Shortly after waking up, had a quick 5 minute rain… caused me to wonder what the rest of our day would hold weather wise, but turns out that was the only rain we got today J.
The adventure to the La Fortuna waterfall started true to Raymond form… with us and our driver and the other couple he was driving waiting for Aidan to finish in the bathroom… for a 10 year old boy, the amount of time he sometimes spends in the bathroom seems more like a 16 year old girl. Finally we loaded up and were off… we made a few more stops, picking more people along the way.
At the tour, we were given our horses… mine was “Pura Vida” which I think was a great name for a horse I would be riding… Pura Vida is said everywhere in Costa Rica and it can be used like “Aloha” is in Hawaii… Hello, Goodbye, Good Luck, Welcome… the literal translation is “Pure Life”. Karen’s horse was called “Negro”, Aidan had “Lucero”, and Dylan had “Palomo”.
The typical trail they take the horses on was not safe because of all the rain they’ve been having, so we rode up a vehicle trail, which to me didn’t look all that safe either J
The horses knew the trail well. The ride was pretty uneventful… we passed jungle, a few streams, and a man cutting stuff with a machete.
At the top we changed into our swim clothes, and began the hike down the 368 stairs and remaining trail to the bottom. I took the opportunity to test out my iPhone videoing the trail from around my neck… (I’ll post the video when I can, hopefully it isn’t too Blair Witchish). Along the trail we crossed a suspended walking bridge over a gorge… it was safe, but still moved about quite a bit causing the footing to be a little difficult.
At the bottom, we left our belongings and took only the necessities as we waded across the river to a small beach, then up some stairs to the waterfall itself. WOW! I mean WOW! It has been a long time since I have seen a waterfall… and this one did not disappoint. It was very tall, spilling a lot of water, and making a thunderous roar and an enormous cloud of mist. I was truly in awe. I just stood and viewed it for a few moments, reveling in nature’s amazing beauty and power. The pool that the waterfall spilled into was surrounded by large boulders… while some people crawled their way down to get nearer the pool, we just watched from the platform. When we had finished viewing the waterfall, we returned to the beach where we left the remainder of our belongings while we went for a swim in the river we had crossed. The water was extremely cool, which felt good in the hot humid air, but something that was very interesting was that if you submerged your hands and then slowly raised them, the temperature difference between being in the water and out was very big… it felt like you were putting your hand in an oven.
Aidan swam around a bit trying to go into the area he was told not to, imagine that, while the rest of us just soaked. When it was time to leave, we weren’t told, we just saw the rest of our group getting ready, so of course we were the last to be ready to leave. The boys couldn’t manage to get back across the river, so I went across, dropped off our stuff, and returned for them. I gave each a piggy back rise across the river, and got Karen across too. By now everyone had started hiking back… I didn’t feel I had time clean and dry my feet and put on my shoes, so I walked back up the hill barefoot (I know, very manly huh?). That actually turned out to be a great decision cause at the top I was able to enter a bathroom where I cleaned and dried my feet and was able to put my shoes back on with no discomfort.
On the ride back, we stopped at a representation of a local native Costa Rican village where we heard in their native tongue, a description of their culture and beliefs… that was an unexpected coolness on the tour. I took a video and will post that here when I can.
