Smithsonians: Waterfalls and Alajuela

Oh my gosh! Today was so fun and I have hardly any pictures to show of it. We went back to the adventure park. Our shuttle picked us up at 7:10. Breakfast didn't start until 7:00. Mike called the reception area yesterday and asked if they could put some food together for us. (The waitresses idea last night.) We kind of wanted to get up at 5:30 or so and walk to the beach, but it was raining HARD. The shuttles didn't start until 8:00. So, we finally started the long walk in the pouring rain. Mike and Jorja had the frog tong rain jackets that Steve let us borrow. That was great because it could go over their backpacks. I carried an umbrella from the hotel room. I think it took us about ten minutes to walk there. Our poor luggage was soaked! Mike checked out and the lady at the front desk handed us three sack lunches. It was a hoagie sandwich, muffin, crackers, juice box and an apple. The shuttle picked us up right on time. I ate my entire lunch on the way. Sure glad I didn't have to go on the 4 hour hike on an empty stomach! The adventure place had said they would store our luggage. They let us put it behind their counter. We got all signed in and then waited for over an hour. They told us that the guides went up and did the hike to check the equipment and to make sure the waterfalls weren't too dangerous. They did this because of all the rain. I was more than okay waiting while they made sure everything was safe. While we waited we got to watch the monkeys in the trees. There were a lot of them. They would climb to a fruit, take a bite and then chuck the entire fruit down to the ground. Fruit was flying everywhere. Haha

I had bought waterproof pouches so I could take my phone on the hike. Also so we could put our passports in there. We weren't sure how safe we would feel leaving our stuff there, but it felt pretty safe. At the last second I decided not to take it. The tour place highly recommends not bringing phones. I thought that I would just buy all the pictures they would want to sell me at the end. That way I wouldn't have to stress about it. Plus I was worried it would take me forever to get my phone out of the punches and that would be annoying for everyone. Welp, they had no one taking professional pictures on this tour. Dang it! The hike was amazing! We started with a tractor ride for 15 minutes. Then we got out and hiked for about 40 minutes. We did one 'almost' zip line/fall to get to the first waterfall. We rappelled down six waterfalls. Man do I wish I had pictures of that! It was absolutely stunning! I wish I had a picture of Jorja climbing halfway down a giant waterfall. She sure faced her fear of heights square in the face. She was so brave this trip! The water was pretty warm too. I said that to one of the guides and he was surprised. Then I added that this would be absolutely freezing in Utah. Repelling down the waterfall was pretty scary for me. My hands were so tired about 3/4ths of the way down from the big waterfall. I was worried I would hit my face against the rocks, but I didn't. There were a couple of falls where you had to fall in the water at the bottom and pull yourself out holding onto the rope. We also had to slide down rocks like a mini water slide at some point. The last thing we did was jump off a high dive platform into a pool. (The platform from yesterday.) It was about 2 or 3 meters high. They pointed 'don't jump there, there, or there or you will get hurt. Look for those bubbles out there and jump.' I was scared! It took me a long time before I could force myself to do it. Jorja went a lot faster than me, and she is terrified of heights! She sure hasn't acted like it this trip! (When we booked this tour it said that you could jump or zip line down. I planned to zip line down. Or I thought there would be stairs. There wasn't. The only way down was to jump. I did not expect that. At least the water was clear and not muddy like it was yesterday.) One funny story. Jorja was looking at these things that must have fallen from trees. The guy from Tennessee told me they were soft. They looked like porcupine balls. I picked one up and was surprised that it was. I carried one so I could ask one of the guides what it was. After I walked a ways I was in a spot where I could ask. I showed it to the guide and asked what it was. He yelled, "Oh my gosh! You picked that up?" That totally scared me and I threw it. The guide just laughed and laughed. Hahaha it was funny. When we finished jumping into the pool we walked along this metal walkway/stair thing to the tractor that was waiting for us. It took us back to the beginning. They had fruit waiting for us and lunch. It was such an amazing experience. We were with a guy from Tennessee and two people from Israel. I'm so glad we did this, even though it was terrifying and we have no pictures to show of it. It was awesome and so, so, so, so beautiful.

We got cleaned up and then went to lunch. Our driver was already there. We were supposed to meet him at 12:00, but we didn't get back until 1:00. We invited him to eat lunch with us. Lunch was really good. Rice, beans, beef, chicken, jimaca sticks, plantains, salad and a flan dessert thing. We never got to go to the beach, but this was so much fun. Also, the weather was great while we hiked. Thank goodness for that!

Our driver brought us to our last hotel back in a city outside San Juan called Alajuela. The hotel feels pretty nice. We had a lazy rest of the day. Dinner was in the hotel and was quite expensive. Jorja didn't want anything. I talked her into sharing with me. That was perfect. While we were there we found out there is a pizza place close enough to walk to. We are going to check that out tomorrow. Today was another really really good day. I'm so glad because usually this day is hard for me. My mom died 26 years ago today. Last year was absolutely awful. I should always plan to do amazing adventures on her day.

Door to the bathroom in our room