CATARATA AQUIARES - TURRIALBA
Last weekend we discovered an awesome waterfall hidden among the coffee plantations of the Aquiares village in Turrialba ... beautiful, cozy, good pool and we spent the night in the company of Naftalí, the Viking creator of Costa Rica Elevated!
How to get there? You put the address in Waze, and when you are almost arriving you have to look for care for a Ceiba tree on the left ... in the entrance before the tree turn to the left, and more left, and then the one that follows the Right, another right and follow your waterfalling chasing instinct until the road becomes small ... that's where they should park the car. Waze
What to bring? Swimsuit, sunscreen, insect repellent, towel, dry change of clothes, picnic lunch, and an excellent attitude.
Distance: 200m
Difficulty: Very easy
Vehicle: High carriage, even if you walk the car you can leave it near the main street or on the edge of the coffee plantation and walk about 500 meters more.
Parking: on the street
Pets: Yes
Camping: No
Cost: FREE!
We left from Tavo’s place on Saturday around 8 o'clock, Nefta was there already waiting super punctual ... we put packed our stuff and the dogs in the cargo bed to take off. The ride seems short while we were chatting silliness with our guest, we exchanged adventure experiences and we were left inspired. This dude is very talented making videos and Tavo is a fan, so I was like a teenager in a Justin Bieber's concert. We only had a dirt road when we realized that Nefta did not feel his legs because he was back and Trejos' car is not for people taller than 1.90 in height. So we gave him a shotgun and sent Tavo back with Gloria.
The day impressed with clear skies, blue blue sky. In fact, we had never seen the Turrialba volcano so clear, on the way we saw waterfalls that are on the slopes of it, very wild. We made about 3 stops on the way to take photos and videos of the tremendous landscape.
When we were arriving at Aquiares, we began to appreciate some very savory yellow savanna oak forests among the coffee plantations, some messages came through facebook of a follower who knew our destination, and it was thanks to him that we found the Ceiba that marks the right path to the waterfall.
Almost arriving, we stopped after a stream and we got off to see a cute mini waterfall, it was only a teaspoon of what we would see a few meters ahead. Then we ran out of time so everyone got off and I went back to find the wallet that I lost at the stop before arriving ... (I did find it)
When I returned they were on the other side of the river having a blast, I spent 5 minutes plotting whether to wet my shoes or not ... and then I decided to go through the water, I would get into the water sooner or later, we also had to help the dogs cross the river. The waterfall is surrounded by coffee, mud, and forest, It has a drop of 30 meters, It has a pool to swim at and large rocks to do a picnic. Also, the river has good pools below. They told us there is a way to go to the top of the waterfall, but due to time and hunger, we could not go.
** You must be careful when you approach the waterfall because the stones become a little too slippery.
After enjoying, eating, bathing and taking thousands of shots with the cameras we stayed a good while ... until it made us a bit hungry. So we went for a walk around the town.
*** BONUS: Go visit the town!
The town is amazing, nice park for cuddling, supermarket to buy at and a beautiful church, super cozy, it’s yellow and close to turning its 100 years old... and all this surrounded by coffee plantations.
This place basically teleports us to another time, where coffee was really the source of life, so if you want to explore and vegetate after the waterfall, this place is ideal. In the end we ended up having lunch at Torre Alba.
**** Follow the Lost N Free Facebook page, it has incredible videos.