montezuma....
the beach
montezuma sits on the tip of the nicoya peninsula, vast jungle in the back, and just feet from the pacific. it seemed to draw in an eclectic crowd of people from all over the world and cater to those that like to party on a budget...
with a 2 pm bus to catch, my friends and i decided to hike to the montezuma falls. my knee felt better that morning, so i thought i might join the hike. i had no idea what i was getting myself into. due to the heavy rains the night before, the hike turned out to be an arduous trek through flooded rivers and thick jungle, led by a local makeshift tour guide. typically, i wouldn´t mind, but i could barely walk, much less scale 80 degree dirt faces. but once i started, there was really no turning back...
lower falls...
we passed a family of howler monkeys...
barefoot, mind you....
more monkeys...oh wait, thats alamandro, our makeshift tour guide
upper falls rope swing...
on our way out of the jungle, the infection in my knee started to get the better of me. alamandro could tell that i was having some difficulties, so he used the fresh milk of the stalk of a frangipani plant and covered my wound with the juices of the plant. come to find out, the frangipani is the common name for the plumeria flower...which smells divine. alamandro proceeded to tell me that the juices would extract the infection and was a common medicine used by the indians of the area.
after doing some research, post frangipani application, i found out that the milky sap of the frangipani plant is actually poisonous to humans and animals.
thanks alamandro!! i am not quite sure what to think of that one....but my wound seems to be healing.
so....after my allegedly being poisoned, we surface from the jungle....
i try to take it all in, one last time, then hobble on, poisoned and barefoot...to the bus station. granted, with a smile on my face the whole time!
