My big, green neighbor to the east

So yesterday we learned that the Irazú Volcano is just 16 miles from my house, as the crow flies. Not having a crow available to us, we took the long way around - 45 miles, to be exact, which makes for a trip of about 2 1/2 hours (that's not including the photo ops, coffee breaks and, er, possibly a wrong turn at one point.)

This first picture is when we were maybe halfway there - see the dot I put near the middle? That's about where my house is.


These large plants (known, unsurprisingly, as "poor man's umbrella") are a common sight at the volcanoes. I think it has less to do with the fact that there's a volcano nearby than that the elevation of the craters creates a climate that's good for this species. (I've seen larger ones, by the way.)

Walking up to the crater's edge...


...and the view from the top.


Actually, this is the view from the top - we drove around to a point far above the crater, where you can look down on the big stretch of volcanic ash and, if you look closely, the fence along the left hand edge of it, where I stood to take the other picture.