Wednesday, March 4, 2020

Waterfalls and the Costa Rican Bataan Death March

From the Cloud Forest of Mondeverde-



I journeyed to the Pacific Coast and the Southern Nicoya Peninsula- for the 'beach' part of my trip (which seems appropriate for Costa Rica).   My guide book had indicated that the roads of So. Nicoya were some of the worst in CR, but it turned out that they had just paved the 60km road to Montezuma at the bottom of the peninsula.  I had to settle for this surprisingly smooth, if somewhat inauthentic, CR experience where , unusually all of  my teeth were still in place after my drive.

Montezuma- never knew the Aztecs made it this far south or were such beach bums- is a quintessential  'beach town' and surfing is big here.  Below, a couple of agile young pros getting ready to hit the 'board'-



I guess they hadn't heard of 'Car Park Surfing' which I have mastered and found far easier than the actual wet stuff.

When not goofing off as here, observed lots of Pelicans dive bombing for fish-



If deserted beaches are your thing, Montezuma could be for you-




But the surf is very strong- I got body slammed a few times swimming here-  and there many rip currents, so I realized it might be better sometimes just to do ' car park swimming'. 

If you are lucky, you may find an occasional piece of driftwood on these deserted beaches-


Amidst the natural driftwood,  you may occasionally find something useful like an old bumper or ballister washed up from parts unknown-



CR is a great place for waterfalls and there is beach a short 4 mile walk from Montezuma through the Sahara Desert where one falls into the sea-



Of course, waterfalls r us so (ala Victoria Falls) we had to dangle our feet near the edge-



Next to the ocean, which truly was like bath water in temperature, if not in temperment, the falls were delightfully refreshing, though that feeling did not last long on the scorching return. 




Some wildlife also couldn't be bothered to move far in the hot sun-


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