The owner of the Dragonfly Inn, a German expat named Ingo, also owns the Beehive Cafe across the street as well as a bagel shop elsewhere in town. Our breakfast included in our room price of $59 per night is served at the Beehive, an open-air cafe with a cosy feel. Breakfast was an omelet , good bread, excellent coffee or hot chocolate, some kind of juice (often we don't know what it is) and jams. Very substantial.
Next door to the Beehive is a little community tourist information service. The rep there speaks very good English and is easy to deal with. We arranged tickets to the Tarabitha cable car with him as well as a cab to get us there. The Tarabitha cable car is a sort of wire cage for 4 people that runs about 150 m above a river valley across to where there are a series of trails through the jungle to different small waterfalls.
Our ticket to Tarabitha was $5 each and our taxi cost $6 for the 4km one way trip. That seemed like a high price until we went. Our taxi turned out to be a very high 4 wheel drive crew cab truck that could only move at about 2 or 3 times walking speed because the dirt road was an endless series of potholes. Plus we drove through a river on the way. When we arrived, we arranged, through sign language and times written on a scrap of paper, that our driver would return to pick us up in 3 hours. Although our Spanish is pitiful, we always muddle through somehow.
It was a wet morning but we were prepared with rain jackets and rain pants. From the cable car we could look way down to the top of the forest canopy. The ride across the valley was fun and we set off for the largest waterfall. The cable car operator's dog had come with us and joined us for part of the hike. We walked on a narrow trail through the jungle along the river valley and up into a side ravine. It took us a little over an hour to get there and we passed a few little waterfalls on the way. At the final 50 foot waterfall, we took off our shoes and socks and rolled up our pants to cross the creek. Then we climbed up a primitive stair set on a big log which took us to the foot of the cascade. Very pretty. We stayed about 15 minutes and then started back.
We hadn't seen anyone else yet but on the way back we met 2 solo hikers. We rode the cable car back across the valley and waited only about 20 minutes for our taxi.
Back in town, we hung up our wet gear and went across the street to El Chef for the soup of the day ($2 each) for a late lunch. We grabbed a couple of large beers at the little bodega up the street and relaxed after our long walk. For dinner, we couldn't resist El Chef again. It's simple but good and priced right. Another successful day.
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