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I got up this morning feeling like hell.

My hangover was most definitely not from alcohol – but from the pounds of OFF Bug Repellant and Anti-Itch Medicinal cream I`d been forced to smear over every last inch of my body to retain within myself a meer hint of sanity.  Pinche Jenenes…

But I woke up grumpy.

I nearly declined Idaho`s offer to take us all out to the waterfall – I was debating whether or not I should spare the others of my possible snappiness, short fuse and begrudging demeanour, in favour of a quiet beach day with my book.  My whole system was depressed, and I was already unreasonably annoyed with everyone and anything around me.  But I decided to brave the day and be social… worst comes to worst, I`d just keep my mouth shut.

So I hopped in the backseat of Idaho`s massive truck – a huge and bumpy ride run exclusively on old vegetable and cooking oil! – with five other willing and lovely intrepid travellers… one in the trunk… and we were off!

We caught glimpses of the coast as we drove through the even smaller villages outside of San Blas… we travelled South beyond the tiny coastal town of Santa Cruz (bursting with fresh seafood and banana bread!), before heading into the mountains.  I`m always impressed with the amount of random and usually foreign-owned homes there are scattered up and down the coasts here.  I heard that most of these particular humble abodes were owned by Canadians who`d come down for nearly half the year.  How did they find this place?!

After sopping for a quick taco snack in a nearby town, it was into the hills!  The rolling hills just got higher and higher… the jungle seemed o go on forever all around us!  Most of the time it seemed as though the five of us were the only ones for miles!  It was great venturing like this in a car with just a group of friends!  I`ve rarely travelled with my own car, and so often I`ve had to rely on bus trips and small tour group to get into the more remote places… which takes away from the “remoteness“ of the experience a little bit.  this was just so laid back.

Then we hit the dirt roads.  Jus as we were thinking we might just be lost, a man we found high in the hills of the jungle - we crossed a few miniscule local agricultural communities along the one mountain road - pointed us further along the path we`d been driving.  He assured us we`d find our waterfall eventually.  So we bumpily cruised through these mountains roads, over nothing but rocks and dirt, laughing every mile of the way!  We were glad to have Idaho`s massive truck!

After having a bite to ea in the last town, an hour or two to wake up, and with these incredible roads, how could I not be happy?!  I jolted out of my chemical-induced funk and laughed harder than anyone as we flew down dirt roads to our chosen and unfamiliar destination!  At one point, even with Tas hanging off the roof of the car…

We had to walk the last few miles to the waterfall.  We parked the truck on the side of a field and headed down into the trees.  We spotted a sign and it wasn`t too long until we came to the top of a cliff and spotted our waterfall.  It was about 70 ft. high!  We climbed down in the scorching afternoon and dove into the pool beneath the falls.  A couple of us dove off the cliffs, and the guys did some flipped and tricks.  We were here for hours just hanging out, diving, swimming, reading and sleeping… and we got some great pics.  Did we ever feel lucky… what a way to spend a day.

The ride home was only a more satisfied and relaxed version of the outward journey… sunset, smiles and this time it was Blonde German chici on the roof.  We flew by a truck load of cops and they just chuckled at the gringo on the top of the truck.  Our engineer-turned-suba diving-travel-blogger was still in the cab of the truck. 

We grabbed a banana bread snack on the main road in Santa Cruz (there were maybe fifteen banana bread shops to choose from!) and headed back to our jungle beach town.  Tacos and red wine outdoors in downtown was just the icing on the cake of a wonderful day!  :)