Another day in Curubande

I loaded all the pics in the blog and then ran out of steam to post last night. So I’m writing about yesterday on our drive this morning!

We did the La Leona Waterfall hike yesterday morning. I can honestly say that it was one of the coolest experiences of my life. I will remember it for a very long time!

We met at 8am. You need a guide for this hike. We had booked this one with Aaron and Allison and Rowan. To get to the start of the hike they loaded us into the back of a truck and we barrelled along a dirt road with huge steep hills. At one point the tailgate fell open and we yelled at the guy who was driving and he was like, “It always does that. Dont worry about it” 😱 Pic below because they are all out of order again 😔 

Hike started with whoever wanted to to jump off a small cliff into the water

The hike was so fun. Through the first and the. We’d wade through rivers etc

Can’t remember the name of this tree but it’s the National Tree of Guatemala and it starts with S and it’s hollow. No service to look it up right now

At this point we had to swim!

We got to this point and you had to pull yourself through this narrow opening with current with this rope. So fun!

And when you get through to the other side, this is what you see!

It’s hard to capture the beauty of this canyon with the waterfall with pictures. We did an early hike so there was nobody there except the guides and the one other family that was in our tour. Absolutely magical!

Then we got to swim there!  It was wild to swim up to the waterfall!  Seriously soooo fun!  It was warm and sunny and the water was beautiful!

High fives for an amazing adventure!

From there we went to a little spot with a great jumping rock!

Then we had to swim back out!

And then we did the opposite hike in reverse. The whole hike was about 4km so not too bad. 

Here are some more pics that the guide took with his phone that came in out of order. 

The start of the interesting drive! 😬 

 After that adventure we went to change at our Air BNB and stored our luggage for the afternoon. You cannot leave anything unattended in a vehicle in Costa Rica or it will get stolen. 

Our little village called Curubande is teeny. But we found a little local restaurant (called Sodas) to have lunch. 

I am surprised actually how little English we’ve encountered. Almost everyone we’ve encountered except for our waterfall guides speaks zero English, including the people working at the gates of attractions etc. We have no idea if they are asking how many people or the ages of the kids atc. We’ve had to have them type the price I to the calculator of our phone so we know how much to pay. 

At this restaurant it was funny because we thought the waitress was asking if we wanted jalapeños and Trev and I said yes but we told her no for the kids. Then she brought Trev and I glasses of pineapple juice. Pineapple is Pina which she says like Pinya. Trev and I were laughing that she probably thought we were mean parents ordering pineapple juice for ourselves and not for the kids! 😆 picture of the pineapple juice at the end because updating this from my phone is hard!

Anna got Tacos

I got a burrito

I can’t remember what this was called but it was fries and pieces of sausage! 😂 

Owen got a burger

Trev got a traditional Costa Rican rich with rice, beans and egg

The afternoon was not as great. We went to Rincon de La Vieja National Park. This hike brought us past all kinds of volcanic features. It was best but the first half of the hike was in the full sun. We had our little fans and cooling towels (which were excellent) but I honestly thought I wasn’t going to make it to the end of the 4km walk. Every place there were the volcanic sites to see we’re like 40C because of the heat from the volcano. It was insane.   I give this hike 3/10. Probably 7/10 if we had done it early when it wasn’t so hot. 

The volcanic features smelled strongly of sulphur and were very hot

We tried a variety of cooking towel strategies

The mullet method

The shoulder method

Iguanas everywhere

Another volcanic feature

We did see a couple of monkeys at the end of the trail but they were too high in the trees to get good pictures

We went and got 5 drinks and a 1.5L water. That was $25 Canadian. It definitely isn’t cheap here!

We picked up our luggage and we’re in our way to our next AirBNB. We stopped for some groceries on the way and it was so slow it turned into like a 45 minute stop when we just wanted to get there. 

Our vehicle is a bit too small for us so we have to really cram in there!

We got to our AirBNB at 5:15om. The sun was just starting to set. Our AirBNB is steps from the beach. So we threw the food in the fridge, found our bathing suits and ran down there. 

Our AirBNB at the beach!

Porch of the AirBNB

Looking from the gate of our property

The waves were big and really fun to play in!

When the sun set, we quickly showered and changed and walked along the beach to the first restaurant we saw which was this amazing beach bar. There was live music which was amazing actually. Plus these glowing orbs on the table that changed colour and you could toss around. 

We haven’t been drinking the water but keep accidentally ordering drinks that come with ice cubes. We’ve just fished them out best we can and enjoyed the drinks. 🤷🏼‍♀️ This Sangria was amazing

I kept looking over at Joel thinking he was drinking a beer but it was a ginger ale! 😂 

There are dogs EVERYWHERE!  We had lots of doggies visiting our table which Anna loved

To give you an idea if prices, this meal cost $165 😬 for 5 meals, 3 pop and 3 alcoholic drinks  we maybe are going to have to search out some less expensive places!  It was perfect for our first night at the beach though!

And here’s the last pic of the pineapple juice (not jalapeños!)