San Luis

Today I hiked to the San Luis waterfall, a much bigger feat than I anticipated. I had wanted to go to Monte Verde National Park but the dingdang bus only runs at 7:30am and 2:30pm. I took off from my hostel, which is located across the street from Mundo de Insectos (Insect World- I do not plan to go, it´s apparently outdated and overpriced)

But here´s what I really need to tell you, my guide, Charley, came highly recommended from Lonely Planet. He´s born and raised here, has studied lots of snakes and plants, and is just a friendly guy. So we started walking to the San Luis waterfall, a hike that required no bus. The hike was great, crossing rivers and no joke, he made me hug a tree. Charley was constantly pulling fruit out of the trees, I must´ve eaten 4 oranges. So yadda yadda, we´re hiking and the waterfall is beautiful:

We get there, and it´s super hot and we´ve been walking for hours. Charley even more so, because he went out walking for a few hours before we embarked on our adventure. And the water here is so crisp and refreshing, not like in Tamarindo. Tama, as with most Tican water is like bathwater, a comfortable temperature that does little to relieve the itch of my millions of insect bites. But Monte Verde (Green Mountain if you didn´t know) is mountain water, so it feels great. Charley announces he´s going to swim, which seems like a great idea to me. I turn and photograph some crazy roots and when I look back Charley has stripped down to his socks and his traje de baño (bathing suit)

I guess I should really just call it a bikini, as it was obviously women´s swimwear. I hiked really fast on the way out.