Tortured my feet today

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So I wanted to go see the Nauyaca waterfalls while I was here in Dominical, but I didn't want to pay he $40 dollar tour fee for the horses. This one time my cheap nature kicked my ass. Then again it was well worth it. We got up @6 and headed to the bus stop. Now I say bus stop it was more like a ricity bench that had tetnus writting all over it, so we stood next to it.

Either way we had to head toward San Isidro on the bus and get off half way in between. Locating the signs we notified the bus driver and he let us off. About a half a mile more down the road was the entrance to where we were headed. So we walked. Bought our tickets for $3 as compared to the $40 tour fee. We thought we scored a lick, not so much. The actual entrance to the park was another 500m down the road. Then it was a 6K walk to falls. No it wasn't a straight line either. I'm talking windy, hilly, steep, muddy, horse poo covered, mesquito infested trails...not to make it seem bad the scenery was breathtaking.

The first hill was about a mile long, no if we had a car we could drive to the end of it then start the hike. This was a windy hill that was all down. Not to muddy or rocky though, just steep and LONG. Note it was the first hill headed there so it would be the last hill headed back. We all made mental note of our soon to be torture, richard simmons couldn't make this hill with out a break.

At the bottom of the curves and hill there was an old metal suspension bridge. Under it was a swimming hole if it hadn't been rainy season and the water didn't look like the same rapids we went down on in tennessee. Moving forward it was a series of uphills and downhills with absolutely no flat spots in between until we came to a stream in the middle of the path that you had to cross. I tried jumping rocks but still ended up with soggy feet. Which is cool because for the next mile of hills it was all deep loose mud. My shoe actually got stuck and I had to go fishing for it. Caked in red mud and horse poo we reached a sign that said Nauyaca Waterfall 700m....We got excited. Little did we know the hill we were about to trek up.

Don't know if you have been to any of ludviks castles in europe but this hill was about equal to some of them hills, and to top it off we were already walking for about 2hrs. But we made up the hill and got the top of the falls.

Now the waterfalls....WORTH THE HIKE. Water level was high and the falls were twice as powerfull and gushing out twice as much water as what is in any of the pics you see online. You could barely see the rocks up top. And when I jumped in you could barely keep from being washed down stream from the current. If you are looking to jump off the falls, as I was, dry season is the time for that. Which is oddly enough what one of the guides informed me on the way back. Oh well I still got to swim at the bottom of the falls. Vines draped from underneath water rushing down. Trees surrounding the falls reached out to them, as if they were looking for a drink. rocks lined the bottom from being knocked loose and tumbling down. Moss was everywhere, and not a sole was around at the time. No noise, no horses, nothing. It was a secluded paradise and it was all mine, and the couple that came with me..but I wasn't worried about them they were busy honeymooning and avoiding the squeaky third wheel, ME.

The top water fall was just powerfull and full of beauty, but sat higher. This one you couldn't swim in, unless you were looking to be crushed in the rocks and boulders beneath it, I was not. After showering in the mist and cooling our bodys down we headed back for the 2hr hike...which on the way passed the horse tour and silently cursed them in our heads. The hike back was similar to the hike there except the sun was at full mass and we were staring at the base of the final mile long hill. We made it up, but that was the knarliest hill I have ever had to walk up. At the end we got a taxi and headed back for lunch, more surf, and a well deserved mid day siesta.

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Comments

[Thurman]

laughing my ass off...
...@ the tetnus bench. Count me OUT for any of those! You see Bradley, I know nature and its power, I woulda took one look at that price difference and known something was up...the only way I woulda took that hike is if we were broke. otherwise, i woulda waved at you ass from my nice horseback or whatever. Man yo cheap ass is a trip!