Pura vida, we slept in! As a whole, morale was improved from the prospect of getting another hour to doze in. As I enjoy the cumbias and night air in the lobby, I recall the day having ate a hearty breakfast of rice, beans, egg, salchichas and a side of the best pineapple I've had. After we jumped into the back of Jonathan's truck once more to be jostled to our hiking destination. Departing with mixed feelings from being excited about a waterfall and Rhox’s story of near exhaustion from her last encounter, we started our hike with a liberal amount of bug spray and sunscreen. After about an hour of rough downhill terrain we were treated with an hour of rough uphill terrain, leading up to a fateful game of “ninja”. Eduardo's ankle made a noble sacrifice during the final round of ninja to prevent him from enjoying the rest of the journey, though luck still on his side he was able to rest his leg in the cool nowaters of the world's 5th cleanest river in the world.
Being in Costa Rica we are greeted with a new discovery one after the other. The first of today was Anna's Eighty Eight butterfly, it landed on the young dreamer, Johnny, it sported the tell markings of 88 under the wing. With the new found fame Johnny had numerous pictures taken from the group. The second discovery came after crossing the sketchiest bridge I've seen, we came to the shore opposite of Eduardo, and ventured further.
The landscape changed to one of cooler air and thicker, greener foliage, with the path narrowing and becoming more slippery we came to see the discovery of the New Year. Water poured from the rocky cliff above at 100m and misted the mossy ground below. The group swelled with relief, for we had made it. This was probably one of my favorite points of the trip as of the time of writing this, of all the locations we visited none had offered many photo opportunities as this did. Everyone was very photogenic and channeled their best sides for this naturally precious pool below the waterfall.
Afterwards we joined the young dreamers for some bonding time, coffee bag racing and soccer. I got to be with Mateo for the bag racing and he was ecstatic at having another day with us and I was happy to share that memory with him. We then had a game of tug of war followed by a very intense game of soccer, where Gorgito joined our team to give us a leg up against the home team of dreamers. It was a valiant effort that ended with a loss of 3 - 1, they did not go easy on the gringos.
We had a hearty stew for dinner and then finished off the night with a classic bloodthirsty game of Presidents and Vice Presidents, Rhox and Willy brought out their best tactics.
Comments