Dominical: “There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.” -Beverly Sills

The sweat trickled down my forehead, down my chest, and beads of perspiration covered my stomach. I could feel my pulse pounding through head, like a quickening metronome, steady and loud.  The muscles in my legs burned, exhausted, wanting to retire. The sun beat down through the narrow gap in the trees that had been cleared to make a path that led deep into the rainforest, five kilometers up into the mountains. The humidity hung like a cloud around us, making the air heavy, thick, and difficult to breath…vale la pena… on of my favorite Spanish sayings….it was worth the pain because the sight ahead of us was magnificent.

The picture is deceiving. You may think that the water cascades over two small cliffs. In fact, from top to bottom, the two waterfalls are nearly 300 feet tall. Waterfall Nauyaca was a sight to behold.  Notice the tiny figure to the right of the bottom water fall. That is my friend, dwarfed by the massive lower falls. The hike to the falls was over 3 miles in each direction.  As we descended down the entire first kilometer, on a very steep grade, we wondered what we had gotten ourselves into. The hike back was even more treacherous, especially that last kilometer, which seemed endless in the heat of the early afternoon. However, none of us could deny that it was worth it pain.

The first falls were majestic. The water they crashed into was a beautiful turquoise green and a refreshing temperature after our rigorous hike.

     

 

 

 

 

 

The cascades above (in the picture below) were, somehow, even more impressive. We watched as enormous amounts of water crashed into giant boulders below creating a beautiful haze.

While Sunday wasn’t the relaxing weekend I had anticipated, Saturday was. We went to a beach several miles down the road from Dominical, called Dominicalita, a beach with much smaller waves, perfect for beginner surfers. The boys had rented surfboards and I had brought my book. While they surfed I soaked up the beautiful rays and read to my heart’s content. After a while, Mitch, my friend came ashore and said, “Your turn.” Not one to turn down a new adventure, I tried out my surfing skills. To my surprise, it wasn’t extremely difficult.

 

 

That night we had a bonfire on the beach and made s’mores. At first we had difficulty starting a fire and when I suggested that I go get some from a neighboring bonfire, I received incredulous looks from both guys. I guess it was a knock to their manliness, so I dropped that idea and soon we had a strong fire, started with palm fronds, nonetheless.  We stayed up late into the night talking and relaxing.

 

 

 

 

It was another wonderful weekend on my Costa Rican Journey.