Sand Blasts and Waterfalls

So after last night's long journey to Montezuma, we woke up fairly early and all of us headed out for a run. I ran with Dave south along the dirt road. It was really hilly and humid. Luckily there was some relief with some patches of shade. We heard some howler monkeys in the trees along the road as we ran. Pretty awesome. Montezuma is a really small town with a small cluster of shops and restaurants on the main drag. It feels like we're pretty far removed from the rest of the world. Way different than the other locations we've been to here.

When we got back we made some lunch and headed out to the beach to get tanner. Unfortunately the wind was blowing pretty hard, making it pretty uncomfortable to lay out as we kept getting sand blasted every other minute. Luckily there's more than just a beach here. We hiked south a bit and into the jungle a little ways to find Las Cascadas de Montezuma (the waterfalls). After hiking up a riverbed over some rocks for awhile we found the waterfall. We were able to swim in the freshwater pools at the bottoms and also jump/dive from some of the rocks. Luke and I even tried to free climb/scale to the top, but epically failed as we reached some ridiculously steep rocks. I think we could have made it, but coming down would have been another issue.
Just as we were thinking about heading back, some blokes from London told us that there was another waterfall at the top of this one and a spot where we could jump 40 feet into the pool below. Upon hearing this we definitely needed to check it out, so we hiked around the back and up the cliff to the next waterfall. We heard some more howler monkeys off in the distance and also encountered another couple hiking. The man was carrying a baby in a backpack...

We got to the falls and looked over the edge at the pool below. All of us were terrified until we saw a small blonde girl and a fat Brasilian guy do it. We then knew that if they could we could. Luke was the first to grow a pair and throw himself off the edge. After seeing that he didn't die, I jumped, followed by Dave. All of us lived to tell the tale. We also swung on a Tarzan swing into the shallower pool.

Well... now it's after dinner and we're all spent from the days adventures. The ATM in Montezuma is broken and we're all running out of Colones. Hopefully they get it fixed soon before we can't buy our way out of here. Ha.

Hasta luego
-chris