Welcome to the Jungle!

We woke up in the morning and we blessed with beautiful blue skies! So pumped! It's rainy season in Costa Rica right now, so we were all expecting it to be raining and wet the whole time, so this was a pleasant surprise that we definitely wanted to take advantage of this morning.

Since Manuel Antonio is closed today, we asked the workers at our hostel what they recommend we do today. So... today became an "Off The Beaten Path" day where we took advice and directions from locals to find spots that are not listed in guide books. We were definitely in for an adventure!

Our first decision was to hike into the jungle and find "the waterfall" that the locals mentioned. We hiked up a mountain along a paved road (and risked getting hit by cars zooming by or bitten by dogs barking at our heels), and then turned off of the paved road into the... jungle! We were told to follow the river to the waterfall, so we found the river and walked along it for about an hour and a half. Sometimes we were walking along the right bank, sometimes the left bank, and sometimes we had to walk right in the middle of the river.

Following the river deep into the jungle was such a neat experience. It was fun picking our way through the rocks and vines along the banks of the river to find our way among the plants and insects that we'd never seen before. I had "Welcome to the Jungle" by Guns N' Roses stuck in my head the whole time, except that the only line I could remember at the time was "welcome to the jungle!", so that got a little old after a while ;) My favorite quote from the hike in was from Ag... "Ouch! Don't grab THAT tree! There's spiky things on it!!" 

Since we were literally in the rainforest, it was super hot and humid and moist. We sweated up a storm. Beading, dripping, pouring, sticky grossness. I don't mind sweating, but this kind of sweating... in the heat and humidity... there was just no break from it. Nothing ever dries either because it's so humid. Let's just say we were looking forward to finding this waterfall so we could go swimming to cool off!

We were pumped when we found the top of the waterfall! There was a rope tied to one of the trees and hanging down a rock face that we used to climb down to the bottom. We didn't waste any time throwing our bags down and jumping in for a swim.

This place was gorgeous! I couldn't believe that we were here on our first full day in Costa Rica! We were in the middle of the jungle, at a secluded waterfall that pooled into a deep lagoon, shaded by the rainforest canopy with sunlight poking through the trees and dancing on the surface of the deep green water. It was picturesque! One of those places that you see in the movies :)

We swam around the lagoon in the refreshingly cold water, swam underneath the waterfall with the water pounding on our heads, laid out on the sunny rocks, and the best part- climbed up the rock face and jumped from the top of the waterfall! Exhilaratingly wonderful! (Though admittedly I was a bit scared of climbing up the slippery rock... I didn't want to slip and fall).

On our hike back from the waterfall, we were told to continue down river and then turn left and head up the mountain. When we emerged at the top and came out of the trees, we were rewarded with a stellar view of... the jungle! Green mountains everywhere, and we still had blue skies! It was beautiful! Well... except for the heat, intense sweating, and fact that we didn't know where to go from here... It made me a little uneasy, especially because we were low on water, but after picking around the hillside for a while, we eventually found our way to a paved road where we found a person to ask for directions. Turns out that we weren't that far off! Awesome!

We stopped at a market, bought some peanut butter and bread for snacks and jumped in the car to find more "off the beaten path" locations. We drove and then hiked to a lookout tower on the backside of a hotel called Hotel California, haha. When we got there though, some construction workers told us that it wasn't a safe structure to climb... so we didn't climb it :( 

We continued driving and then pulled over on the side of the road and hiked to a local beach called Playa Bisanz. It ended up not being that great... it was small and dirty and smelly and at this point, I was just hungry and hot... 

So then we tried to find a "secret path" to another lookout. It was getting later in the evening and the sun was beginning to set, so we wanted to get a good view to see it, but since we are in the jungle, there are always trees in the way.  We were up on a mountain overlooking the Pacific Ocean, so we were pumped to see a sunset. Well... It took us some time, but we found the path! It just so happened that the path was behind a guardhouse to a resort, and the guard saw us and wouldn't let us go to the lookout :(

Well, we were all still determined to see the sunset, so we drove all of the way down the mountain and back into town. We parked alongside the beach and were rewarded with an INCREDIBLE sunset!!!! So beautiful and so worth all of the trouble we went through trying to get a good view. Reds, oranges, and yellows changed to pinks, purples, and blues. Travis's quote of the evening-"This is the most beautiful sunset I've ever seen without a sun" (because our angle down on the beach front didn't exactly show the actual sun setting, but we still got to see the awesome colors)!

The sun sets really early in Costa Rica, between 5:30 and 6:00 pm. This really caught me off guard since back home the sun sets at 9 pm this time of the year. The early sunset also means an early sunrise... at 5 am. Because of this, I am finding that most businesses here open at 6 am and close at 7 pm. For example, after the sunset we went to have dinner, and the place where we ate was out of almost everything on their menu. 

The hostel we're staying at doesnt have hot water or air conditioning. In fact, most hostels, hotels, restaurants, shops, etc. do not have hot water or air conditioning. I understand not having hot water because it's so darn hot here year round, but air conditioning? That's going to be something tough to deal with this week... sweating while trying to sleep... BUT there's just something absolutely glorious about a cold shower at the end of the day! Nothing like scrubing off sweat, sunscreen, bug spray, and dirt while getting a break from the heat. The break doesn't last long though... as soon as you turn off the water, you're back to being sticky and sweaty. Looking forward to the cold shower reminds me of the mission trip I went on to Jamaica in high school. 

Looking forward to Manuel Antonio National Park tomorrow! Praying for clear skies and little rain!