Montezuma:"There are no bad adventures, -just good stories."

This weekend was incredible. We visited Montezuma, a small town on the Pacific coast. It took us 7 hours to get there, but the time we spent traveling was well worth the experiences we had.We road on an open-air ferry across the channel because Montezuma is on a peninsula. That part of the trip in itself was great. We were lucky enough to be riding at sunset and see the gorgeous mountains across the water, as well as bunches of little islands that are just off the coast.

















 



 





 We stayed at a little hostel right on the beach in Montezuma. Montezuma is a very small town, it has several good places to eat, one great bar, and it is the take off point for countless adventures. The beaches there are beautiful. As you walk north from the hostel, you pass nine different beaches and we walked the entire way. Between each beach is a small section of rainforest that you pass through. We were lucky enough to see a group of ten green parakeets, five howler monkeys, and an anteater! The anteater was adorable! Unfortunately, it rained for much of our hike up the beach, so I didn’t have my camera out and ready to snap a picture of the adorable little guy. But we saw several other cool animals before it rained:
   We started off on a 4 hour hike down the beach in search of Cocolito Falls, according to locals, it is the 6th biggest in the world (definitely not true). Anyhow, I do believe that it is incredibly beautiful and I was determined to find it. I woke up on Saturday morning at 6 am and drug my friend along with me in search of the falls. The internet had told me to follow the beach north for 2 hours. We walked, and walked, and walked, and right at 2 hours, we came to the face of a cliff. We hadn’t seen any waterfalls, but we had found some beautiful beaches along the way as well as walked about six miles.

It started to rain, so we hid out in this cave (right) for a few minutes before we decided to just enjoy the shower and head back. That night, I asked several locals where the falls were and set out again at 6am with a different friend, sure that we would find the falls. This time we hiked up a river. The trek was very challenging and extremely fun; it was like a maze. The river was bordered on both sides by rock faces and we wove our way back and forth through the slippery rocks. It was even more enjoyable because I was with this girl I had just met, Joyce, who is from Holland. Hopefully, we are going to meet back up in a few weeks! After climbing (and slipping) for 2 hours down the river (at least the 2 hour part was consistent for everyone we talked with) we had encountered 6 smallish waterfalls, but nothing spectacular, it again started to pour. My camera wasn’t waterproof, so I made a little case for my camera out of leaves (which are waterproof) like the one at right, using a hair tie to fasten it. (I obviously couldn’t take a picture of this myself , but luckily my camera survived! ) and we headed back.  As far as finding Cocolito falls, it was a failure, but it was one of the most beautiful, adventurous, and fun hikes I have been on. We were in the thick of the rainforest. It was greener than I could have possibly imagined. It was amazing.

                 
Saturday afternoon was my favorite part. We were on our way to Montezuma Falls. The hike started by wading up a river for about a quarter of a mile and then an hour ‘hike.’ This hike consisted of climbing up rock walls using roots and vines to keep yourself from falling, walking on ledges 6 inches wide, and repelling down the side of a cliff. It was exhilarating and by far the best hike of my life. The adrenaline rush, the anticipation of the waterfall, in addition to the astounding beauty, was fantastic.
Montezuma Falls consists of 3 waterfalls. The first is 80-120 feet tall (depending on who you ask), the second (which I jumped from) was 35-40, and the third, which I also jumped from, was 15 feet tall.We tried to ready ourselves by jumping in with the Tarzan rope and off the small waterfall several times, but it just didn’t prepare me for the real thing.
I am quite an adrenaline junkie, so I never expected to be so terrified of jumping from the second waterfall. I will spare you from watching, but we have a video of me standing there for 45 seconds, while my friends countdown and encourage me, while I try to convince myself to jump. By the end I was shaking. After my other friend jumped, I decided, ‘I only have this one chance; I’ll regret it if I chicken out.’ So I jumped! It hurt a lot and knocked the wind out of me, but it was worth it. I have a giant bruise to show for it, too! If I would have gone in more vertically it would have been MUCH better…





                                       

I finally did it! Listen to my friends’ reactions when I hit the water.

We ended the weekend by lying on the beach and playing in the ocean one last time before heading back to San Jose. It was an incredible third weekend on my Costa Rican Journey.