As I sit down to write this (from the terrace overlooking the beautiful mountains and the sounds of nature surrounding me and an Imperial in hand), it is exactly 7:48 pm and I’m ready to call it a night…HAHA!
-Up before the sun this morning. And it rises early…Like, 5:30. I watched a little bit of one of the Netflix’s I brought…I know, terrible. Showered up and headed to the breakfast nook where there was fresh coffee awaiting me. OMG, I’ve never tasted coffee so good. Ingrid knew my plan was to hike all day, so she made sure to fix me a big breakfast. It consisted of fruit – pineapple, banana and watermelon, scrambled eggs – fresh from their chickens (you can tell the difference, so good!), and toast with the most amazing pineapple marmalade…I could have eaten that stuff with a spoon. My belly was so full and I was ready to take on the day!
-So they had arranged for a shuttle to scoop me up this morning and take me to the park. Well, I was out there waiting at 7:35 like I was supposed to…and I waited…and I waited…and finally a little after 8:00, I started walking back down to the lodge. Halfway down, I hear a car behind me. It’s a run down, beat up, Toyota 4-Runner. The driver looks at me and asks if I’m going to the park. Si?...as I’m thinking to myself, is this the “shuttle”? He explains to me that the real shuttle is broken down and proceeds to open the back hatch where he has a pile of pillows for me to sit on (the front and middle row of the car where filled with Germans). He also tells me there is no charge. I was supposed to pay him $10. Bueno!
-Arrived at the park and decided since I was not going all the way up to the crater, that I would take on a hike to the waterfall and after that, do a circular trail that had many points of interest along the way. In total, this consisted of about 15K. I ASSumed that since I was not hiking all the way up to the top, that this would literally be a walk in the park. Let me tell you – I got bitch slapped in the face by the Rincon de la Vieja National Park today!!! Those trails were so difficult at times…I was scared. And I was alone. And the only thing that kept me from turning around was the fact that I knew the park rangers had my name & passport # and I was required to check out when I was done. So anyway, the waterfall trail…a long hike. The whole time I’m thinking to myself, “this better be good”. Well, you get to the point where you can hear it but you can’t see it. You’ve got to scale some really steep boulders (I’m NOT exaggerating). And finally you round the corner and there it is. “Holy shit” where the exact words out of my mouth. I’ve only seen stuff like that in the movies, and even the movies can’t portray the most bluest of blue water you’ve ever seen in your life. Absolutely breathtaking. The water is crystal clear and it feels amazing. Lucky for me, when I got to the waterfall, the Germans I had shared a ride with were down there, so they took a picture for me and I took one for them!
-I could go on forever about my hike today, but I’ll sum it up by saying that Mother Nature is AH-MAZE-ING.
Post Script: Holy shit were my legs sore the next day!
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