28.4.22 (1/2) Río Celeste

Today we're going in 2 'groups':

Claudia:

I'm taking a tour with a guide to Rio Celeste and its namesake waterfall.

Rio Celeste is located in Tenario National Park and owes its heavenly color to the combination of sulfur and calcium carbonate.

Locals, on the other hand, tell the story of a river that turned blue when God dipped his brush in its water while painting the sky.

The 6 km hike leads to hot springs, lagoons, and some viewpoints. In the end, you can actually see exactly where two rivers meet and the blue river is created.

Our guide, Kenia, picks me up at 7:45 am. We pick up two English girls, Laura and Beth, and off we go to Tenorio National Park. Three with a guide is always great, so we gladly accept some rain. We arrive at about 10 am and start the hike to the miraculously blue waterfall. Along the way, we see an anteater (our dear Kenia is very excited because she has never seen this type of anteater here ☺️), a green vine snake (non-dangerous to humans), and a venomous eyelash viper (Eyelash Viper) 🐍. It's tiny, but deadly. Particularly friendly: it doesn't warn before biting and can strike up to half its body length.

The tour with the girls is really fun, we exchange stories about countries, customs, and languages, and we bombard Kenia with questions. I hear that it's 'extraordinary' for a family to separate during a vacation, people want to do everything together. And as I slowly make my way back up the x-hundred steps on muddy ground from the waterfall, sweating in the gradually increasing tropical rain, and I pass parents with grumpy toddlers and drenched babies, I not only find myself 'extraordinary' but also very smart 😂. I'm enjoying my me-day to the fullest.

After the lovely trek, we make a stop at an ancient tree and then eat a Casado (the daily typical food here with rice, beans, egg...) in a nice soda by the roadside.

I return home at 4 pm. It was a really beautiful tour today ☺️.