The first thing that comes to mind when you see this place is: How has this not been chosen for National Geographic ?! ... And what you don’t know is that we had tried to get here several times, none of them were simple, each time we got closer, and like they say “third time’s a charm", but it really was worth every failed plan just to get to this amazing place.

Catarata Río Blanco - Guápiles, Limón

How to get there? Go over the bridge of the Toro Amarillo river and in the restaurant La Trocha turn right, pass the bridge goes and on turn the first entrance on the left and then on the next right and towards Hugo’s house Waze

Vehicle: Every vehicle arrives.

What to bring? Repellent, tennis shoes or fast dry trail runners (to drain the water well), 2 liters of water, snacks, a camera, a dry bag to protect the stuff from getting wet, and good vibes.

Distance: 14 km in total (7 km one way and 7 km on the way back) Difficulty: High, the trail is slippery and tricky (you have to cross rivers). Time: 5 hours approx. Parking: Yes Contact: Hugo Durán cel: 8405-9220 Cost: Don Hugo ¢ 5000 per person Camping: ¢ 2000 X person camping night. ¢ 5000 X person in the room of the house.

The first failed attempt we had was trying to reach a waterfall that we were not even close to, we ended up in a swamp where we had to do a U-turn while Tavo was devoured by killer flies.

Then came the second attempt and we already sort of knew where the walk began but without a clear path so we took several wrongs turns until we found a group of local adventurers who had already done this twice so we were determined to make it somehow ... but we had already spent hours walking around and we were not as prepared as them.

Finally comes the third attempt (we were not going to give up), this time we invited along Eka Mora (the tropical photographer) and we contacted Don Hugo, this man is a legitimate Viking and has lived for more than 30 years near the river and he guided us along with Jaime, another boy from the area, to the waterfall.

We headed to Guapiles quite early, because we had to be at Mister Hugo’s house by 9 am. When we arrived we were welcomed by him and his brother. While we gathered the things we were going to take, he offered us a coffee to wake us up and then we took off.

We started to walk between farms, and then we came across the Blanco River, we realized that we were not so off track the last time, but we were far away. Then after crossing this river, we continued a little more between farms until we started to enter the jungle. The river crosses about 3 or 4 times more along the forest. The river is refreshing and each crusade is more than dangerous than the last, it makes you want to sit and relax there.

After about 2:30 hours of walking, we managed to see the distance of the highest waterfall among the trees, although this was just a preview it was nothing compared to the emotion we felt when we got to the foot of it. Monstrous, surrounded by abundant greenery and rock, this epic waterfall opened, like the crater of a volcano of water-soaked us with dew that tempted us to get into its icy water.

It was impossible not to snap several pics, Eka Mora did her thing and got some awesome close-up pics and then Mister Hugo was waiting for us later to see if we would jump into the water. After talking for a while about the awesomeness of the place, we got into the water and swam to a small cave that was close to the waterfall. After this we went out to dry off and ate snacks, we returned to Mister Hugo's farm where we left the cars.

When we arrived Don Hugo offered us the bathroom, we showered, we put on dry clothes, had a quick snack and went to look for a place to have lunch-dinner, more than satisfied... surprised by the bundle of places that this tiny visited area of the country hides.