Montezuma

Montezuma is located in the Nicoya Peninsula on the Pacific Coast. I traveled out of the city through Alajuela, through San Ramon, and to Puntaranas where a friend and I took a large ferry. Puntaranas is a port town, known for its fisheries and fisherman, the entire place smelled of fish. The ferry from Puntaranas took about 2 hours. On board they sold national beers and meriendas (traditional snacks). Arriving in Paquera, the drive to Montezuma took about an hour. Montezuma is one of my favorite places I have yet seen in this country. Nestled between jungle and beach, its a slow pace beach town with pristine beaches, vegan cafe's, three waterfalls, hiking trails and clean quaint beach hotels, cabinas and hostels.

Friday night was spent on the beach, enjoying the fresh air.
Saturday morning I woke up to howler monkeys passing through the trees outside my window, then ate breakfast at a cafe called "Organico".
I wanted to see the Montezuma waterfalls, so convinced a friend to join me for the hike. To get there, you have to cross a river, and follow the rock and root laden bank through the forest. It was a bit difficult, and of course the trail isn't an actual trail. Just when I began to wonder if we were headed the right way, a local Tico emerged from the woods, barefoot, and asked if we wanted to see the waterfalls. He said to follow him- so we did, and marveled at how gracefully he walked, and how his Fred Flinstone look-a-like feet seemed to wrap around the roots on the bank of the river. He spoke of tranquility and peace, and would stop along the way to stare at the river and look into the trees. The view at the first waterfall is incredible, and the hike to the second is challenging and not for the faint of heart. At one point I was thinking, "yeah so I am hanging off some rocks by a rope that was hopefully secured by someone who knows what they are doing," falling was not an option of course. Some people get half way there, see the decent to the second waterfall, and turn around. It was worth the climb, once there I sat on the rocks and watched some of the locals jump into the swimming hole behind me, grabbing vines from the trees and dropping in. Some jumped from the top of the waterfall (about 40 feet), but surprisingly I didn't. Perhaps my adrenaline junkie was sleeping, or it was what was being dumped into the river upstream, and the thought of a mis-landing on a rock and having to drive 6 hours to get help- if that was even possible, kept my feet on the ground.

That afternoon I read on the beach, where unexpectedly a huge wave washed over me, and my camera was went dead for the next two days (luckily it dried out!!!).

Sunday I left for Mal Pais and Santa Teresa, where Chad, the friend was eager to catch some of the legendary waves. Santa Teresa is a straight up surfer community. Surfers from all over the world converge here, wake up early in the morning, sleep the afternoons, and head back before dusk.

Its sad the amount of garbage on the beaches here, which is strangely overlooked(ignored) by many, perhaps because the natural beauty of the place is so captivating. I spent 2 hours collecting plastic, mounted it in a pile to stare at the mass of it all, then drug it to a garage bin (recycling bins not available). In the evening I got some pool table lessons from Chad.

Monday I hiked a bit, and photographed more of the collections systems. Spoke with some of the locals, and then headed back to Paquera to catch the ferry to Puntarenas, where I then took a bus to San Jose. On the bus I sat next to a brilliant little girl from Columbia who was eager to listen to my ipod and peer over at my book, when she then told me in Spanish that her favorite subject in school is English and that she has been learning it for three years (though she refused to speak a word of it). We giggled at the large Tico men selling potato chips and plantitios at the stops, drank some pear nectar, and watched the art collector carefully board the bus with arm fulls of artwork, and put on a respirator mask and stick her head out the window. I have no idea what was going on here- she was either afraid of our air, or protecting us from hers.