Costa Rica: Day 7 {Part II: La Paz Waterfall}

So I'm currently in the comfort of my home, obviously not in Costa Rica any longer.  I wasn't able to finish day 6 since I had a bad WiFi connection and well was exhausted.  I am still tired, but before I forget I want to finish up blogging about our last full day in amazing CR!

I left off on the previous post with us heading up to mountain to the waterfalls...

There were lots of dairy cows or farms on the way up.

As we got closer to the falls, we started seeing natural springs just coming out.

The way up to waterfalls was a lot of curves and bumps.  The temperature started to drop and the views overlooking the cities down below were just breath-taking.  It took probably an hour & half to get to La Paz Waterfall gardens.

As soon as we got there, we headed to a lunch buffet.  The food once again was really good.  There was bbq short ribs, roasted chicken, fresh salad & pasta, rice & beans of course, chips & dips, pizza, fruit, and fresh fruit juices.  

We ended our meal with delicious Cafe Britt coffee with warm rice pudding!!  Soo good!!  I could have just stayed here for the rest of the afternoon ;)  I think I have a slight addiction to the Costa Rican coffee, haha!

We had about 2 and half hours left to explore the gardens and waterfalls.  There are trails and you go at your own pace.  There were also lots of other areas to see other than the waterfalls.

There was a jungle cat exhibit, butterfly garden (that was amazing!), monkeys, frog area, snakes, walk-through bird exhibit, and trout pond.  Plus a ton of beautiful flowers to take in.  The monkeys really liked Elias or really he liked them.  It was so funny!!

We all kind of did our own thing based on what each of us wanted to do.  All of us, except Becky did the walk down through the waterfalls.  We took a selfie on the way down...trying to capture our "we are really in the rain forest" moment.
  

It was incredible!

The pictures just don't do this place justice!  There are a total of 4 waterfalls, and the biggest one starts up at the top.

The water was so cold and felt soooo clean!

There were ferns that were HUGE!  And these other plant that had the biggest leaves I had ever seen.  They called it "poor man's umbrella" but I'm not sure of the real name.  These were growing up above the walkway through the waterfalls.  I mean such beauty!!!

The flowers were so colorful and vibrant!  Sadly, I only had my camera phone with me so my pictures don't do a great job of showing their beauty.  Even the "small" leaves were huge.  They had these trees that looked like something out of a Dr. Seuss book or movie.

This one was called "White Magic" because when you stared at the middle of the fall, the cliff looked like it was moving back and forth with the water.  Was freaky!!  The picture below is looking down over the top of the waterfall.

The jungle cat exhibit...Daddy jaguar and mommy.  She had the first cubs ever born in captivity in CR.  Three little cubs that were so dang cute, only 49 days old.

Baby cub climbing and biting a tree.

Michele and I as we were walking through just kept saying, "wow we are really here!  In the rain forest!!"  It was surreal.  We really enjoyed seeing the falls but the walk back up was no joke!  I thought we might not make it...I blame the altitude, and not the fact that we are totally in shape for such hiking.  This was our we might not make it moment...haha!  

Towards the end of our hike, this little guy just popped out of no where.  Beverly, Melissa, Michele, and myself were so excited to see him!  He was not bothered by us at all.  I'm sure he saw us barely able to make it up that he knew we were harmless ;) we took a short bus ride back up the top and then we watched them feed the jungle cats before heading home.  My phone died right before we went into the butterfly house so sadly I didn't get any pictures of them.  But it was amazing!  We all had a great day & it was a good way to end our amazing trip!  We had a long trip home since it was "rush hour" once we made it back down the mountain.  We ate dinner and then packed our bags for the trip home.  Day 7 and our trip home...I'll post tomorrow!