I'm on a mission to find a monkey. I am supposed to be able to see them from the front porch area of the hostel, but the monkeys have been hiding from me. I've heard the dominant male howl a few times, but have yet to see hide nor tail of a mono.
So today, I have every intention of going out and finding one. I have been told some of the local monkey hangouts and so plan on visiting them all.
I am in Montezuma, Costa Rica (I have been since late Tuesday and probably will stay here until Sunday).
Today my whole body is sore and it hurts to move. Yesterday, my first full day here, I fell/slid something like 10 feet down the side of a steep hill. We (myself and my San Jose-> Montezuma bus mates) were hiking to the cascades (waterfalls) just outside of town.
It had rained hard for hours and so everything was muddy and slippery. We ended up taking the harder path to the falls. This path took us up this treacherous hill. I fell coming down right before reaching the waterfall. I had been using the too sparse limbs and roots to hold onto and attempt to lower myself slowly. I was holding onto the trunk of a tree with both hands while I searched for a stable spot to place my foot. My feet slid out from under me and I was unable to hold onto the trunk. I slid until I managed to unintentionally catch a tree limb with my elbow. My very first thought was, "Have I cracked my ribs?" It felt like my side banged on a rock as I fell.
I was so shaken and scared that I couldn't move for couple of minutes. I had absolutely no strength left.
I managed to make it down the rest of the way without incident. I washed myself off in one of the pools and sat down on a rock to recover.
I was really lucky. What if I had hit my head? What if I hadn't caught that slim tree trunk? There was little strong enough to catch me.
We didn't stay at the waterfall for terribly long. I didn't even get in the water. By that point, I didn't want to. I was dirty and my clothes were muddy. I had lost a button on my khakis and had earned a number of deep scratches and bruises.
I later found out that we had only visited the first of 3 waterfalls. I was rather disappointed by this news, but I'm not about to go back and try again after what happened, especially not alone. (My bus buddies all left today).
Finding a monkey is the extent of what I can do. And now I'm off.
~~~~~
I went back and tried again, only to be disappointed for a second time. I spent 45 minutes walking uphill trying to take the road path to the waterfalls, but had absolutely no luck in finding them. I assumed all I had to do was walk along the road and there would be signs. And actually, I first started walking along that particular road because I was told that monkeys swing in the trees over your head. Not today. And once I was up the first two outstandingly, excessively steep hills, I kind of figured I may as well go ahead and go to the waterfalls. It was only 2 kilometers away after all.
I walked at least 2 kilometers and likely closer to 3 and I saw no waterfalls. I walked a few hundred meters beyond the point when I stopped hearing the rushing water and finally decided that it didn't look like the waterfalls were the way I was walking. I looked for them again on my way back down the hills, but I never did see anything that resembled a pathway to the waterfalls. But perhaps I am blind.
I did finally see my first "natural" monkey though. But the whole thing was a bit on the disappointing side. I only saw a couple of monkeys from quite some distance. I couldn't get a decent picture without using full zoom, and even then I don't think the pictures I took were particularly good. The whole experience wasn't exactly what I was expecting. And I only saw them for a few short minutes, and then I moved to see if I could get closer and never saw them again. But I can now say that I've seen a monkey "in real life," so I suppose I can't complain too much.
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