Montezuma!

For "Semana Santa" the most important and celebrated holiday in Costa Rica, we traveled to Montezuma, near the Golf of Nicoya, on the Pacific Ocean. We took a 2 hour bus ride, a 1 hour ferry, then another 1.5 hour bus ride to get there and back. We had to get up super early to catch both buses because everyone in the country travels during that weekend, and lines were super long for the buses.

When we got to the station in the morning, there was already a line, but we weren't sure what for, so we sat down right next to our bus area. I started talking to some guys and then ended up letting us get in line with them. It worked out great though, because we ended up hanging out with them all weekend and having a great time.

There were 5 boys all ranged from ages 18-24, and then a couple with them. Their names were... (Probably all spelt wrong) Caleb, Josue, Emiliano, Alibal, Josue, and the couple was Natalie and Raybel. They were all Christians and were super nice and we had a great time with them. Jordan and I are actually going to check out their church tomorrow night and hang out with them again.



The first day we got there, Thursday, we just ate and went to the beach with our friends, it was similar to Playa Conchal with the big waves and dangerous current. But it was a lot of fun. The next day we took a strenuous hike to the amazing waterfalls! There are 3 waterfalls total. We first went to the last one where people were jumping off a rock (probably 20 feet) and swinging from a rope tied to a branch. We had a great time there, swinging on the rope, jumping off the rock, and swiming in the fresh water. Then we walked back a little (up a really steep hill) and got to the first waterfall that was gigantic. We swam and stood under the waterfall and took pictures with our friends. Aparently some people have died at that waterfall bc they drink too much and think they can clear the massive rocks when jumping, when it really is impossible. Luckily, everyone was safe that day. :)



On Saturday we went to the beach again with our friends, and mind you we were speaking in Spanish all weekend, because our friends didn't speak much English at all. They were very helpful in speaking slow, and we learned a lot! It was great practice and a lot of fun. So we spent the day at the beach, and then had a bonfire (fogata) later that night. There were tons of little hermit crabs around, but we tried not to think about it, and had a great time talking to our friends and listening to some music.



We headed to the bus station at 4:15 the next morning to avoid not catching the bus. Apparently the day before there was a fight at the bus station... but we were safe and got on our bus with no problems. We got to watch a beautiful sunrise. Then we got home around 12:45 and separated ways after exchanging emails and plans to meet in town Tuesday night to go to their chruch. We had a great weekend and now have some awesome Costa Rican friends to hang out with while we are in San Jose.