Montezuma Revisited

There are a few waterfalls near Montezuma we wanted to hike up to on our first visit, but didn’t. When the weather forecast showed a day that didn’t have any rain predicted and that day was a Friday the majority rose up and demanded a day off. I think that the kids would probably vote to skip school work any time they were given the chance. They are kids after all. Karen’s been putting in a long days and needed to get out of the house. I’ve been getting some exercise walking to Cobano every few days for groceries.

The first time we went to Montezuma we got a ride to Cobano from a friend taxi driver named Max. His jovial personality and air-conditioned vehicle earned him the top spot on the list of taxistas to call for a ride. Karen did a little prep work and then put her Spanish skills to the test, calling Max and arranging for us to be picked up Friday morning at 8:00 AM.

At quarter to 8:00 a vehicle arrived and we weren’t quite ready yet. Fortunately, it was just the repairmen the owner had asked to come fix the washing machine. Have I talked about the washer? It is shared by the four units here and is placed outside, sheltered by the carport. The first time I went to use it there was a car cover in it, water that had not drained, and a brown thing was on the top of the car cover. The brown thing looked organic but I couldn’t tell what it was. I picked up a small twig and was going to poke it. I decided an eight centimeter twig wasn’t long enough and found a two-foot piece of 2×4. I gently prodded the brown thing and it opened up into an identifiable object, a scorpion! I mentioned this to the owner in a text message and he replied with a picture of a coral snake that was taken here the week before we arrived. We are not in Calgary any more, that’s for sure.

Anyway, back to our day trip. Max arrived promptly at 8:00 and we were soon on our way, but with a lot of slowing down for and bouncing through potholes and ruts. I got to ride up front and I took the opportunity to practice using my Spanish. Max dropped us off at the tail head and we were soon under a lush canopy of green, working our way up the river towards the falls. As I mentioned in my previous post, Sydney’s knee has been bugging her, but with my Eagle Scout training, YouTube, and a trip to the pharmacy I was able to tape her knee so the patella would track normally. She still needs some time for stretched ligaments to feel better, but at least it won’t get any worse. Now if you’ve never been in a tropical jungle, hiking by a river, let me tell you, there is a lot of moisture. The trail is not something crews of devoted people created and maintain. It has come into existence thanks to the hundreds, probably thousands of tourists that have found their way up to the falls.

As it turned out, Sydney was not up for the adventure. Even walking carefully, it was easy to slip a few centimeters at times. I know from when I sprained my knee playing hockey a couple of years ago that stretched ligaments are very unhappy when they get tugged on. We all made it up to a nice cascade over the rocks, but not the main waterfall. Sydney didn’t think she could make it any further without hurting herself and I didn’t want to have to drag, I mean carry her out of there if she did. She and I hung out and waited while Karen and Lucas continued on to the falls.

I feel I should point out that I started this blog post over a week ago, but there was so much I wanted to say that I never finished. Lucas has been using my laptop a lot for various things and I’ve been busy doing everything to keep everyone productive, fed, and in clean clothes. We are actually in San Jose now, having left the Cobano apartment this morning. I am going to get this post up now and try to keep them short and sweet in the future so that I actually get them up on the blog in a timely manner!