After much anticipation, we
finally made it down the dangerous cliff! Seven prepared for the journey as
Robert looped the hand-made rope ladder around the base of a large jocote tree
at the edge of his property. Emily was the first to traverse the steep hill side,
relying almost entirely on the rope with little structure to provide hand or
foot-holds. I watched as one by one my friends climbed down out of sight, and
followed last with a machete in one hand, rope ladder in the other. The end of
the rope didn’t quite reach the bottom of the cliff, explaining why on two
occasions I heard excited gasps as the girls slid on loose soil and attempted
to grab roots of the large tree.
At the base of the cliff was a narrow
trail that we followed – hoping to find the river heard from above. The
tranquility of the forest all around us, we stopped here and there to search
for precious seeds that Gwen and Anaїs
could use for their beautiful jewelry. On our path we saw a huge spider with a
golden web, a bullet ant, and a tremendous walking stick that crawled up Gwen’s
back and neck! As the path began to widen, we noticed ornamental plantings on
either side of what was now starting to look like an old driveway up the hill.
Continuing on, the smell of manure… chicken manure to be exact, became evident
and it wasn’t long before we stumbled on to a chicken farm. With the sound of
flowing water growing ever closer, the seven gringos marched through the
chicken farm and headed towards the water – each eating an orange picked from a
volunteer tree in the woods.
When we finally reached the river
I was overcome with disappointment. Not for the lack of natural beauty in the
vegetation surrounding the river, but because the river itself was completely
polluted with visible trash, and also smelled like detergent. Hundreds of
households drain dishwater into the streets each day, which quickly makes its
way into the major rivers of the area. There was no visible life, and the river
itself had a gray tint that broke my heart. Nevertheless, Mike and I did some
exploring to see if the river joined the main road by Robert’s house, while the
girls traveled back the way we had arrived. Being that Mike is the only other
Y-chromosome at “Finca la Femme”, it was good times hopping from rock to rock as
explorers. Having grown up near a river, Mike is quite skilled at hopping like
my Tico friends at Finca Quijote.
Despite the polluted water,
natural beauty could not escape us. Clay formations with incredible color
patterns and lizards running across the surface of the water were contained
within the stream bed surrounded by large trees. We followed the river and
noticed the bank growing taller and taller around us. We found what appeared to
be a natural spring from deep within a rock wall - a cavernous opening stretching
deep into the thick rock. Likely more potable, we still did not risk
contamination by drinking and moved forward. With sunset around 5 pm and pure
darkness un-navigable and dangerous in unfamiliar territory, I grew slightly
nervous that this river was not going to meet up with the main road. Panic was
replaced by pure excitement and awe as we rounded a corner to see huge, perhaps
150 foot tall sheer rock cliffs adjacent to our river. At the same time, an
ever-increasing noise alerted us to something we were not expecting to find on
this simple journey – a huge waterfall cut into the side of the cliffs. Still
polluted yet incredibly majestic, hundreds of gallons water fell into a large
pool at the base. Wow!
But
how to get back from this site was a new dilemma. Take the high road through
dense vegetation on one side of the falls, or head down river to where we
started? With gray skies above and darkness two hours away, I feared being
washed down river in a rain event or being lost in the jungle. Whatever we
planned to do, we had to do it soon, and so brave Mike suggested we head up the
side of the falls. Up a small, 10’ vertical wall we climbed over wet rocks to a
level area before choosing our path. Suddenly we heard a loud boom, and the fear
of a rain event was surely now more likely. Or was it?! Following the first
boom was an even louder crash, as the thousands of pounds of rocks that had
dislodged from the side of the cliff smashed the ground near the base of the waterfall!
Both with adrenaline pumping and me thinking about the possibility of an
earthquake dropping us hundreds of feet from the top of the waterfall to the
rocks below, I convinced Mike that perhaps today was not the best day to
explore the cliff, and we made our way back down the river and up the way we
adventurously traveled earlier in the day. Added to the collection of near
misses, had Mike still been standing down below by the waterfall in the instant
of rocks falling… Pura vida!!!
