Last weekend, I tagged along with five other volunteers to go to Playa Conchal and Tamarindo on the Northeastern coast. We made our way by bus and taxi to Playa Brazilito and walked to the surprisingly-crowed Playa Conchal. For a beach that doesn’t even have a bathroom, I don’t understand how there were so many people there. We still managed to enjoy the sun, water, and powerful currents and only left around sunset. With some artful manipulation of the bus system and the help of many friendly locals, we made it to Tamarindo for the night. We found beds in Pura Vida Hostel before heading out for the night, grabbing dinner on the way to Club Aqua. I headed back early (wasn’t my “scene”) and caught some sleep before waking up a little after six and packing up to leave. One of the other girls was also up and we decided to split up from the rest of the group (who didn’t leave until about 10:30) and head off for the day. We enjoyed breakfast beachside before realizing that the clouds were far too menacing to make for an enjoyable day in the sand. While waiting for the bus, we started hiking our way back but only made it a mile or two before taxi/busing the two hours back to Liberia.
Because of my crazy/non-existent work schedule, I was lucky enough to have yesterday off because of the Costa Rican census that’s going on this month. I’d heard of a waterfall close by that’s listed by the guide book as the “If you see one waterfall in Costa Rica, it has to be this one” waterfall called Llanos de Cortes. I packed up my backpack with a suimsuit and other essentials and headed for the bus station. It was only supposed to be a half-hour bus ride to the stop for the falls and the bus driver promised me he’d tell me when to get off. But when we reached the town I knew came after the falls stop, he realized he’d forgotten about me and apologized before telling me how to catch a return bus. The second driver over-charged me, but at least let me off where I needed to go. The two-mile walk to the falls followed a pitted dusty dirt road carved through the middle of a forest. Every couple feet, I’d stop and just listen to the sounds around me: bugs buzzing, an assortment of birdcalls, lizards crackling through the undergrowth. After the short walk, I reached the trail part which was basically just a steep 50-meter decent. On the way down, I stopped to take pictures of monkeys and a variety of lizards big and small. I was really blown away by the number of lizard species in such a small area. There were red, blue, green, gray, black, striped, spotted, solid, giant, tiny, medium, waddlers, scamperers, hind-leg runners, and every mixed and matched variety just in a short walk down the hill. When I reached the bottom, the sight of the waterfall finally matched what I’d been listening too the whole way down. The sunlight caught the water and the rocks covered in thick green hanging moss and the slight mist made it seem like something that doesn’t really exist except in calendar photos. Here I was, in a forest in Costa Rica with this gorgeous waterfall all to myself, lizards darting around, monkeys overhead. Absolutely stunning.
If you want to see pictures of any/all of the above, this link includes the pictures from my last trip to Sámara too: Click HERE!!
Behind the waterfall was a cave that was totally accessible through the pool in front. I carefully navigated my way over the slippery moss (I only fell once!) and climbed behind the falls, following the whole width of the cavern. It was an impressive sight to say the least. I dried off on the beach and sat down to enjoy my lunch: an entire pineapple. I brought one of my handy knives and butchered and ate the whole thing. By the end, my mouth hurt terribly, but it was delicious and I got bragging rights for consuming an entire pineapple. (Also, the idea of spending only forty cents on a pineapple makes me very happy.) A little sticky and very full, I laid in the sun for an hour listening to the water and enjoying the warmth of the sand under my towel.
When I changed back into my clothes for the trip home I learned that a plant of some sort had viciously attacked my shorts while I wasn’t using them. I found my skin suddenly embedded with a couple hundred millimeter-long spines, finer than hair, too short to grab, and with a sharp end perfect for wedging under my skin. With every movement I made, the tiny spines rubbed my shorts and tugged at my skin resulting in burning itchy skin, mottled with red spotting and zillions of tiny dark spines. Not my favorite moment of the day. That made the walk back reaaaaaally comfortable.
The bus home turned out not to be as easy to catch as it was to get dropped off and my walk towards home brought my roundtrip total up to about 8 miles walking. Not too bad for a daytrip. Hopefully I’ll have the chance to go back and enjoy the waterfalls again; it was definitely worth it.