Poas Volcano

Before breakfast we decided to explore the 'coffee route' in the grounds of the hotel.  We enjoyed a very good view of a Montezuma Oropendula - they make a great noise, and are cracking birds to see:

The were also some White-fronted Parrots:

Breakfast was a disaster - we ordered the vegetarian Heuvos Rancheros, waited twenty minutes and then were dismayed to see the sauce had ham cooked in.  We then pointed out to the waiter that (a) he'd served us vegetarian food the previous night and (b) the menu didn't list the food with ham.  He then proceeded to try really hard to find ham listed but couldn't.  Disgusted we left the restaurant and then the hotel.  Good rooms, shoddy and overpriced restaurant - we headed the short distance up to Poas Volcano.  We wanted to arrive in good time and in fact were second in the queue for entry on arrival.

The Volcano is a productive birding spot, we added Black-and-Yellow Silky Flycatcher:

Grayish Saltator:

and Sooty Robin:

all on the walk up to the dramatic (and very smelly - Poas being an active volcano) caldera:

Because it is active all cars have to be parked facing out and all paths have emergency exit routes indicated, etc.

There's a huge lagoon close to the top too:

A Tropical Kingbird was displaying:

Other birds we encountered on the trails included Mountain Elania:

Flame-throated Humingbird:

Unfortunately I couldn't get a picture of the gorget being displayed so they look a bit drab:

One bird that we had to resort to the guidebook for was this Large-footed Finch: 

Poas was a good place to visit and a good experience.  We headed on into the second loop and our first destination, La Selva Biological Station.