is news to you, please Google and read up on the torturing of John McCain). Once he learned who McCain is and why is important, Warner followed his career, hoping he helped out a President of the US. It was a neat story.

We then headed down the volcano road for lunch. We stopped at a roadside stand for some organic strawberries. Here's a hint on organic strawberries -- smaller ones are tastier. They aren't as red as the chemicalized ones, but the smallest ones are mighty sweet and the ones to grab.

Warner is a renaissance man. Besides being a very good naturalist guide -- as well as speaking clear English with a nifty Costa Rican accent, he has also started a program to donate computers to small rural (elementary) schools. He noted to us that he grew up in a rural area, and when he got to the large high school, he and his rural compatriots were far behind the others who had a computer lab at their bigger elementary schools. He's been successful at soliciting financial and used computer donations from several foreigners (both Americans and non-Americans).

Inspired by the simplicity and value of his program, I'm going to look into donating our old computers to his program. . .and please let me know if you are interested in helping out too.

Back in the van after the strawberry stop, we were cruising toward lunch under Fernando's faithful steerage, when Warner excitedly pointed at the trees and made Fernando stop. We pulled over -- "it's a sloth" Warner exclaimed. The kids rushed past me to get out -- I mumbled, "it's a sloth, it's not going anywhere."

Not just a sloth in the trees, but a two-toed sloth (they are rare). He was happily eating, hanging out (literally), and then we flagged down some other tourist vans to show off our find. Warner is amazing -- spotting many creatures the night before, and then the sloth (which I named "Stefano" -- see Italy blog entries for the explanation -- not that I'm STILL BITTER!).

Excited by the find, we hopped back into the van and headed for lunch. . .the afternoon story will be told in another entry. Keep an eye out for photos to be loaded of "Stefano the Sloth" if I have wireless tomorrow.

Until then, "pure vida" as they say in Costa Rica.