Hover Rodríguez, a neighbor from Poasito, got up this Monday to start the week saying:
We hope this will calms down and everything returns to normal.”
Rodriguez, 65, has a small strawberry stand in Poasito, about 10 kilometers from the Poás Volcano National Park.
This area full of merchants is the most affected by the activity of the colossus. However, they cross fingers hoping that the volcano lower its intensity and claim there is a drop in the clientele of up to 50%.
Tourism is what keeps us here. In other times the volcano has erupted, but it hasn’t been as severe as now. This has not been seen for years,”
said Rodríguez.
According to the merchant, the eruption of Saturday night caused ash fall in the vicinity of Poasito.
There’s a lot of ash coming here and I’m carrying rocks around the crater. There were farmers who had to bathe the cattle covered in ash,”
said the villager.
Mercedes Rojas is also one of the affected neighbors. She owns a grocery store and a fruit stand two kilometers from the police delegation of Poasito.
Her business is in the restricted access area that the authorities arranged in the last days.
The volcano has its things, but it’s not that big of a deal. There’s no need to run away and forget about Poasito,”
said Rojas.
The woman agrees that this is the first time that they have experienced a similar situation.
These days we had the strawberries packed, because we were going to take them out, if there were people. Today we open with faith,”
commented the woman.
The eruptive activity of Poás increased from April 1st, with the main events recorded on April 14th and 22nd.