After breakfast at Carolina's we drove to Carate. After Matapalo the road became worse involving crossing over a dozen streams and rivers.
When we finally got to the end of the road at Carate we were a bit disappointed. The access to the beach was flooded and there wasn't a whole lot else there. We backtracked a bit to a place where we could access the beach but it was too windy to really enjoy ourselves.
We drove back and stopped at Martina's in Matapalo for some beers and delicious quesadillas.
After driving back to Puerto Jimenez we checked email at the Internet cafe and decided that we would spend the next two night in Manuel Antonio and then our last two nights in San Jose.
After getting back to the hotel we had a great tuna steak dinner. Kat went to bed but I stayed up with Pablo, and Debbie for a few more beers before going to bed.
After waking up I took a walk to the bank to get some more cash from the ATM. The machine wouldn't accept my card on the PLUS system even though the sign said it would. This made me a bit nervous as we were low on cash. I went back to the hotel and got my only other credit card on the Cirrus network which worked and withdrew about $400 in colones.
We met Pablo at about 9am and headed to Matapalo stopping at the store on the way to get some water. The road was pretty bad and required crossing about 6 streams/small rivers. Once in Matapalo we stopped at some beaches and Pablo seemed to know everybody we saw walking around. We stopped to visit some people, one of whom was a caretaker for an incredible house owner by a very wealthy family form Santa Barbara who only comes to visit once/year. We were able to walk around the grounds and took some pictures.
Pablo and I at the mansion
We then drove a bit further to the end of the road and started our hike up the river to the waterfall. It was an easier hike than getting to the waterfall in Montezuma but it required wearing shoes to get wet as you need to walk in the river in some places. About 20 minutes later we reached the falls - about 30 meters high and spectacular. Underneath the falls was very rocky and not very deep so we couldn't really swim but it was nice to sit underneath and get pounded by the water - like a massage!
The waterfall
After hanging at the waterfall for about an hour we hiked up the opposite side to the top of the falls and saw some incredible trees that looked like something out of Lord of the Rings. Pablo pointed out some trees that a crazy friend of his likes to climb. He had a hammock strung up about 200' high in a tree!
After hiking back to the road Pablo was able top score us some cold beers from some Ticos who lived nearby and then we saw someone he knew from the Encanta La Vida Hotel who invited us back here for some cold beers at the bar. We met some more of his friends including a guy, Adam, who is part of the US snowboard Olympic team. As the beers and rum flowed we played ping pong (the bartender, Bernie, was the Matapalo ping pong champion) and got a little crazy.
Bernie the Matapalo ping pong champion
Bernie and Adam paying ping pong
Adam invited us back to his house for dinner but first we had to drive back to the hotel to clean up and change. We made the drive back to Puerto Jimenez and, since we hadn't eaten any lunch, were hungry so we stopped at a local friend chicken restaurant for a few pieces of chicken to tide us over until dinner.
We got back to the hotel at 6pm and showered and changed. We met Pablo and headed north to Adam's house about a 20 minute drive from Puerto Jimenez. Once there we had some more drinks and Pablo cooked us an incredible dinner with salad, pasta, beef, and fish.
Pablo even brought his guitar and played some music after dinner. We were getting pretty burned out after all the fun we had and left at about 10:30 dropping off one person at Iguana Iguana for a poker tournament . We were back at the hotel at 11pm and immediately went to bed
We woke up at 5:30 and were on the road at 6:30 headed to Paquera to catch the 8am ferry. We arrived at 7:40 and the ferry was looking pretty full of vehicles. I ran into the office to get our tickets and was able to get on just in time as a truck and bus were behind me and took up the very last spots.
We hadn't had any breakfast but nothing looked too good from the snack bar on the ferry so we settled on a few beers to quench our thirst. Once agian the ferry ride was about an hour with beautiful scenery and weather. Once in Puntarenas we unloaded pretty quickly and were on our way through the city and on to the coastal highway. We stopped at a gas station near Jaco to use the bathrooms and get some snacks and didn't stop again until Quepos where we stopped to stretch our legs and watch an animated crowd cheer on a soccer game.
South of Quepos we drove over the bad road to Dominical but south of Dominical were some of the best roads I've driven on in all of Costa Rica. We got to Uvita at about 1pm and were making such good time we decided to press on and drive all the way to Puerto Jimenez. We got some cash from an ATM and then filled up the tank at a gas station where the attendant washed our filthy windows.
Once past Uvita it rained a bit as we passed though Palmar Norte but soon cleared up again. We took the turn off the mail highway towards the Osa and were on a twisty road with occasional stunning views of the Gulfo Dulce. Once past Rincon the road turned to gravel and was extremely dusty. We got stuck behind another vehicle and the dust was so bad we could barely see the road in places.
We arrived into Puerto Jimenez at about 4pm and found The Palms Hotel. We were greeted by Pablo who got us a good deal on our rooms for $40/night (I was quoted $65/night by the owner in a previous email). He got us some beers and helped us to our room. After unpacking, we were pretty hungry and craving some Mexican food so we walked to Juanita's but the kitchen was closed so we just had a few beers. We walked around the town a bit and then went back to The Palms to eat in their restaurant where Pablo (who was also the cook) made some incredible chicken enchiladas with mole sauce. Kat then went to bed while I stayed up drinking some beers and talking to Pablo and some other people staying at the hotel
