We had no plans for today. Yesterday, I tried to talk to people about what they might like to do during our trip in addition to the things I had already lined up, but no one cared to offer constructive suggestions. I got criticism and nothing else. That meant that we were going to do what I planned. I was up before the children and went to the roof for a swim and to do yesterday's blog post. The morning was warm, but I could feel the ocean breeze a bit and the water in the pool was very refreshing. Cooler than the ocean. As I sat, a coati ran down the hill next to the house. It was too fast for me to get to the camera and hidden when I leapt up and raced to the balcony’s edge to see if I could get a picture. Kent came up and was surprised to see how nice the roof space is. “Dave is really nice,” he said. That's for sure!
Pool on the roof
These leaves are probably two feet across.
They are HUGE!
I made scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast, then told everyone to get ready because we were going to hike to a waterfall. Dave had mentioned there was a lovely, little visited waterfall about 45 minutes away. He said we would park the car at the home of a nice little lady with chickens. Javi has sent me coordinates and away we went.
We drove south into agricultural land. It was fun to drive during the day and see the people, buildings, and landscape during the day. We passed banana farms, a papaya orchard, and many tall palms which has been planted in rows and were kept nicely trimmed. Not sure what sort of palm they are. We passed the homes of regular Costa Ricans which were humble but brightly painted with beautiful flowers and plants around them. As nice as Dave's place is (and it's nice!), those smaller, bright homes speak to me more. They are probably not air conditioned and difficult to sleep in because it's so hot.
Bananas wrapped in that blue plastic.
The trailhead for the waterfall does indeed begin at the beautiful home of a nice little Costa Rican lady who speaks no English. I speak no Spanish, but we were able to communicate enough for me to pay her to allow us to park there, for me to understand there was a bathroom, and that she was going to watch our car while we were hiking. She pointed us in the direction of the trail, and off we went.
The garden in front of the house.
These plants grow in Utah, but not nearly as big as this one.
Flowers around the house.
The trail wound through some palm groves, and we saw bunches of palm nuts lying next to the trees. Upon arrival back at the house, I looked them up and learned that they are kernels of the palm tree used for palm oil that is used in all sorts of things from cosmetics to industrial uses. After passing through the palm groves, we entered real foresty jungle. Trees were tall. Everything was lush and green; we stepped over several lines of leaf cutter ants and saw large and interesting marked centipedes. Everything was green and damp.
The waterfall itself was lovely. It came down in three Cascades. There was a large pool at the bottom that we were all wading into until Kent got nibbled on by fish. Then we were all a bit reluctant to go into the water. Izzy and I scrambled up the rock side of the waterfall and discovered a small and deep pool at the base of the middle cascade. I dropped in and could not touch the bottom. After some serious persuasion, Izzy got in too. We swam about a bit then scrambled back down to join Kent and Brandt. It was a beautiful spot, and we were the only ones there. As we hiked back to the car, we saw monkeys in the canopy of trees we were walking under. Real, live, wild monkeys just doing their thing. So cool!
From the walk back
We had passed an interesting looking group of buildings with a large cargo plane in the center of the square on our way to the waterfall. I asked Kent to stop on the way back. It was a collection of all white painted buildings and was the town center of Esterillos. Kent, Brandt, and I got out of the car to wander around while Izzy sat in the hot car and worried about how she looked. There was a Danish bakery that served breakfast and lunch, and I suggested we have lunch there. We all had a yummy lunch and three of us enjoyed a slightly cool breeze from overhead fans while one of us sat in the car and had a pout.
--Prohibited--
Alcoholic beverages
Smoking
The permanence of minors without adult supervision
(so you can't just leave your kid in the center of town and go away)
Love scenes
Littering (throw away trash)
Below all the prohibited things, it says,
You should pick up your pet's feces and dispose of them in the appropriate trash can.
Yes. Yes you should.
It was shortly after 2:00 when we got back and everyone but me was happy to hang out in the house. I already had my swimming suit on, so I sprayed on some sunscreen, grabbed a boogie board, and headed to the beach. I played in the water off and on for about an hour, then sat just at the water’s edge and watched the waves and surfers and reveled in the cool breeze. I also watched the southern sky grow grey with clouds and figured rain was coming.
Boy did the rain come! Looking out towards the ocean, we were unable to distinguish sky from water. It was the hardest rain I have ever seen. It rained so hard our vision was obscured for any distance. It was also warm. It rained for about two hours during which time we all hung out at home, reading and watching dumb stuff on our phones.
When it finally let up, we went to grab pizza just down the hill at a little place next to the market. Pizza was ordered to go and Kent, Brandt, and I are it in the roof, poolside, in the cool of the evening after the wonderful rain.
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