We went to Zapatón of Puriscal to meet a community with beautiful people and one of the longest and widest waterfalls we have seen in Costa Rica.
How to get there?
You have to get to Puriscal and from there you have to continue up in the direction of La Cangreja National Park, then turn towards Mastatal and then you reach the town of Zapatón de Puris.
Waze: https://waze.com/ul/hd1sp0gqtw
Distance:8km total
Difficulty:High
Accessibility:Not accessible
What to bring?
Light clothes, swimsuit, repellent, trail tennis, towel, snacks, beverages and an excellent attitude.
Vehicle:High
Parking:No
Pets:No
Camping:No
Contact:
Yabet 84528536
Adriana 84802963
Maria 86676316
Cost:
Guided tour 5,000
Breakfast 2,000
Lunch 3,000
2,000 coffee
We arrived at the small town of Zapatón around 9 am to meet in the communal hall with a group of organized women from the community who decided to make efforts to exploit rural tourism, once here they served us delicious breakfast, two burritos with beans and eggs wrapped in a banana leaf .. after that we were good to go.
The trip by car to this community Huetar in Puriscal is awesome, you pass through spots with amazing views and always in the shade of the eternally green mountain.
To get to the waterfall we rode with Mr. Henry and his daughter while we followed Yabet and Maria who left on a motorcycle. We drove for about 10 minutes to get to the place where we parked the car on the curb.
After getting our stuff ready we walked to the bridge and went down a path that reached the river. Then we walked downstream for about 200 m until we reached the first waterfall. To get there, Henry took us on a steep path from which we had to grab on to trees to avoid falling on our behinds.
When we arrived at this first waterfall we were very surprised by the size, of course, it was a rainy season so there was plenty of water to cover the entire width of the stones and even to make a pool below. We obviously got in the water and it was delicious, a natural massage is priceless.
While we enjoyed this spot, Henry told us about another giant waterfall (he said 500m of fall, it was probably less), but we went with the flow … we walked down the river, pastures, and between cows crossing grasslands until we reached one of the highest, widest and most epic waterfalls we’ve seen in these 4 years, El Rey Waterfall. It was very strange because it is a waterfall and in the end, there is a cut of stones that makes an incredible waterfall that mixes with nature. It is really amazing how this little country continues to surprise us with places this amazing.
Down here we had a blast and ate something at the foot of this giant. Then the weather began to change so we got ready to return to the car.
After walking to the village again we went to Yabet’s house where we ate a typical meal with rice, beans, chicken and bantam.
This is a town that wants to get ahead and full of waterfalls that you can visit, and we always support a group of people who want to get ahead.
* NOTE: NOW IN ORDER TO REACH THE WATERFALL THERE IS A NEW DIFFERENT ROUTE WHICH IS MORE ACCESSIBLE.
