Parque Nationale Manuel Antonio

Woke up early around 7 (cause this is hostel living); and downed 2 advil and a bottle of water; pulled my eye mask out of my bag and got 2 more hours sleep…exactly what I needed. No coffee in the morning, as the hostel caretakers (Conrad and company) were nursing hangovers…and hadn’t cleaned up and gotten organized. So we all walked up to the bus station and waited for 15 minutes for the bus down to Manuel Antonio beach so we could get breakfast…ended up grabbing a taxi as we were all hungry and it was 25 cents for the bus and 90 cents for the taxi…so no biggie. Breakfast was long, and slow, but delish. I found the name of the verde sauce I like so much – Lizano Salsa ( I will definitely be bringing home a big bottle)…as it is perfect on scrambled eggs, and rice and beans, and I even have been putting it on salads. A couple of cups of coffee, some fresh fruit, along with the scrambled egg, and gallo pinto (rice and beans) and the hangover was banished to the past. We grabbed water bottles and began the walk to Parque Nationale Manuel Antonio, where I just happened to bump into Dougie Fresh…from AU…a kid I played soccer with in DC and gave him a ride to/from NYC when I drove home over Thanksgiving. And Dougie was traveling with these two girls who just happened to be from Newburyport MA…ridiculously small world. We chatted for a few before heading our separate ways…and Dougie and I made plans to get in touch soon, now that his phone situation has been figured out. Diana said that the second beach is the ideal one, so we had a short 20 minute walk through the seaside jungle on our way to the spot…along the way we spotted a perezoso (3 toed sloth) who is great to see, but then not that exciting to hang out and watch…as movement is minimal. We also saw a couple of interesting lizards, and two ring tailed lemurs ran by…but too fast for me to catch a photo. When we got to the beach I saw why it has won awards for being one of Costa Rica’s gems. It is a fairly small, U-shaped cove, with warm glowing blue water, soft white sand, small rock islands dotting the ocean surface, and the jungle comes right down to the beach and encircles it on 3 sides. We staked out a spot in the shade under a couple of Cashew trees (not smart to sit under the palm trees for shade, as each year dozens of people die from falling coconuts -which weigh about 10 lbs, and NO, I’m not joking). I immediately headed out into the water to get my swim on, I love the ocean and being in San Jose all week, as soon as I get a chance to swim I take it. Marco and I then threw the frisbee around, though there were so many people that there wasn’t much room to really get a quality toss going. The rest of the afternoon was spent lounging in the shade and swimming in the ocean; and trying to dodge the sand tosses of the tico children on our right, and a german boy throwing a temper tantrum on our left. Somehow in paradise we managed to ignore these minor in-conveniences. We headed off to Quepos on a 15 minute bus ride that seemed to last for hours…I think cause we were all pretty hungry. When we got to town, we snuck into a seafood restaurant just as the downpour started…and I do mean downpour. So we settled in for a late lunch, of fish, fries, salad, and a couple of cervesas…and watched the rain. It was raining really hard, and it wasn’t showing any signs of stopping. After a long slow meal, we tried to have another beer and wait out the rain, but mother nature was having none of that. The water was pouring down and seeking the lowest part of town, which just happened to be the street where we were eating lunch and where the bus station was located. And of course Quepos doesn’t have any street drains, so in 2 hours the road between the curbs had filled up to at least knee deep. Brave souls were attempting to ride bicycles through the mishmash of garbage and water, while ½ the wheels were under water. Shopkeepers were on the curbs with squeegees, begging the crazy taxi drivers to slow down, cause the wake they created as they roared through the water was inundating their shops. Marco and Esteban bravely walked across the street in an attempt to find a better location to hail a cab. After watching their fiasco, there was no way the rest of us were gonna be persuaded to follow. We spent a little bit of time in the grocery store, buying food so we could cook dinner back at the hostile…and got completely soaked to the bone trying to get a cab to bring us back up the hill. When we finally got in the cab, we got the news about the tropical storm raging off the pacific coast, as the cabby headed back up the mountain, passed downed trees, and the torrent of water that was screaming down the hillside next to the road. A hot shower back at the hostel took the edge off our soaking wet adventure in the tropical storm, and a nap for a ½ hour rejuvenated us for the evening. After the naps we headed down to the main building at the hostel, grabbed a cervesa and started prepping for the evening. Under the watchful eye of our Heffe – Samantha we made guacamole and salsa from scratch, and fried up some cheese quesadillas. They were defiantly delicious, though the fried cheese sat like a rock in my stomach later on in the evening…I think I ate too much, what else is new? So it stayed raining the whole night, which kinda took the edge off everyone’s desire to go out dancing…so after dinner we sat around drinking cervesas, telling travel stories, telling jokes, and analyzing the aggressive tactics with the opposite sex of one of our group members (she will remain nameless :o) and initiating a couple of new members into the nightcap club. One of Conrads buddies was a little drunk, and running the front desk…and he wanted us all to settle our bills around 12:30 am…so we all had to run around and grab loot to payup before we could passout.