We had a huge day yesterday, with 24,000 steps had. We started super early and went to Manuel Antonio National Park. This place was said to have huge tourist numbers, but was still worth the visit. We had booked a local guide before we arrived, as he was #1 on TripAdvisor for tours in the area. A single dude, #1, that’s pretty impressive and he lived up to the hype. He was a 27 year old guy who really loved showing people the park. He spoke great English, and was smart and easy going and we got along really well.

I have a ton of photos from the park, but again I’m going to save them for later so I can make sure I get you the best.

After the tour, Miranda and I had planned to swim in a local beach and then drive to Playa Bellena, also known as “Whale Tail” because it’s a beach that looks like a whale’s tail from above. We told this to Johan and he recommended that we not. His point – you’re going to pay your money and see the tail and then what? There’s not really any shade, and it’s not a great beach, so…

He recommended a few other places, but we really latched onto Nauyaca Waterfalls. First, waterfalls are awesome. Second, the ocean here is super hot and the idea of going to a river and submersing ourselves in cool water (it’s 35C here) was unimaginably exciting.

We had the worst meal of our trip (my opinion) (just a crappy casado is all) and started driving south towards Dominical.

We paid $8 each to visit the waterfall and the lady looked incredulous. It was about an hours hike to go 4km in the heat. The hike was mostly covered by jungle, but it was still swelteringly hot. When we got to the waterfall, it became entirely worth it. There were two falls, one on top of the other and we visited the top one first – 160ft high above us, it soared. I climbed around a bit, and then we hiked down to the second one. The second waterfall had a pool at the base of it that was so deep you could swim around without touching the bottom. We spent a ton of time here, and about 45 minutes later were the only people around in a gorgeous waterfall in the middle of Costa Rica. Unfortunately, this experience doesn’t define our Costa Rica trip, as we’ve done a lot of things, but this was what we both wanted out of the trip. Majestic experiences. And between this place and Monteverde, we got it.

We had dinner at the #2 rated restaurant, called Z, in the area, which was half a block down the street. Excellent food and excellent atmosphere, it was a steak and seafood place. I had the yellowfin tuna, caught that morning. I ordered it “medium” because no one’s ever asked me how I wanted my fish cooked before…I was wrong, I should’ve ordered it lighter, but it was still fantastic.

Bed early again, as the next morning we had a river rafting tour booked!

We’re home again Sunday night, so I’ll be getting some of these photos processed for realz soon!