Nauyaca Waterfalls & Dominical

We got more visitors a few days ago! Our siblings Scotty and Jessie (and our nephew Lincoln) arrived on Saturday, and then my in-laws Chris and Candi joined the fun on Sunday!

Weekends are for adventures, so we headed out to Manuel Antonio National Park again. The beach there remains my favorite. It just reeks of paradise. We didn't see as much wildlife this time, but the monkeys were out in full force. We also earned our first matching family sunburns (womp womp).

Sara lost her Apple Watch here on the beach. We searched everywhere for it, and she was super bummed about losing it. But then, when we were at lunch, Sara got an email that somebody had found it! They used her emergency contact info on the watch to send us a message. Frequent theft is one of the few negatives of Costa Rica. That's what they say, anyways. We haven't experienced that at all thankfully, and even experienced the opposite here with Sara's watch. Super thankful for the helpfulness of a stranger!

The hike is just long enough, and the heat is just hot enough, that by the time we were ready for the hike back from the beach, we had some tired kiddos. If you visit Manuel Antonio, go as early as possible to avoid the heat.  

We started the next morning with a trek to Nauyaca Waterfalls. We drove as far as we could in our trusty van (Senor Coco), and then hopped in the back of a 4x4 truck to drive the rest of the way. Oh man, another CRAZY road! Straight up alongside the twisty dirt road of the mountain. 

When we arrived to the falls, it was breathtaking! Easily a highlight of our whole trip here! We explored the upper falls and then headed down to the lower falls that had the most refreshing swimming spot beneath it. IT. WAS. AWESOME.

After about an hour of hanging out, we noticed a Tico scaling up the falls. We noticed he had a rope with him and was attaching it to a few spots. Another Tico then joined him, and they both started scrubbing a few spots on the falls. We realized that they were prepping spots for people to climb UP the falls, so they could dive off the top. After scrubbing for a while, they both looked out to all of us and beckoned to us all to come climb and jump! Chris and I took off for the rock platform at the bottom of the falls. They then instructed us where to place our feet (where they had just spent time scrubbing), and we hoisted ourselves up the waterfall, with water gushing in our face! We reached the jumping spot halfway up the falls (about 35-40 feet) and launched ourselves into the pool below. KILLER.

There are two entrances to Nauyaca. Make sure to do the one labeled "Nauyaca Waterfalls/Cataratas Nauyaca" and not "Nauyaca Waterfall Nature Park", unless of course you want the more challenging hike at the Nature Park. The hike in is hard, and if you hike, by the time you get there, it will be crowded. Take the truck ride instead. It was half the fun for our group! It takes you right to a walkway and then a set of steps down to the falls. Lainey has been having new aversions to steps and different walkways, so she ended up riding piggyback most of the way. She also totally hates colder water too, so she had no interest of getting in the water.

If you're already in the Nauyaca area, do yourself a favor and head down to Dominical. It's an earthy beach town that has some great beach and eating spots. It's worth a morning or an afternoon for sure. We stumbled on Fuego Brewery and all just absolutely loved our meals (along with the killer views).