Finding the Waterfall

It’s been over a week now since I left New England and exactly a week since I arrived at my host family’s house. I’m definitely settling in now, since classes started yesterday. So far there isn’t much to report as far as classes go because, well, I’ve only had one.

This past weekend, most of the students in my group, including myself, went to Turrialba, a town about two hour and half hours from where we live, to hike a volcano.

My weekend started at 5 a.m. on Saturday when I woke up and packed for an overnight stay. Then I walked to the Institute where the group met up. The walk to the bus station to take us from San Joaquin de Flores to San Jose (the capital) was fairly easy. So was the bus ride. That is, until, we got off too early and walked around for about two hours, asking bus drivers and police officers for directions. For whatever reason, we believed the bus station number we were calling was giving us different directions than the people on the street. As it turned out, they weren’t. It was okay, though. We stopped at a bakery and got some breakfast. I had some simple bread. 

We did eventually find the bus that would bring us to Turrialba. If I’m not mistaken, we each paid less than 5 dollars to get there. Not bad. Not bad at all. The ride was pretty turbulent, or so I heard. I was asleep during the worst of it. 

Coffee plants

Fast forward to Turrialba. Half of us took a taxi to the hotel, and the other half, my group, just walked. It was a pretty easy one. Once we got there, we checked in (13 dollars a person) and the lady who owned and lived at the hotel gave us ideas on what to do. She said the volcano might not be a possibility because of smoke or noise or some possible danger. Another idea she gave us was to hike up to a waterfall. Ummm…yes! That sounds good. 

So we did. We took a bus to the small town next to Turrialba and then hiked the rest of the way. It was raining on the way there, but we didn't care.

walking through the coffee plantation

 It was beautiful. The hike and the waterfall both. 

My shoes got soaked, but it was well worth it.