Merry Christmas from warm and sunny Costa Rica

Around 10:30pm, we heard someone knocking at the door of our B&B. Excited, we ran at the door and here were Dominique and Margot with their taxi driver, tired from the long journey but all smiles. It was really nice to see their familiar faces: now, we were together and ready to celebrate the next day. We helped them carry their luggage into the room and they showed us right away all the goodies that they brought us: lots of motorcycle parts (4 oil filters, 2 air filters, 2 front sprockets and 12 sparplugs) that will get us hopefully to the end of the trip without having to worry about how to find these in countries where our bikes are not sold. The other goodies were even more exciting: French food, wine and champagne that we would be fortunate to enjoy as a family the next day.

Exposed to the toxic fumes of Volcan Poas

We woke up all excited the next morning, remembering that we were now four traveling together and that today was Xmas day. We got up and after a delicious breakfast, took off to pick up the rental car from the nearby airport. For the next tow weeks, we will abandon our bikes and travel through Costa Rica in a rental car. At least, they gave us a Suzuki so we were still using the same brand. After a quick stop to the supermarket to buy some fresh vegetables for our Xmas dinner, we left for our first place to visit: Volcan Poas. Dominique was particularly excited to see an active volcano and as we were about 2 Kms from the National Park, we found out that he got more than what he wished for. There was a long line of stopped car and after we inquired at the ranger station, we were told that the volcano had shown some high activity since 10 am this morning and that they were only letting 20 people in at the time for security reasons and only allowing each group to stay at the crater for 10 minutes. They were constantly reevaluating whether they can let more people in based on how the activity was evolving. In a nutshell, we could wait but had no guarantee to get in.
We put it to a vote and decided to stay and wait. In the meantime, we could enjoy our picnic lunch in the grass, under the beautiful blue sky. We were lucky and did not have to wait too long (Chad and Dominique were actually barely starting their second sandwich) before they waived us in. Car parked, we started walking towards the crater. The walk was very pleasant through the jungle, with plants having leaves the size of half a human, but it hit us soon: the sulfuric gas smelling like warm rotten eggs. Caroline had it worse as it was really hurting her lungs so she went ahead and breathed through her fleece. A woman noticing it gave her a dust mask. Much better and she even feltspecail, a little like Michael Jackson.
As we got closer to the crater, the fumes were getting stronger and as we reached the rim, we saw all the activity that was going on down there. In the center of the crater, there was a little lake of boiling greenish gray liquid from which the fumes were coming from. All around the lake was a huge crater of multicolored rocks and as the wind was changing direction, we could see its impressive size and all the different shades it had. We did not have a lot of time to enjoy the view as the security guys told us to go back to but to be honest, the strong fumes made it hard to stay there for a long time. And if the volcano decided to produce more than just fumes, it was better not to stick around anyways.

A Xmas celebration almost like in France

The drive back to Alajuela was through beautiful mountains with coffee and banana plantations. The road was curvy, allowing us all to enjoy the beautiful scenery and views. The different mountain villages we passed through were all charming and we saw a lot of people stopped on the side of the road enjoying a Xmas picnic with their family. It felt like almost being in Switzerland with the greens fields where black and white cows were feeding. The locals sure seemed to enjoy the view and the time out away from the city.
Back at the B&B, we started preparing the Xmas dinner after enjoying a quick aperitif of local beer and Springles. We had ahead of us a wonderful dinner composed of French traditional food. The appetizer was Foie gras with fig jelly and French bread, with a sweet and fruity Alsatian wine, a 2003 Gewurztraminer Vielles Vignes Maison Adam. The Foie gras was soft like butter and the wine was the perfect fruity sweet complement to this dish. After that, we had smoked salmon and duck breast, also imported by the family with which we cooked small sauteed potatoes, green beans and zucchini. This time, the wine was something we bought locally, a fruity spicy Shiraz from Chili. Of course, no meal would be totally French if there was no cheese: Roquefort, a sort of blue cheese, and Goat cheese were the selection for the night. We finished the meal on a high note with Alsatian Xmas cookies, handcrafted chocolate and fresh papaya. What a meal... our stomachs happy and full we headed towards the Xmas tree to exchange our gifts.

We had such a good time on Xmas day: the food and wine were just all perfect and so well enjoyed on the outside patio in the summer like night. We had many good stories to share and were joyful and happy to be together. Dominique and Margot particularly enjoyed the weather, a far cry from the freezing winter they just left. We also had all a chance to call the rest of our families on Xmas day, happy to hear their voices or see them over the web cam and happy to hear what their day was like. We could not be with all the people we wished to that day but being with Caroline's parents was an amazing celebration and as good as a Xmas far away from home can potentially get.