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Paradise Falls
Entry 44 of 79 | show all | print this entry |
This morning we rose at 6am, before sunrise, quickly packed our gear, ready to go to the Nicoya Peninsula, then discovered that Juliette cannot find her camera. Since I lost my camera in Antigua, this news was a huge dissapointment. We looked everywhere, in the bed, under the bed, in our backpacks, throughout the darkened hostel where everyone was still sleeping. We couldn't find it and we had to leave and catch the bus. Dissapointed, we left our hotel unwillingly. This means all of our pictures from Guatemala to Costa Rica were lost forever. In a weird kinda of way, it made me remember the places and faces even more; without the photos, I had to remember this trip and not let it be a fading memory. Juliette was very dissapointed as I can see it in her saddened face. To comfort her a little, I told her that I too lost my camera, for which she didn't know up until now.
We took the 8am bus to Puntarenas. The Costa Rican buses are in much better condition than the countries past, but it lacks the charm and excitement of the chicken buses of Guatemala. There was many travellers going our way, this being the high season for tourism in Costa Rica and the country is a favorite destination among Americans. Upon arrival in Puntarenas we transferred to a boat that took us toward the Nicoya Peninsula. We were in the Pacific again. The air was fresh, the clouds scattered like white cottons in the blue sky, the sun was hot and playing hide and seek among the clouds as we tried to get some tan on the sun deck of the boat. The sea gulls flying along side the boat were competing for treats thrown by a elderly passenger, while the melody of assortment of music instruments was heard on the lower deck.
After about 2 hours, we arrived in Playa Naranjo, everyone on the boat got off and transferred to one of three packed buses waiting beside the docks. The road to Montezuma was rough, the buses were full to the limit, the heat was suffocating as sweating tourists began to stink like rotten road kills. When we arrived in Montezuma after about an hour and a half, everyone got off and headed towards their respecting hotels which presumably was pre-booked days in advance. Me and Juliette, just came backpacking through simpler times in Guate, Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua didn't think we needed to book ahead. We never had any problems before, if a particular hotel was full, there would always be another one near by and we always found room. However, this time we were out of luck, we didn't know Montezuma was like New Orleans during Mardi Gras week, truly a tragedy of the commons. So we asked around almost every hotel around Montezuma and in the last resort we climbed a hill above the main town and found a nice hotel that still had room. I guess I'm lucky sometimes and Juliette was relieved to see that we didn't have to sleep on the beach tonight. After a quick shower and change from our sweaty clothes, we went for a relaxed walk around the small town.
Montezuma is a very relaxing community, popular among backpacker who didn't want the resort type of thing in Costa Rica. We walked to the beautiful waterfall and had a refreshing swim around the fall. This waterfall resembled what paradise looked like in those Hollywood movies; tropical trees growing on both sides, water splashing on the large boulders below, while the tiny waves rippling in swimming hole. We had so much fun that it was dark before we headed back into town. Quite an eye opening day for both of us and I only wished that we still had at least one camera.
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