Rincón de la Vieja is a volcano in one of Costa Rica's world heritage areas, the Guanacaste conservation area. Since the volcano is active right now emitting toxic gases, the trail up to the crater is closed. A beautiful alternative is the Las Pailas trail, a circuit along several of the geothermal curiosities in the area. I had no idea that the trail would be more like a real hiking trail with a few ups and downs rather than a broad sidewalk like the paths at the other volcanoes had been. Consequently, I hadn't been able to warn my mum about what awaited her - but maybe it was better she didn't know beforehand ;-)
Seeing how she walked on the trail - making slightly too long steps, hesitating a lot before choosing a step, and holding on to every rock and branch available - reminded me of the way I was hiking about two years ago. Towards the end of our hike, I saw a real improvement - just another piece of evidence that hiking is a skill like any other: it gets better with practice.
After about one third of the circuit, we came across the first sight: a small waterfall. The stones overgrown with green moss made a lovely contrast with the stones polished blank by water running over them.
A little later, we ran into another group of hikers all gathered around, looking at the ground as if there was something there to see. I stopped to look - but it took me a second to spot it. Can you see it in the picture?
Hint: look for the brown lizard in the center of the picture. Isn't his camouflage just perfect?
After the waterfall, the trail turned into a huge geothermal playing ground with a quick succession of steam vents, boiling pools and rocks colored by whichever chemicals are bubbling up from the ground. This is just one of the places where the lush green landscape was interrupted by a fumarole - hot steam coming out of the ground:
At another place, steam was complemented by pools of boiling water:
But for me, the main highlight were the bubbling mud pools. Apparently, what's bubbling here is mostly volcanic ash and clay, mixed with a bit of water. The sound the pools made - like a huge pot of thick soup slowly cooking on the stove - was just amazing.
At another place, mud bubbling deep down gave the appearance of a sort of mini-volcano, constantly venting steam:
