At 4:45am on a Saturday, Nicole and I woke up to start our travelings to Montezuma. This trip is about a 6 hour trip. We had to ride a taxi to the bus station, then catch a bus in San Jose, travel to Puntarenas to catch the Ferry, and then back on the bus to Cobano where we then had to wait for the bus to Montezuma. Lots of traveling. I would like to say now that I am proud of Nicole and I - we got there with no issues and no huge freak outs! That's a big accomplishment. On our way in we noticed we had already passed the place we were staying in. So we knew to walk back up the hill towards our Hotel/Hostel (Luna Llena). Once the bus stopped and we got off we decided to walk to the beach first before checking into our place. After checking out the beach we headed towards our room to check in and get ready for the day. Nicole and I had already decided that we wanted to see the Waterfalls there so we asked the lady at the front desk how to get there. It was going to be around 15-20minute hike once we got to the entrance in the parking lot - Oh and it was going to be a leisurely hike. HA! Not for Nicole and I. Before we went on the hike/walk to the waterfalls we remembered that one of the teachers we work with told us to get the hummus for lunch at a place in town. So when we got to town we stopped in at Puggo's. Seriously the best hummus! My mouth is watering just thinking about it. After eating we were reading to to start our hike/walk. And we apparently forgot to remember to enter through the parking lot like the lady at Luna Llena told us to. So we kept walking up and up a steep road that led to what seemed like nothing. After walking for about 35 minutes we finally saw a sign that said Waterfall. The issue with this was that the sign was at a Canopy Tour place. Nicole and I walked over to their front desk and asked if that was the way to the waterfall. The girl told us yes but it would be a $4 charge per person. This was not right - everyone we had talked to before this had told us that it was free to see the waterfalls. At that moment we knew we did it wrong. But we decided to pay and take their trails to the waterfalls anyways since we didn't have much time left in the day. After another 20 or so minutes we had finally reached the top two waterfalls! When we got their we expected an easy way into the water...not the case. The only way in was to jump! So what did we do? We jumped! Totally worth it. The water felt amazing and the rush from jumping was incredible. I had jumped in before Nicole so I was already waiting at the bottom when Nicole jumped. After she jumped and swam over towards me she noticed that there was a pain in one of her feet. Her toe had already started looking a little pink. No bueno! We now think she jammed her toe. We hung out around the upper waterfalls for a couple hours and then climbed back out of the water and started our hike back to Luna Llena. The walk down was much better than the walk up - that is for sure. That night Nicole and I had planned to go into town and go to some bars. Around 7pm (after we showered, got dressed and put on our makeup) we decided to take about a 10-15 minute nap. Next thing we know we wake up and it's 1am. Ooops! So we just decided to go back to sleep...mind you we had to wake up at 4:45am in order to travel to Montezuma. This was our bodies telling us we need this sleep.
The next day we woke up around 8am and got ready to go to the lower waterfalls. Although this walk was more rocky, it was much easier to hike to the waterfalls. And it was pretty!! It took us about 30minutes to get there just because we stopped to take so many pictures. Once we got to the waterfall we decided to go swimming in the water...the water was freezing but it felt really nice. Overall this weekend was so relaxing and fun. And we got 12+ hours of sleep!!!
The waterfalls in Montezuma were great!
One older man from the bus stopped us and asked us a question and we started talking. We found out that he was from Portland and decided he wanted to sell everything he owned, pack up, and travel Latin America. (He wanted to find a good place to move to, so he wanted to see a lot of options.) Everything he owned now was packed away in a backpackers bag that he carried with him.
We met two girls that are volunteering here in San Jose. One was from Italy and the other is from Iceland.