Manuel Antonio bits
This entry, like seemingly all of my travel entries, is now a week overdue. This means that I don't remember nor want to enter many small details, meaning a shorter and slightly less interesting for all (8 of) you readers out there.
Thursday
Mike gets out of class at 11 and my Development professor let me write a paper instead of attending a mandatory forum that evening, so we took the noon bus to Manuel Antonio for a four-day long extravaganza. The bus was relatively comfy due to the fact that I almost bought the tickets too late so we had seats in the back row, which have more legroom due to their location behind the back exit.
We arrived sticky and gross: a theme which would be continued throughout the weekend. Manuel Antonio is relatively expensive for Costa Rica, so it's hard to find a cheap place to stay... we checked out Cabinas Piscis, which was a little gross and dimly lit, but functioned more or less. We didn't really spend a lot of time in the room, so it wasn't too bothersome. We headed into town for dinner at Marlin's, where I apparently insulted a dog and we overheard what sounded like terrible karaoke. After dinner, we headed next door to the source of the terrible music and hung out for a bit until our bus back to the cabinas came. It turns out it was a live band, and they kept letting one or two of the same random audience members come up and sing. Thus extremely off-key versions of Freebird and No Woman No Cry. Also someone who may or may not have been named Taco Tom would come up and play a rather happy song (which he claimed to be a blues song) on his tiny guitar.
Friday
Friday we thought about waking up early to go to the national park and failed miserably. We pushed it off until Saturday and spent the whole day on the beach instead. We had a fantastic breakfast at a beachside restaurant which I wish I could go to again and again. Also this started my obsession with ice coffees, another theme for the weekend. So yeah, we spent all day at the beach, playing like 5-year-olds in the ocean ("coooool try doing a handstand!"). We returned to the cabina to find that it had not been cleaned and that we did not have water, thus no showers... which was unfortunate because we were sticky and gross. We went back to the beachside restaurant for a marvelous sunset view and some okay casados (typical Costa Rican dishes).
Saturday
This time we succeeded at the waking up early and went to Manuel Antonio National Park. First of all, to get into the park you have to either wade through waist-high water or pay someone in a canoe a dollar. Then you're in the park and free to roam around. For $25 you can pay a guide to show you and a bunch of other tourists all the blatantly obvious animals... so we opted to be poor college students and found plenty of nature on our own, sometimes better than the guides in front of or behind us. We saw a plethora of lizards of all sizes, a few birds, tiny crabs, a sloth (nature's most misplaced animal... I'm certain they're actually terrified of heights, thus their slow movements... and you can bet that I explained slothing to Mike), white-faced monkeys, and a pair of rather friendly does. The park has a lot of different paths that branch off, and we took the majority of them to see lots of pretty beaches and lookout points. After a few hours we were thoroughly sticky and gross.
We stopped at a hotel for a pretty fantastic lunch and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in Spanish. Later, we went to the beach for a bit, explored some large rocks which turned out to be coooovered in crabs, and headed back to the room to get cleaned up for dinner. On the way back, we met a few white-faced monkeys who looked absolutley shocked to see us, and possibly like they were considering flinging things at us.
We went into town for dinner and then stopped by a small grocery named Christ Mart (I can't make this up) to pick up some snacks since we had been starving for the past few nights. We then headed next door to buy a gift. While waiting to get our change, the bus back to our cabina came by. Not wanting to miss it, we sprinted after getting the change. Then for some unknown reason the bus driver didn't let us off at our stop but instead about a kilometer down the road at a restaurant. Now, it was nighttime and Manuel Antonio is purportedly notorious for drive-by robberies (snag your purse and drive off), so we asked the restaurant to call us a cab. Said cab would have cost about a dollar in any other part of the country, but here cost about $5. Apparently all taxis in Manuel Antonio charge a flat rate because it is remotely located, meaning the taxis have to come from Quepos which is 8km away. A little frustrating, but definitely better than risking it. As we the taxi pulls away, I ask Mike if he has the snacks.
It was one of those moments.
Those sitcom moments.
In our rush to get to the bus, we left the snacks at the gift shop. So instead we got some ice cream at the hotel counter and called it a night.
Sunday
Got up, packed, saw the sign on the door saying you had to leave your key at the desk to get maid service (sitcom moment #2) and checked out. Sat at the bus stop for a bit waiting for the bus into Quepos so we could head back to San Jose. At said bus stop, we met an old man who said he was a biologist and asked if we knew any English speakers who would like to work for him. Also, he thought I was from Spain.
The rest of the time was spent traveling back to San Jose and was relatively uneventful.
OK so there's last weekend's play-by-play.
I fly home on Saturday afternoon, so between packing, picking up my grades, taking pictures and a bunch of other things, I will attempt to get in an entry about this weekend, which was 5 days of ridiculous with Mike's family, and maybe a general wrap-up entry.
It's hard to believe it's all coming to an end. I'm very much ready to be home, but there are things and people here that I will definitely miss. In some senses I feel like this semester passed me by a bit too quickly, but I am also incredibly ready to be on break. Five days and I'm back in the States. More about this later: for the moment I'm trying not to think about it too hard.
