Our tramping shoes had been lying airing by the door since we arrived, so we gingerly shook and checked them for any creepy crawly thing that might have decided to make it their new home. We needed them today because we were off to the San Ramon waterfall which was almost half way up the volcano and about a six hour round trip from the hostel.

The entrance to the start of the volcano track was about 4km further along the island road. It was possible to kayak round the coast but we guessed walking might be the easier option, especially for the return journey. The road was pretty much the same as it was up to Hacienda Merida, it resembled a New Zealand tramping track with all the rocks, ruts and general uneveness.

The 3km track up the volcano started out much better than the road we had just left - it was a paved but maybe that was because it was steep and was needed to help the vehicles and horses that also used the track. The bottom part of the volcano seemed to have been turned over to a farm - there were cows in a field as opposed to running free and a lot of planted fruit trees. At the 2km mark, the track changed to a standard mountain track, winding it's way round the volcano for about 20 minutes before it changed course to go up steeply through a dry river bed. The final 20 minutes, clambering up the steepest part of the walk, in the heat of the day nearly had us on our knees but finally on turning a bend we saw the falls up above us. It was a long way up to the top but there wasn't a huge amount of water flowing, what was coming down from that great height was cool and refreshing. The pool at the base of the falls wasn't quite deep enough to swim in but standing under the falling water did just fine to cool us off.

The steepness of the track made sure that the decent wasn't much faster than the ascent and with the rising temperature, it didn't feel lot easier coming down. We were thankful for the cold drinks at the restaurant at the bottom of the track but more to place on our foreheads to cool down before drinking them.

The walk back on the road was very hot, it was nudging 35c in the midday sun, and we had the fortunate excuse of watching a howler monkey in the low branches of a tree by the road for 10 minutes. Back at the Hacienda we wanted to jump straight in the lake to cool off and if we knew our clothes would definitely be dry by morning, we'd have jumped in with them on. We quickly changed into our togs and were soon enjoying the cool lake water. Only one more thing could help cool us down...a delicious cold mango smoothie...so dripping wet, we went over to the restaurant to order a couple. Simple pleasures!!