Honeymoon - Climbing Down Waterfalls

I promise that this will be my last post before the actual wedding recaps start...  Photo CD's arrived about a week and a half ago and I'm ready to get that party started.

But, for now, I'll share a bit about my favorite day in Costa Rica and sum up my feelings about 1. taking a more adventurous honeymoon and 2. travelling to Costa Rica in rainy/green season.

Before any vacation, I spend a lot (A LOT!) of time on TripAdvisor.  Restaurants, activities, hotels...  I want to know what to expect and make my plans well before I arrive somewhere.  Spontaneity be damned!

So, when people asked where we were going for our honeymoon, I told them where and immediately followed up with the activity that topped my "must do while in Costa Rica" list: Canyoning.  Costa Canyoning to be more specific.

Our last full day in Uvita, we headed down the road a bit and met the guys from Costa Canyoning, Scotty and Bob.  Then, the fun began.

We jumped into the back of the truck and headed towards the waterfalls...  We stopped for a little bit in a bamboo forest because the waterproof adventure camera had accidentally been left back at the office:
(all pics from the CD that Costa Canyoning gave us at the end of our day)

Bamboo Forest

Soon after that, we were doing this:

We have pictures from all of the waterfalls...  but, I won't bore with you too many.  Even though the climbs got tougher, they all look kind of similar looking back.  I'll jump to the last waterfall, which was the highest.

So cool!  I will admit that we were both in a lot of pain the next day...  It's a good thing we waited till the end of our trip for this activity.  Our hands were covered with rope burns, our leg muscles ached and we both had huge bruises (one of us from falling onto a ledge on the last waterfall and scaring the heck out of their spouse...  it wasn't me).

Anyway, it was amazing and I can't imagine a better end to our honeymoon.

So, what was it like taking a non-all-inclusive, non-beach centric, non-nap filled (ok, there were totally naps) kind of honeymoon?  It was great.  Sure, I love all-inclusives with the fruity frozen drinks and amazing food, but I'm so glad we chose a different kind of honeymoon.  It was full of things that we will never forget.  It wasn't the typical romantic picture I have always imagined for a honeymoon, but it was fun and exciting and allowed us to spend a ton of memorable time together.  Plus, we have plans for a lot of future Sandals-esque with our friends.  Overall, I haven't regretted it for a second.

So, what about travelling to Costa Rica during rainy season?  Well, maybe we were lucky...  Or, maybe we're just used to a lot of rain because we live in Pittsburgh.  It was beautiful and sunny every morning and through most of the early afternoons.  Around four or five each day, it would start to rain.  And, usually, it would keep raining for most of the night.  It would go from pouring to sprinkles to sometimes no rain at all.  Our evenings were full of rain sounds mixing in with the rain forest sounds and I really enjoyed it.  

I don't feel like we missed out on anything because of the rain.  We got all our trips in during the sunny mornings and took it easy at night.  And, on every single tour we took, we were the only two people there.  On almost every beach, we were either the only people there or very close to it.  The parks were easy to navigate and there were few people around to frighten away the animals.  So, while I know we might have gotten luckier with the weather than is typical, I'm glad we went when we did.  I would definitely visit during rainy season again.