planetrumsey: Costa Rica Adventure: Day 10

It has been a while since we went waterfall chasing so this morning we packed ourselves up and headed out in search of two waterfalls about thirty minutes outside of Samara. One waterfall is called Belen and the other is La Roca. Both are only about five minutes from each other so it made sense to do both at the same time. We head off in search of the Belen waterfall first as it is the better known of the two. From the main road we travelled about 2km down a dirt road passing many local homes. We eventually found a hand painted sign and drove further down the hill to find a muddy parking lot. Supposedly locals take money in the high season to park and access the falls but since we were in the low season there was nobody around. From the makeshift parking area we followed the muddy hill down to the waterfall. Since it had been raining quite a bit recently the water was completely brown and pretty rough. In the dry season the water is much clearer and calmer allowing for swimming. For us we just looked around, climbed the rocks and took the drone out for a flight. We then piled back in the car, returned to the main road and retraced our route in order to find La Roca restaurant Like most Costa Rica restaurants this place is very basic and open air but offers great food and drinks at a reasonable price. Finding these places provides a much more authentic experience than sticking to tourist restaurants only. The other bonus La Roca provides is the view. This restaurant is perched on the side of a hill overlooking the valley. It was a cloudy day and we could still see for miles across the rolling hills. After having a few drinks La Roca restaurant iwas also the starting point for the next waterfall that the locals also call “La Roca” waterfall. This is yet another location you won’t find on Google maps. Actually, that isn’t true anymore as Anthony added an entry for it to help future travelers. There is a path next to La Roca restaurant that leads down the hill into the jungle. After a good 15 minutes of walking down you are greeted with the first waterfall. There are actually three waterfalls that you can continue climbing to. We climbed to the top of the first waterfall but couldn’t figure out where the next waterfall was or how to even get to it. By this point we were all getting hot and tired anyway so decided to retreat back to the car for the return journey to Samara.

Once back in Samara we headed back to the house to cook up some lunch (pasta again!). While lunch was being prepared by Shannon the kids took advantage of the pool as the always do when given the chance. Anthony was also more than happy to join in after lunch as well in order to cool off.

Since we were in our last full day in Samara there was still one more beach on the list we wanted to explore. This final beach is about 10 minutes away by car and involves no hiking! You can just park on the side of the road and the beach is right there. The beach is called Playa Carrillo and is lined with palm trees. Much like Samara the water is calmer than other beaches making it safe for swimming and playing in the waves. This is exactly what we did until we all got tired. At that point we headed back to the house once again knowing that was our last beach experience while in Costa Rica.

One final activity of the day was to head out to a typical Costa Rica soda for dinner. We hadn’t yet done this so we’re excited to try it out. Sodas are basic restaurants that are generally family run and serve typical Costa Rican dishes like Casados. We attended Soda La Perla hich was open air, the dishes were done outside right next to us, the kitchen was just a stovetop in the corner and we could see their living room from where we were seated. The great thing is that the food was pretty good. It goes to show that you don’t need fancy decor and high priced entrees in order to experience good food. Oh, and also Anthony wanted a beer so had to go next door to the “super” and buy his own to bring back to the Soda. Overall it was a fun evening and a wonderful experience.

To finish off our last night in Samara we hung out in our outdoor living space at our house, played some cards and finished off the tub of ice cream we had picked up a couple of days before.

Yes, you heard right, it is our final day in Samara. Tomorrow we are off to our final destination in Costa Rica. Good bye laid back beach town and hello cloud forest of Monteverde. This means we’ve got another travel day ahead of us tomorrow. We’re probably looking at a three hour drive give or take but it is back into the mountains on questionable roads so it should be an interesting day.

That’s all for now. Adios!