Jumping off waterfalls

There are new pictures up from times around San Jose and some from this past weekend: Photos

Friday morning six of us departed San Jose on a bus for Montezuma, a small town located on the coast of the Nicoya Peninsula. I put a good dent into The Audacity of Hope on the ride. I haven't had much time to read it lately but I'm still enjoying it. A two hour bus ride brought us to Puntarenas, one of Costa Rica's biggest ports. From there we took a ferry across the Gulf of Nicoya to the peninsula. I was able to get some sleep on the boat which was nice. We docked at Playa Naranjo and then caught an hour and a half bus ride to Montezuma. On the bus there were TV's which showed about ten music videos in a row by some Mexican singer named Marco Antonio Solis. The videos absolutely, unintentionally hilarious and Brendan and I were cracking up at how bad they were. When we got off the bus in Montezuma I was sweating so hard my jeans were practically soaked. I've never felt such humidity. We found a spot to stay, Hotel Lys which was sort of like Rocking J's, it was inexpensive and had the same hippie vibe. I was ready to get into my bathing suit as soon as possible. Montezuma was what I would define as the perfect beach, although because of its location there weren't many waves. The water was a nice refreshing 70 degrees and the beach wasn't crowded. We were too tired to really go out that night and we had big plans for the next day so we turned in pretty early. Early the next morning we hiked to a set of waterfalls which were about 20 minutes away from the beach. It was a tough hike and there wasn't much of a trail. The hike mainly involved pulling yourself up hillsides on roots and in some sections there were ropes for you to hold on to. There were a series of waterfalls and my Lonely Planet book had talked about how people would sometimes jump off of the 45 ft tall second waterfall. No one else was going to do it so I just ran up and jumped off. The fall took much longer than I thought it would and I hit the water so hard it sort of stunned me and I hurt my back a little bit, but it was definitely worth it. It was quite a liberating experience. After my jump other people followed. The hike down was funny in a way because everyone was falling and sliding or running into trees to get support, but we were all pretty tired and dirty by the end of it. The day only got better. We wanted to see Cabo Blanco Natural Reserve at the tip of the peninsula and then go to Mal Pais and Santa Teresa two beaches on the Western side of the peninsula where we could watch the sunset. To do this we decided to rent ATV's. I felt a little bad about doing it because I'm not sure how good they are for the environment but it was unbelievably fun to drive through the mountains. I've had some experience driving an ATV from working on the farm but not like this. You could flat out fly down the mountain hills and through puddles and I was constantly taking it to the limit, although Vicky who was riding with me would make me slow down every now and then. We spun out once going down a hill which was pretty exciting. The Natural Reserve was closed when we got there which was a little disappointing. We made it to Mal Pais in about 40 minutes. Mal Pais was a very nice beach with plenty of waves because it was located on the Western side of the peninsula. However we were the only ones on the beach who were there to swim. Everyone else there was surfing and being out in the waves you would get quite close to the surfers. After a while in ocean and playing fetch with some random dog who would bring me rocks to throw for him to retrieve, I decided I wanted to go on a ride and see what was further up the shore. I stopped and got something to drink and while I was sitting on the side of the road, a group of 3 Australians came up to me and asked if I could give them a ride. I said sure and all three hopped on the back of the ATV and we took off down the road. I thought that they would just tell me where to let them off, which they said was the supermarket. Well I found out a good five minutes down the road that they didn't know where the supermarket was. They must have thought I was a taxi or something, that I knew where the supermarket was and would take them there. It was kind of funny although I took them a good ways away from town but they didn't seem too bothered by it. I made it back to the beach to watch the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen. Driving the ATV during the day is fun but driving it at night is a whole different ball game. The best word I can use to describe it is exhilarating. It's a large mix of fun, excitement, fear, and adventurousness. There were no lights in the mountains and so you could barely see what was in front of you but what made it really difficult to see was all the dust that you drive into. It was definitely a memory I will never forget. We had planned on going out but after such a long day it was pretty obvious that wasn't going to happen so we ended up sitting on the beach looking at the stars. It was a clear night and with virtually no pollution you could see the Milky Way. This led to some interesting conversation. I'm bad with recognizing constellations and while I can sort of make out Orion, I'm convinced there is no bear that he is fighting. I don't know how the hell you could make out a bear from those stars. Anyways, enough rambling.
I woke up Sunday morning to go to the bathroom and when I stepped outside I was lucky enough to see the sunrise, as Montezuma faces the east. All of us were pretty sore from hiking and jumping off the waterfall. We spent the morning on the beach and as usual, even though I put on sunscreen I still got burned. My creamy white skin doesn't fair well in this country. We got a bus to the ferry at 3:30 but learned that the bus we were originally supposed to pick up in Puntarenas to take us to San Jose had broken down so we weren't really sure what was going to happen once we made it to Puntarenas. I ate an avocado with a spoon on the ferry. We ended up standing for most of the ride back to San Jose but it wasn't that bad (another group of students didn't even make it on to the bus). When I got home at 10 that night I was hungry, sore, and sunburned and ready for bed. Helluva weekend.