CHAPTER XVII 



ALAJUELA AND THE VOLCANO POAS 



West of San Jose, the country descends rapidly toward 

 the Pacific coast, where the fringe of low level land is far less 

 extensive than on the Atlantic side. Much coffee is grown 

 on the upper Pacific slope and the railroad runs through 

 highly cultivated and enclosed plantations. Few good col- 

 lecting grounds were to be found in such a region, neverthe- 

 less the river valleys were often deep and richly wooded and 

 sheltered an interesting flora and fauna. We spent one day 

 in February in the midst of the dry season, in Heredia, the 

 first important town on the railroad west of San Jose and six 

 miles from the capital. We went by train in half an hour, 

 and after walking about the plaza and looking into the large 

 and imposing church, started north along a good though hot 

 and bare road toward the village of Barba, two kilometers 

 away. This gave us beautiful views of Poas, Barba and to 

 the east a smaller hill which a passing traveler told us was 

 El Gallito. We walked almost to the village of Barba — 

 classic ground at that time, as "Don Cleto," otherwise El 

 Seiior Presidente Don Cleto Gonzalez-Viquez lived there — 

 but not quite into the village itself. We paused where the 

 road crossed a little stream, Quebrada Seca, by a wide 

 bridge which was supported on a single narrow arch of 

 masonry, making a sort of ravine. The brook was quite 

 shady and we went down to it first because the shade was so 

 inviting, but the high straight walls of the arch proved a 

 fruitful source of exuvise of transformed dragonflies, so we 

 stayed there. We were fortunate enough to find two spe- 



