La Paz Waterfalls and Gardens - 2 years after the earthquake

Two years ago there was an earthquake of 6.2 in the Richter scale in the area of Poas Alajuela, Costa Rica. It was very devastating, a lot of people lost their houses, their businesses and many lost their families or their lives. The roads were very affected, in some of them is still not possible to drive, others are open but with areas that only 4x4 cars can go through.

The area of Poas is visited by many tourist during the year, local and foreign, because Poas offers a lot of beautiful natural attractions like the Poas volcano, La Paz waterfalls, the rain forest and many more. However, after the earthquake people in this are have been struggling because the amount of tourist visiting the area has diminished a lot which affected their businesses.

Since before the earthquake my husband and I have been wanting to go to La Paz Waterfalls, but then the earthquake happened, we heard that a lot of the roads to get there were not safe, we didn't know the state of the place, etc. However, this year I am taking a photography class, so I said to my husband "this is the perfect excuse, let's go there, it is time and I know I can take a lot of beautiful pictures there, plus it is summer, let's go!", so we called and I made sure the road was safe to go and gathered a group of other friends who happen to be photographers aficionados as well and made the trip last Saturday. It took us like an hour and a half to get there, we took the road that goes through Barva and Vara Blanca and made it safely. Part of the road was really crappy but nothing terrible, if you have a 4x4 though. It was really impressive to think that after two years those roads are not fixed yet, specially since this is an area that depends a lot on tourism, what kind of government we have?

Anyway, we got there, it was foggy and a bit cold but in a few minutes we were off to see all the different and amazing things they have like butterflies, hummingbirds, orchids, monkeys, different types of birds, jungle cats, frogs, snakes and the amazing waterfalls.

I am not going to say more about how beautiful this place is, I am just going to show you some of the pictures I took so you can see the beauty of this place yourself.































It was interesting that when I presented one of my waterfalls pictures in my photography class my teacher thought it was taken before the earthquake, I had to say that it wasn't, that I took it last Saturday, he was amazed of how well the place looked, how well it has recovered. Also a classmate said that I was very brave for going there, which was a comment that made me think on how much people are still afraid of an earthquake that happened two years ago and how they think the area is not a nice place to visit anymore, I can see how that affects the local tourism and that shouldn't be, maybe the government, the Institute of Tourism should make sure that people are informed and help promote these areas as safe and beautiful places to visit.

Because of this is why I decided to write this post, to show the world that you can go to La Paz Waterfalls and to Poas and have a great time in such a beautiful place. Don't be afraid, just go and don't forget your camera!

If you want to see all my pictures that I took that day go to my Flickr account.