The Poas Area With a Stay at Our New Friends Airbnb Rafa & Ericka

 Hospitality just got a new name in the dictionary and it is spelled Nalini Cabins with Rafa & Ericka.  These wonderful cabins are situated in a very picturesque neighborhood near Parque Nacional Volcan Poas.  We found plenty to do for our five day stay as our hosts had many cool ideas to keep us busy.  They joined us on some of our outings too.  That is why we enjoy traveling, to meet wonderful people and see how other cultures go abut their daily lives.

Our hosts with the most, Rafa & Ericka and two of their three loving dogs.

The view of the of the active Poas Volcano summit was not all that hard to hike up to but it was really cool.  The smell of sulfur was in the air.  Interesting to pass by a number of cement shelters that read 'in case of eruption stay here to avoid being hit by falling debris'.

Had to include the obligatory selfie just to show you that it was cooler than you think near the equator and an active volcano! It's all about elevation.

The trails for our 3 miles of walking today looked much like this one.  Lots of very lush and green vegetation with a few colorful butterflies and birds. As it rains quite a bit in Costa Rica we notice the roads as well as the trails have exaggerated drainage culverts.

The other major attraction along our route was this pretty lagoon.  It is actually a dormant crater on the same volcano but about a mile away.  Due to the acidity in the water there is very little life in it.

All throughout our hike we kept bumping into these plants with the biggest leaves we have ever seen.  It is named Gunnera. They look like overgrown rhubarb plants to us.

Being in the mountains in Costa Rica is wonderful as it is much less hot and humid and the views of the valleys are amazing as you can see.

Lunch time and this gentleman had just the thing.  He was grilling up some pork Kabobs with veggies on the side of the road.  Nice of him to allow his picture to be taken for our blog.

A cultural oddity in Costa Rica is that many animals are left to graze on the side of the road like this cow.  Notice the rope that tethers her to the fence post. Guess the grass is greener on the road side of the fence.

Rafa and Ericka took us to Central Park in their quaint little town.  As it was just after Christmas, some decorations were left up for effect.

They also said we had to try one of the best 'pastelillos' in town.  This stall in town sold only those and natural fruit drinks.  When you do one thing well, that is what you should do.  Boy were they good.

The filling in the warm crust was chicken and a secret sauce.  Oh my!

Next they took us to Costa Rica's largest farmers market.  Absolutely huge.  We had been trying to find a place to buy the white fruit above for weeks as we enjoy it so much when it is served in smoothies here.  It is called soursop or, as the locals call it, guanabana.  A bit citrusy but very refreshing and expensive.

One thing we have had trouble finding is cheese.  Lots of queso cheese for melting but very little of the tangy and tasty type like the gouda and cheddar above.  When we did find it in a Wegmans type supermarket we saw the price of 18,235 per kilo and figured we would wait until we got home! The price of 18,235 Colones per kilo is equivalent to about $18 per pound.

Ericka heard I liked spicy food so she made me this jar of spiced fruit and vegetables.  Extremely good but I never would have thought of putting green bananas in a spicy sauce. Also sampled some of her fabulous tamales. Very thoughtful of her.

Rafa and Ericka have 3 young cows on their estate.  The youngest was only 20 days old when we arrived.  They feed it a 2 liter bottle of milk twice a day.  We asked to be part of this process and they were happy we enjoyed helping out.

Check out the video of how much Laurie likes feeding the calf and how much the calf loves Laurie!

Rafa took us to a cool waterfall down toward the end of his road.  Nice hike in to get to it and a really pretty spot to hang out for a while.

Took the better part of a day to explore the local park near Poas called Laguna de Frejaines.  Cool sign above reminded us of the signs at the top and bottom of New Zealand last year.

The lagoon itself was only a small portion of the park  it was rather pretty but no swimming allowed.  many families there having a nice weekend picnic.  Great to see the kids having fun in the outdoors.

Here is something we generally do not see in the States.  To keep the birds there as an added attraction the park staff actually puts feed down for them. In this case they repurposed half of a used tire to hold the food.

Always being a sucker for baby ducks we wanted to include this video of one of the many duck families near the lagoon.  So cute!

One of the many pretty sunsets we witnessed from the porch of our cabin. So peaceful!

Finally had to say goodbye to the youngest of their dogs.  What a character this 'perro' is.  It loved all the lovin' we gave them over our visit.