The Amazing Race to Montezuma

Montezuma is a town.. no let me rephrase that.. more like a village. It is this cute/eclectic/bohemian/bizarre/tranquil community that takes forever and a day get there, but when you do it is quite apparent why no one wants to leave. The village is the size of a small square consisting of 8 restaurants, a food store, 4 hostels, and a bar. They even have a phone book that is literally 1 page! One side of the town is the Rain Forest and the other is the Pacific Ocean. I guess that is why it took 4 buses and a ferry ride across the Gulf of Nicoya to get there. After about a days worth of transportation all 11 of us (10 ladies and a gent to be exact) managed to make it. We stayed at the beautiful Luna Llena hostel perfectly situated in the middle of the Rain Forest overlooking the ocean. I don't know exactly how I did it, but I managed to book us an entire part of the hostel for only $10 bucks a piece a night. The hostel even came with monkeys who thought it was funny to throw mangoes at us in the morning and iguanas that resembled dinosaurs. Absolutely breathtaking place! The waterfalls of Montezuma were equally as stunning, but the hike to them was another adventure. We were warned by the manager of the hostel that if it starts to rain to immediately get out of the waterfalls because landslides are quite common and happen rapidly. We smiled and said we understood as we continued on our way- me looking like a gypsy pirate, Kaitlin in the yellow sundress, and Jerry the only Gent. After an hour of slipping on river rocks, hanging on to whatever vegetation we could find on 90 degree angles, and trying to get rid of barefooted mountain man who came out of nowhere we made it to the roaring waterfall! We jumped off the cliff just when the sky decided that it was a good time to rain. We all looked at each other wondering what to do next. Should we take our chances and stay in the waterfall? Should we curse the sky? Should we hike back? I decided to take control of the situation by suggesting we climb to the top of this canopy we passed and wait for the rain to stop. It never crossed my mind that it could rain harder and we would get stuck in the worst place possible...on top of the trees... over the waterfall. We stayed stranded for about an hour in a colossal downpour until we all thought the best thing to do was to take our chances and hike back down all of the 90 degree angles we had to walk up. Luckily, we came across a short cut that led us to another trail that wasn't as near as dangerous as the one we found on our own. When we got back to the hostel, though, Debra was sitting there with a cup of coffee smiling and eager to show us what she saw. We all huddle around her video camera and see the replay of the tornado that just finished dancing over the Pacific Ocean. Hmmmm, I think, now that is a story. The time I went hiking and got stuck in a Rain Forest canopy with a boy and a girl in a yellow sundress during a tornado over the ocean.

Later that night we all decided to go to the food store and get the supplies to make a cheap and delicious dinner. 15 avocados, 3 packs of tortillas, frozen shrimp, and a bottle of rum later we have one enormous bowl of guacamole, scrumptious fish tacos, and thirst quenching mango mojitos. After we were all fed and happy the only thing left to do was go to Chico's, the only bar in town. I left my shoes at the hostel and danced like the floor was on fire and met my favorite dancing partner of all time. His name was Nikita. He was quite possibly the cutest boy I have ever seen wearing his tight black pants, shirtless, barefoot, and totting a white purse. He was dancing like a madman all alone and I just couldn't help myself so I decided to join him on the dancefloor. Next thing I know everyone in the bar clears out the middle and it is just me and Nikita dancing as if we are dodging stars with no care in the world at how out of rhythm we probably were. While dancing for 4 hours with Nikita I discover that he is a Russian immigrant turned impressive New York artist who decided to escape the city and come to Costa Rica for a few weeks with his buddy Dan. He and Dan hitchiked from San Jose to Montezuma and somehow got to stay in this unfinished mansion. I wanted to talk to Nikita more on the dance floor but when 4:00AM came I had to tell him farewell.

Everyone else decided to get back at 6:00AM and wake up the rest of us to go hiking to the beach. With only 2 hours of sleep I managed to wake back up and fumble my way downstairs to the free coffee. For some reason I decided that it would be wise not to bring shoes since we were going to the beach, but little did I know that the beach we were going to was about 2 miles away. We walked across everything from sharp rocks, seashells, hot black sand, and driftwood. By the end of the day my feet felt like limp bags of pudding, but the beach was gorgeous. Jerry and I decided to run as fast as we could and tackle the waves, but instead they ended up knocking us face first into the sand and gave us both whiplash. I wouldn't exchange my ocean bruises for nothing, though:)

Montezuma has been my favorite place so far. It has definitely been the most adventurous, scenic, and eclectic. It is it's own little entity, which in that aspect, reminds me of Austin. A town that confuses the hell out of some and comforts others. A place where people just are and enjoy being..

My top 10 of Montezuma:

10. Meeting the town drunk named Table (he is the equivalent to Leslie "the queen
of Austin" minus the bad drag
9. Making enough guacamole to feed the city
8. Attempting to bitch-slap the ocean early in the morning with Jerry
7. Seeing the tornado over the ocean
6. Dancing the night away at Chico's with Nikita
5. The ferry ride at sunset
4. Me loosing my voice while attempting to light a Cuban cigar @ 8:00AM with a
citronella candle. (bad idea)
3. Staying in the beautiful Luna Llena
2. Getting stuck in a Rain Forest Canopy and jumping off waterfalls
1. The new stories I have and the inspiration I got by going there