The day started with a picturesque drive down to Dominical. Our destination was the Nauyaca Waterfall. Instead of hiking 5 miles in the blazing hot sun, Halle and Blake opted to ride horses to the falls. So fun. Josh did his best to avoid any and all contact with the caballos. 

The hike was hot and not as pretty as I was expecting. But now, looking at the pics, it is quite pretty. Guess I was rainforest spoiled at this point. Sweat was pouring down my face the whole time and wiping it with my shirt did nothing as it was also soaked through.

But the falls more than made up for it. They were incredible. Standing beneath them made me feel like a tiny ant. Rusty, Josh and I got there a bit before the horses so we went to explore the upper falls a bit.

After Halle and Blake arrived we all headed down to the lower falls where we could swim. The water was wonderfully cold. It took Blake and Josh a few minutes to decide to join us, but we convinced them. We swam over to the rocks under the falls and let the mist come down over is. As we were sitting there, one of the horse guides loops a big rope around his neck and starts scaling up the waterfall. How could anyone do that? The water was just pelting him the whole time. But he made it up in about 20 seconds flat. He then started tying off his rope. He had a knife with him as well and he started scraping all the moss off the rocks at the top of the falls. Everyone was curiously watching what he was doing. We assumed he was going to jump or repel down the falls. We were almost right. He was setting up so WE could climb the falls and jump off the top. Insane. Rusty was the bravest and went first. Since his nose was still pretty tender from the surf accident, he stayed on the lower jump. As soon as Josh saw Rusty, he was on his way over. He scrambled up like a monkey and went all the way to the top. Rusty is having a little bit of a hard time realizing Josh is getting to the age where he might be able to out perform his old man. I think if his nose hadn’t started bleeding again after the first jump, Rusty would have tried again and gone to the top. Pics and videos aren’t my best work, as they were taken from inside a waterproof bag, while I was tread water out under the falls.

I wasn’t sure if I would go, but I wanted to be adventurous and give it a try. I started to climb with the help of the guide and my foot slipped. He grabbed my arm and seriously lifted me at least 3 feet up. With just his one arm. Dragging my whole self up the side of the waterfall. Superhuman upper body strength. I decided I would go to the top as well. As long as I didn’t think too much about it I knew I’d be ok. So, I got to the top, got in position and just jumped before I could talk myself out of it. I’m so glad I did. It was awesome. So much fun. 

We had no idea scaling and jumping off waterfalls was going to be part of our day. 

We took a bunch of pictures and then it was time to head to lunch. 

Another delicious traditional meal. We love how they always feed you lunch as part of the activities. It makes it so easy and so nice not to try and figure out how in the world to keep a picnic lunch cool. 

Josh, Rusty and I sweated our brains out on the way down while Halle and Blake has a beautiful ride through the shady forest complete with two river crossings. 

Can we talk about these cows? They are so strange. Big, floppy ears, horns and a copious amount of extra skin on their neck.

We decided to hit the beach one last time. We rented a few boogie boards and off we went. The waves were awesome and the kids were having so much fun. All of the sudden a life guard comes zooming up on his 4-wheeler whistling for them to get out of the water. We went over to talk to him and he said there were several rip currents in the area and it wasn’t very safe. He recommended we go to Dominalicto beach instead. So, that’s what we did. But it wasn’t nearly as fun. The bottom was super rocky and the waves weren’t as big. Josh gashed his toe open and got several other scrapes and bumps. He declared the beach a 3/10 and we called it a day. 

Leaving a bit earlier than planned made it so we could FINALLY visit the long awaited Gummy Candy Store. We’d driven past on our first day there, but then couldn’t find it again for several days. And when we did, it was closed. Blake had been doing challenges to earn colones with the express purpose of spending them here. He was so happy! We tried a little bit of everything. 

We debated going home to shower, or one more dinner with a view. We picked dinner with a view at Emilio’s Cafe. This was my favorite dinner of the trip. We got calamari and potato wedges for an appetizer and Blake ordered a Shirley Temple. Halle and I shared fish with a spicy coconut sauce and Josh got adventurous and tried Tuna. He really liked it! But desserts were the best part. Oreo cheesecake, peanut butter chocolate mousse pie, passion fruit pie and key lime pie. Each was delicious. Regardless of what Blake says about the Nutella pizza, we hadn’t really had any delicious desserts on the trip. I think the favorites were the Oreo cheesecake and the passion pie. It was a perfect way to end our beautiful vacation. 

After we got home we all had to take our Covid tests. We brought our Cue device and payed to have it proctored over the internet. A health care professional walked us through all the steps and watched to make sure we did everything correctly. Thank heaven we were all negative. 

Halle and I watched another episode of Downton Abbey and then we all hit the hay, anticipating a looong day of travel tomorrow.