Road Trip – Rincon de la Vieja

Coati

On Tuesday morning, we set out bright and early on the road to Liberia: we had a long day ahead and a car upgrade to a 4x4, which we did not want to see reverted back to the mini we paid for… ☺ As it turned out, the 4x4 ended up being rather handy.

After dropping off our luggage at the hotel in Liberia, it’s time to set off for Parque Volcan Rincon de la Vieja, an active volcano in the northwestern part of Costa Rica, about 25 miles away from Liberia. 5 miles of the way are on a highway, and the remaining 20 are on an unpaved rocky road going through alternating landscapes of tropical dry forests and prairies with cattle and horses. So many horses! And usually looking so healthy… apparently, no shortage of grass!
So after the bumpy car ride, a nice long hike sounded like a good idea. We started on a 4-hour trek to a waterfall. The first part of the hike was through a rainforest; the trail resembled Hawaii hikes like those in the Pali or Maunawili, crossing rivers and meandering through the forest. Some differences from the Hawaiian trails: the cool butterflies (the big blue one with black fringes that you always see in the books), the agoutis (dry land mini-muskrats), coatis (look sort of like pig-nosed lemurs), and the river water was crystal clear and smelled of sulfur.

About midway along the trail, we exited the forest and started in a drier, rockier landscape of tall grasses, shrubs, and aloes… and that is where we started climbing… The view as we were going was awesome, but I didn’t think I was going to make it to the falls!


The more we went, the steeper it got and the dryer the hillside looked… no gurgling noise to indicate we were nearing water and to encourage us… but we did it! At the top of the hill, there was a canyon that separated it from a taller hill, and a waterfall in between. We could have walked down to the bottom of the canyon but by then I didn’t think my legs would take me back up if we went all the way down; besides, the view was definitely more breathtaking than the waterfall! ☺




Nice hike! That night, we went to sleep before 9pm!!