We had read about all kinds of places on the pacific coast of Costa Rica. This is where the sun really shines, and because of that the information we gathered was that a lot of the coast was getting more busy, more expensive and more touristy every year. With that in the back of our minds we picked Montezuma as our choice of town, and set off.
We took a bus from La Fortuna to San Ramon and it climbed up and up and up. A couple times we were so close to the edge of the road overlooking a cliff that even when I looked directly out the window it looked like the bus was flying. I watched as the altimeter on my watch climbed from 100ft to 3600ft. We took some pictures out of the bus window that don’t quite capture this, but I thought I’d post a couple anyway.
So here’s how we traveled: La Fortuna to San Ramon (4 hours), San Ramon to Puntarenas (3 or 4 hours), a ferry to Paquera (an hour or so and about $2US per person) and then another 1.5 hour bus ride to Montezuma.
Here’s some pictures from the ferry:
We met some people from Toronto and the States. It was nice to have someone to travel with and to be with while we dealt with a crappy situation to come…
Word of warning: don’t arrive in Montezuma at 9pm on a Saturday during Spring Break (we didn’t realize) and expect to get a room.
This place was hoppin’. People everywhere drinking in the streets having a good time. It seemed to only options we had for a place to stay were expensive room that had jacuzzi’s and all kinds of things we didn’t want to pay for. We spent hours looking for a place to stay – and of course, for the first time since the start of the trip, it’s actually sweltering hot.
Twelve hours of buses and boats, hungry and hot, running around with all our gear trying to find a room in the midst of a Spring Break mega party.
Long story short, we find this place (for about $30…):
Now this picture actually makes this room look pretty good. It wasn´t that the room was that bad, but the whole experience of getting the room was something else, and a little sketchy. Plus, there were places for $35 with private hot showers and access to jacuzzis (had we known about the busyness and booked, or at least got there earlier). Bri will talk about the experience more in her next Bri Says.
We got out of there the next morning and we got to see how beautiful Montezuma actually was. The mega party was over and it seemed a lot of people had left. We moved to a hostel called Pension Jenny.
Here is a weird nightshot for you because it´s all I kind find right now.
Montezuma is on a beautiful beach, and it’s hot. Some of the waves really beat the shit out of us.
An awesome free thing to do in Montezuma is to go check out the waterfall. The start of the trail was about a 10 minute walk from our hostel. It takes about 15 minutes to get to the first waterfall, and it´s an easy hike over rocks along the river.
![IMG_1045[1]](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3586/3351074039_2da161f965.jpg)
Here´s me jumping off a massive ten foot rock! I wanted to jump off near the top of the waterfall (at least 40 feet or something), but the climb up along slippery rocks beside the waterfall looked too much to me like an early ticket back to Canada with a broken head.
Next we trekked up the steep path to the next waterfall (which turned out to be the top of the first waterfall where there was another swimming hole and another smaller waterfall). In the heat it was a good little hike.
Notice the sweat.
Behind me is the second swimming hole at the top of the waterfall. That empty space to the right of my head is where the water is falling off. I didn´t see anybody actually swimming in there, but I think people do. In fact, I think that girl behind me was going to but chickened out.
Oh snap… full moon, evil-eyed giant toad… it must be time for a… FULL MOON PARTY!
This party actually happened in Santa Teresa, which is about a 30-40 minute drive from Montezuma. We found a guy who had a van and for 3000 colones (about $6), he would take us there at 10PM and back at 3AM. Not a bad deal, a taxi would charge $35US one way. We had a lot of fun, although it was really just a big temporary club set up on the beach. We managed to sneak our vodka in in water bottles. I walked out onto some rocks in the ocean to have a thought and a few drinks before getting into party mode. Needless to say, I fell in the ocean on the way back. I was soaked for the whole party, and of course I had decided to wear pants and a long sleeve shirt because I thought it might get cold (it didn´t).
TIme to start making our way back to San Jose; the date for our flight to Colombia was sneaking up fast.
