At the beach we walked along the rocky shore, spotting crabs and dodging ocean sprays that crashed against the rocks. You could spend hours just watching the tide rise and the waves pummel the shore like your own personal daytime fireworks show.
We walked back and passed through the town (which is about the size as any mediocre Phoenix intersection) to get to the other beach area that's good for a swim. Some city girls couldn't quite make it out into the water since the waves were breaking close to shore and they would get knocked over pretty easily. We just timed it right like anyone else would and had a nice dip before heading back up to the house. Spotted another animal up in the trees, a white-faced monkey. They're the little guys you see in the movies all the time, and just as cute and cuddly in real life.
It was about 4pm, just enough time for me to go on a run down the hill to Montezuma Falls, though the front desk figured it was too late. It felt really good to be running again, especially through the forest where you can work up an unbelievable sweat. It's times like that where I really feel alive. I took a couple pictures of the upper falls before running uphill to try and find the larger ones. At a fork in the trail I went right, uphill for about 5 minutes before spotting a building and a sign that said "waterfall trail." Great. Running back downhill wasn't bad though, and I headed the other direction at the fork. Soon it ended where a log and other foliage fell across. Naturally, I bushwhack'd it and kept going. Next obstacle: fallen log bridge over gully. I could've crawled down the bridge, which now formed more of a ladder, but I decided to up the ante and do it the Frank Kraljic way: monkey-bar it across the intact handrail. Finally the path curled down and I found the main section of the falls with about 30 mins of daylight to spare. The top section was pretty small, and the second looked like it would be more impressive with heavier rains, but had a pool where you could jump in:
It was about 4pm, just enough time for me to go on a run down the hill to Montezuma Falls, though the front desk figured it was too late. It felt really good to be running again, especially through the forest where you can work up an unbelievable sweat. It's times like that where I really feel alive. I took a couple pictures of the upper falls before running uphill to try and find the larger ones. At a fork in the trail I went right, uphill for about 5 minutes before spotting a building and a sign that said "waterfall trail." Great. Running back downhill wasn't bad though, and I headed the other direction at the fork. Soon it ended where a log and other foliage fell across. Naturally, I bushwhack'd it and kept going. Next obstacle: fallen log bridge over gully. I could've crawled down the bridge, which now formed more of a ladder, but I decided to up the ante and do it the Frank Kraljic way: monkey-bar it across the intact handrail. Finally the path curled down and I found the main section of the falls with about 30 mins of daylight to spare. The top section was pretty small, and the second looked like it would be more impressive with heavier rains, but had a pool where you could jump in:
Getting the pics required a scramble across a slippery cliff but I made it ok. The worst that could've happened was a fall into the muddy water. Back up on the trail, I moved on to try and see the third section of the falls, the big'un. I ended up running up stairs to where a couple Ticos were standing on a zip line platform. These things really are everywhere. I joked with them for a bit and asked how much further to the main falls, to which they said it was too late to go, and that I would die trying to make it down the slope, cutthroat motion included. I called their bluff and moved on for a couple minutes until I got smart and noticed it really was getting dark. Racing against time, I sprinted it back and made it back with plenty of daylight to spare, drenched in sweat and feeling great because of it. There really is no better place to get your sweat on than in the jungle.
Tomorrow I'll be taking a tour boat trip to Jaco (pronounced ha-ko) before taking a bus to Manuel Antonio. The girl from the plane ride over said it was her favorite town in Costa Rica, and there's a park for hiking around too so my expectations are high. Sucks that the boat is going to cost me $38, but the only alternative is to travel 10 hours on a series of buses and ferries for a total of around $20. Worth the extra dough to save me the hassles of missing a connection, plus 8 hours of my life.
Time for bed, buenos noches.
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