Middle-aged flash packers

After a wet and windy night, we woke to blue sky and the beginnings of a beautiful day.
We were served a delicious breakfast of fruit, eggs, warm bread and mango marmalade – all from Daniel and Dominque’s fair hand. Daniel and Dominique come from Belgium and run a very ordered and gorgeous B and B. Daniel is perhaps a little too organised as he was very concerned that we had a nice day today and I felt he wasn’t going to let us leave breakfast without having a full itinerary nailed down.
Immediately disregarding the first part of Daniel’s plan for us, we decided to follow Lonely Planet’s advice and go to the Llanos de Cortes waterfall – a “must see”. Unfortunately everyone else read the same thing, so after a 45 minute drive we literally looked at the waterfall and left. I wish there was a good alternative to Lonely Planet. We find it woefully inaccurate and out of date at times.
Determined not to waste the day, we went back to Daniel’s plan for us and did his “river trail adventure”. It was just up the road from the b and b and after paying $6 each to the landowner, we were off on our own. Absolutely no-one else about. Slightly spooky. (There’s no pleasing me is there?)
After about 20 minutes we came across some howler monkeys. They were as curious about us as we were them. We just stared at each other. Unfortunately for Steve he made the first move and walked under their tree. Obviously he completely forgot Carlos’s advice of never stand directly underneath a howler monkey. Poor Steve – covered in monkey poo. For your info it really stinks. I remained straight faced as I helped him wipe it off his back , arm and rucksack.
Undaunted we carried on and eventually arrived at a point where we had to cross the river on foot. Exciting! It was quite deep and flowing very quickly. We had two ropes to hang on to as we sidled across. No mishaps – phew!
We eventually arrived at the waterfall where three tributaries joined and made a pool to swim in. It gave Steve an opportunity to wash out his poopy t shirt.
It was a great walk and I’m sorry I doubted Daniel, we’d have never found it on our own. All good on the way back except when it seemed as though a malignant cow was going to charge through a fence and attack us. As many of you know, I am completely terrified of cows and my legs turned to jelly. Ironic that in a rain forest full of poisonous beasties, it’s a cow that scares the bejesus out of me.