Christmas Eve in Monteverde

What a wonderful way to spend Christmas Eve! Hannah and Francisco had been telling us about this hike for a while and it was decided to go even though weather had been on a light drizzle the past couple days.

The Catarata (waterfall) is within walking distance of our house. We'd driven by the green sign on every trip we took to Santa Elena.

The trail is a little rugged and was made even more so by being muddy and slippery. Glad they had knotted ropes and some railings along the path to help us out. They even had some signage. Took a picture of one yellow arrow pointing the way.

Hannah took the camera away from me. I think I was slowing down progress. So you are going to see a lot more pictures of me than you usually do. I'm the one in red.

Learned on the way back that it's not a good idea to put all your weight on the rope that you are using for balance as you cross the river rocks. Especially when the rope has about 6 feet of play in it. BigJohn was using the same rope ahead of me and was also carrying Hector across. Almost knocked both of them into the river. Lucky  Francisco was there to push them back upright. I'm not saying that Francisco "saved" them or anything like that. Because BigJohn is totally capable of taking care of himself on river crossings. Just wanted to make a clarification there. Also remember that it is a good idea to wait for the person in front of you to cross before you grab the rope yourself. So now you know. Hope this little bit of advice helps you out on your next river crossing.