Montezuma

Montezuma, Costa Rica lies near the southern tip of the Nicoya Peninsula and used to exist as a small fishing village until it began gaining popularity with backpackers on a budget and eco-tourists who came for the beautiful scenery sometime in the 80's. As a backpacker in this day and age, I can't say it can be considered cheap anymore, nor can any place in Costa Rica that we visited. Although affordable by U.S. standards, Costa Rica made a real dent in our wallets! When you're in a surrounding like this, however, it's no use in worrying about anything, it's much more enjoyable to sit back and take it all in. One thing I haven't been able to get over on our entire trip is how beautiful and insanely blue & turquoise the waters have been! 

Our hostel located a bit outside of town, about a 10 minute walk into the main part of Montezuma. 

Montezuma is very small, with only two main streets, more or less. 

Located right outside of town are some small waterfalls and rivers. It was only about a 20 minute hike up this river to arrive at Montezuma Falls. 

Although the water doesn't look so inviting, we hopped right in, eager to cool off. The heat and humidity were relentless all over Central America and the slightest movement was sure to cause you to sweat. A lot. 

The rainy season had began, but only very recently and the falls were pretty weak in comparison to other times of the year. 

We only spent a couple days in Montezuma, one of which we spend on an excursion to Tortuga Island. We took a speed boat along the coast until reaching a beautiful inlet. 

This was the beach we'd have lunch on after snorkeling around different parts off shore. 

A delicious fish, rice, and potato concoction served for lunch. 

This guy came around lookin' for scraps 

Lookin' real good in our snorkel gear 

Enjoying some cheladas - a blend of fresh citrus juice, be it lime or mandarine, some salt & pepper, and hot sauce. Complete with a salt rim.  

After a few nights and days we were ready to head on to Panama. We boarded the ferry (we had to take one to arrive as well) and were off bright and early at 5:30 am.