I had never heard of a cloud forest until I took a 30 km day trip from San Jose to Poás Volcano – the largest active volcano in the world with a huge crater measuring 1.6 km in diameter. The volcano crater rim lies at 2700m so going from the hot climate of San Jose and to the cold, wet and windy environment of the cloud forest was quite incredible. I had to pull out the works: several layers, a spray jacket, gloves and hat. Also not the best place to take pictures as you are basically in a fog. Sadly I did not get to see the crater, despite going early, as recommended, but it was interesting looking into a void of cloud and smelling the sulfurous air (picture below). No wonder my friend and I were the only people there! I guess everyone had prior knowledge that the crater was not going to be visible today.
I cheated and “borrowed” some photos from a friend who was lucky enough to catch some glimpses the next day when the cloud briefly blew aside. The volcano still spurts geysers of water and steam and there was a minor eruption in 2009, but the last major eruption was in 1910.
Driving towards the volcano, you see the very interesting stratus cloud formations that are quite unique. They look like tubes of cloud slowly rolling down the mountain in an otherwise clear blue sky.
The walk at the top is truly amazing as the vegetation is affected by the acidic air, so the trees are stunted and twisted and you half expect an elf to appear at any moment.
I did see an interesting small mammal which I suspect was a marmot. The photo I have of it is not very clear as it as it didn’t hang around long enough for me to get a decent shot. In the more open areas there is some quite amazing flora.