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Published: September 22nd 2006
Funky shop
We spent so much time and money in here!
Right up our alley..Hey all,
Sorry been out of touch for a while. Internet is expensive and slow here, and i guess you were getting sick of sunset photos at Santa Teresa. So on to a different place - Montezuma!
Ali and tripped there for a day from Santa Teresa last week just for something different, and we had heard the waterfalls there were incredible.
Montezuma is a funky little town only about 1.5hrs from Santa Teresa so we hitched a ride with a good kiwi friend most of the way (on the back of his flatbed truck getting mouthfuls of dirt) then were lucky enough to meet a local Montezuma guy called randall on the bus the rest of the way. I say this was lucky because we met him at the waterfalls later (which are a nice short walk from the beach) and he led us up a barely existant trail to the BEST spot for swimming. Each pool below the falls was between 10 and 25m deep and the falls between 4m and 20m high. We were brave enough to jump from the 4m rock into a 10m deep pool, which is more than can be said for the californian guys
Montezuma beach
This is just a bay near the falls. The rest of the beach has ok surf, though not as good as Santa Teresa! we met there!
The place was pretty pristine and incredibly peaceful, despite the number of gringo tours that go on there. I had to laugh, we saw a group of tired tourists splashing through the rocky and watery pathway and looking woefully up at the near vertical trail we were climbing with Randall. Ali and I have been really lucky with things working out for us here!
Speaking of luck, the night before we spotted a leatherback turtle nesting on Santa Teresa beach. Well actually, our mexican friend Sheila literally tripped over it in the dark as it made its way up the beach. We assured her it was just a rock until it started moving! Not wanting to disturb her (the turtle), we took a few badly aimed photos using as little light as possible and watched her for a little while as she went into a trance and dug her nest to lay the eggs. There is a beach patrol at Santa Teresa (of security guards with guns etc) so the nest should have been protected. I went to see it the next day though and it looked slightly hollowed out so hopefully it didn't get found
On the way...
we made our way through a few small pools to get to the main waterfall by poachers (some locals here believe eating the eggs gives you manhood). It was a powerful experience just being able to watch this amazing animal and we felt so priveledged. She was a smallish leatherback, with about a 50cm diameter shell and it was a pretty strange occurence since Santa Teresa isn't a usual nesting site, particularly before October.
Ali and I have since moved on to a new beach - Tamarindo - and are missing Santa Teresa!
I will blog in the next few days about this place when we've taken more pics. Unfortunately it is a completely different world to the rest of the Costa Rica we love. Very touristy and everything aimed at rich americans. Oh well, here for 5 days then on to work at Las Pumas wild cat centre.
take care all
Love cassy
(hah, the way they pronounce my name cassy means 'almost' in spanish! it is easier for them to say than catherine though)
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Annette
non-member comment
Spanish
How much Spanish do you know now? Are you fluent in speaking the language? Also, do the people in Costa Rica and Ecadour speak English at all? Do you have a Latin American accent now?