Saturday - Bike Ride to Manzanillo

After the ridiculous evening the night before we were extremely happy that the cabina was private, quiet, had a great fan and was dark as night…we slept till 10 am :o) After a long slow morning showering, and performing surgery on rory’s foot with a jack knife and some tweezers we moseyed on down the road towards town…and low and behold…at just the spot where we went running the night before Rory found his wet tobacco pouch that contained all his money that started the drunken debacle from the evening before. We laughed at the instant karma and found a small little soda where we would end up eating breakfast for the next 3 mornings. The food was delicious…scrambled eggs with onions and tomatoes, gallo pinto with plenty of lizano salsa, and of course the necessary multiple cups of café con leche. Rory seemed to have worked up a yeomans appetite after his night swimming and running and proceeded to order 3 breakfasts…in addition to the gallo pinto and eggs, he had a crepe with fresh fruit and a bowl of yogurt and granola also with fresh fruit…and both Wes and I were impressed that he cleaned his plates. As we were leaving the soda we saw 3 bikes just chilling right in front ready to be rented…and because there were 3 it seemed they were destined to be ours, so we snagged them for 2mill colones (about $4 for the rest of the day). We rode our bikes into town so we could pick up our return bus tickets home – only to find that the ticket guy was out on an extended siesta…short for a 2 hour lunch. We gave up after a few trys of banging on the door and peering in the window…decided to change our pace and leave behind the troubles of the world and hit the beach. We biked down to Playa Cocochles and found a long stretch of beach that wasn’t that crowded…and we claimed a spot in the shade of a cashew tree (cause the nuts that fall from them are only about the size of a baby’s fist, as opposed to the coconut trees which can drop bombs bigger then wallys noggin) Rory and I played Frisbee for an hour working up a good sweat, while wes grabbed some additional Zzzzz in the shade. After the disc toss – which was awesome…we hit the waves for a little body surfing. Unfortunately the undertow here is really bad (dozens of people drown every year), and the waves offer up a beating any chance they get…so we caught a few waves to body surf, and bobbed with the really big ones…but eventually called it quits as the ceaseless nature of the ocean won as always. After a little while just chilling and appreciating how lucky we were to be in this gorgeous place…I realized that I needed my camera to try and capture what my eyes were witnessing. SO Rory and I bounced back to the cabina (5 min ride) took a quick shower to get the salt off, and grabbed our cameras and a couple of bottles of water. When we got back to the beach we saw a dune buggy just chilling, maybe 25 meters from Wes, but he was sleeping so he had no idea until we told him to take a look. After a few minutes we got Wes up and headed off down the coast to Punta Uva and Manzanillo (12 km away). The ride was amazing, through different sections of rainforest, crazy plant life, lots of flowers and tons of birds and insects buzzing and chirping. As we rode up and down small hill on our single gear beach cruiser bicycles we raced each other like 15 year old kids. When we finally reached Manzanillo we hopped off and checked out the tiny quiet town (definitely a place I would return to, especially over Puerto Viejo…just a much more positive vibe). We peeked in little shops and inquired about places to stay – but they were booked solid, and it was getting late so we hopped back on the bicycles and decided to make one last stop at Punta Uva on the way back. We got to Punta Uva just as the sun was changing the colors of the sky from blue to purple to orange and red (not the Pacific Coast sunsets, but it set a nice atmosphere for a frisbee toss in the gloaming) One last dip in the ocean and we were on our way to return the bikes. We snagged a beer at the local cornerstore for the walk back to the cabina and chilled out for a few hours, just chatting and telling stories, and talking about what an awesome day it was (renting the bikes was a clutch idea…highly recommended). Eventually we got hungry and headed into PV for a little Jerk chicken (not run by a local, but by a transplanted German woman). She didn’t have the requisite liquor license to sell beer, so she let rory borrow her scooter to go grab a bottle of local rum…which she mixed into drinks with all types of fruit…delish…the chicken was pretty damn good as well (slow roasted all day long so that it was so tender it fell right off the bone.) After dinner we walked around town but the dance clubs were too hot, stuffy and crowded…and the music was subpar after listening to all the good reggae the night before. We stopped and listened to a local band that was pretty bad, and called it quits early. Wes and I had our second meeting of the nightcap club back at the cabina (though rory passed out early), we hung out for another hour listening to music on the ipod and telling stories of traveling. Before getting another good night sleep.