Wednesday 12/10/2022 Tesoro Escondido Waterfall – Rio Desague – Rio Segundo
Toro Amarillo
Alajuela Province, COSTA RICA
Participants: Stephen Davies (Photos, Report), Sue Davies, Cal Stewart, Kerrie Stewart
Our first waterfall was on private land as is the case with many of Costa Rica’s natural heritage wonders. A fenced and gated entrance with a small well-worn sign marked the entrance. Yesterday when we initially hoped to see them we were greeted by the owner’s dogs and then informed that we had arrived too late to start. We did, however, organise an earlier than normal 7:30am start the next morning.
Max elevation: 1639 m
Total climbing: 1159 m
Total descent: -1160 m
Average speed: 7.48 km/h
Total time: 02:32:12
We were warmly greeted by the owner and, with some alarm, assigned our machete-carrying guide. As we progressed along the well-maintained track we were pleased to find the guide using the machete to clear fallen branches and new overgrowth, we were not some morning sacrifice after all!
After a couple of hills, we descended back down to Rio Segundo for a stretch of rock hopping up against the clifflike walls. Carrying a backpack, tripod and front camera bag made negotiating this cliff-hugging route quite tricking, I was much slower than everyone else not wanting to fall into the river with thousands of dollars worth of camera gear. It didn’t help at all that one of the owner’s dogs come with us and often placed itself almost under our feet.
Trail along Rio Desague near Tesoro Escondido Waterfall
The effort was well worth it as we reached the plunge pool below the falls. Despite the waterfall spray I set up for some tripod shots before retreating. We retraced our steps for a way before along the river then onto the hillside track before descending back down to the river on a different track. Here we found ourselves at another smaller waterfall for a few more photos.
From here we headed up to the lookout, today however all the views were obscured by clouds. At the viewpoint, there is a covered seating area which would be a great shelter from the sun or rain. Also, there is a really interesting woven cane platform that looks a little like a hang glider take-off platform. It may or maybe not be a good wedding ceremony location.
Once back to the car, we were again greeted by the owner, who became excited to find out that we were Australians. As his very first Australian guests he requested and got a couple of selfies with us before heading off.
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