Thursday
Mike gets out of class at 11 and my Development professor let me write a paper instead of attending a mandatory forum that evening, so we took the noon bus to Manuel Antonio for a four-day long extravaganza. The bus was relatively comfy due to the fact that I almost bought the tickets too late so we had seats in the back row, which have more legroom due to their location behind the back exit.
We arrived sticky and gross: a theme which would be continued throughout the weekend. Manuel Antonio is relatively expensive for Costa Rica, so it's hard to find a cheap place to stay... we checked out Cabinas Piscis, which was a little gross and dimly lit, but functioned more or less. We didn't really spend a lot of time in the room, so it wasn't too bothersome. We headed into town for dinner at Marlin's, where I apparently insulted a dog and we overheard what sounded like terrible karaoke. After dinner, we headed next door to the source of the terrible music and hung out for a bit until our bus back to the cabinas came. It turns out it was a live band, and they kept letting one or two of the same random audience members come up and sing. Thus extremely off-key versions of Freebird and No Woman No Cry. Also someone who may or may not have been named Taco Tom would come up and play a rather happy song (which he claimed to be a blues song) on his tiny guitar.
Friday
Friday we thought about waking up early to go to the national park and failed miserably. We pushed it off until Saturday and spent the whole day on the beach instead. We had a fantastic breakfast at a beachside restaurant which I wish I could go to again and again. Also this started my obsession with ice coffees, another theme for the weekend. So yeah, we spent all day at the beach, playing like 5-year-olds in the ocean ("coooool try doing a handstand!"). We returned to the cabina to find that it had not been cleaned and that we did not have water, thus no showers... which was unfortunate because we were sticky and gross. We went back to the beachside restaurant for a marvelous sunset view and some okay casados (typical Costa Rican dishes).
Saturday
This time we succeeded at the waking up early and went to Manuel Antonio National Park. First of all, to get into the park you have to either wade through waist-high water or pay someone in a canoe a dollar. Then you're in the park and free to roam around. For $25 you can pay a guide to show you and a bunch of other tourists all the blatantly obvious animals... so we opted to be poor college students and found plenty of nature on our own, sometimes better than the guides in front of or behind us. We saw a plethora of lizards of all sizes, a few birds, tiny crabs, a sloth (nature's most misplaced animal... I'm certain they're actually terrified of heights, thus their slow movements... and you can bet that I explained slothing to Mike), white-faced monkeys, and a pair of rather friendly does. The park has a lot of different paths that branch off, and we took the majority of them to see lots of pretty beaches and lookout points. After a few hours we were thoroughly sticky and gross.
We stopped at a hotel for a pretty fantastic lunch and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in Spanish. Later, we went to the beach for a bit, explored some large rocks which turned out to be coooovered in crabs, and headed back to the room to get cleaned up for dinner. On the way back, we met a few white-faced monkeys who looked absolutley shocked to see us, and possibly like they were considering flinging things at us.
We went into town for dinner and then stopped by a small grocery named Christ Mart (I can't make this up) to pick up some snacks since we had been starving for the past few nights. We then headed next door to buy a gift. While waiting to get our change, the bus back to our cabina came by. Not wanting to miss it, we sprinted after getting the change. Then for some unknown reason the bus driver didn't let us off at our stop but instead about a kilometer down the road at a restaurant. Now, it was nighttime and Manuel Antonio is purportedly notorious for drive-by robberies (snag your purse and drive off), so we asked the restaurant to call us a cab. Said cab would have cost about a dollar in any other part of the country, but here cost about $5. Apparently all taxis in Manuel Antonio charge a flat rate because it is remotely located, meaning the taxis have to come from Quepos which is 8km away. A little frustrating, but definitely better than risking it. As we the taxi pulls away, I ask Mike if he has the snacks.
It was one of those moments.
Those sitcom moments.
In our rush to get to the bus, we left the snacks at the gift shop. So instead we got some ice cream at the hotel counter and called it a night.
Sunday
Got up, packed, saw the sign on the door saying you had to leave your key at the desk to get maid service (sitcom moment #2) and checked out. Sat at the bus stop for a bit waiting for the bus into Quepos so we could head back to San Jose. At said bus stop, we met an old man who said he was a biologist and asked if we knew any English speakers who would like to work for him. Also, he thought I was from Spain.
The rest of the time was spent traveling back to San Jose and was relatively uneventful.
OK so there's last weekend's play-by-play.
I fly home on Saturday afternoon, so between packing, picking up my grades, taking pictures and a bunch of other things, I will attempt to get in an entry about this weekend, which was 5 days of ridiculous with Mike's family, and maybe a general wrap-up entry.
It's hard to believe it's all coming to an end. I'm very much ready to be home, but there are things and people here that I will definitely miss. In some senses I feel like this semester passed me by a bit too quickly, but I am also incredibly ready to be on break. Five days and I'm back in the States. More about this later: for the moment I'm trying not to think about it too hard.