It was great to finally get to our house in Manzanillo. After some of the stress that we had dealing with San Jose, this seemed to be a world away. La Patita was just about a mile north of Manzanillo and a 15 minute drive from Puerto Viejo. After settling in, we drove to Manzanillo to eat at Maxis. The food was wonderful! It was great to have some really good seafood. The resturant was right on the water, and at the end of the road(literally). It was all open air(as pretty much everywhere there is), so we relaxed to regge music and watched a group of local kids play a soccer game on the beach. There is just such a relaxing feeling there. After dinner, we met our house caretakers. They were very helpful, but did not speak a word of english. A lot of smiling, and my limited spanish satisfied them that we were ok, and we were left in the jungle in a house with no walls. It was really amazing. We could hear all of the animals, and nothing bothered us or the house. We spent most of our evening time playing cards and board games or
swinging in the hammocks. Every morning we were awoken by the howler monkeys. They would start howling at sunrise, and then begin moving around in the trees. They would throw the unwanted portion of the fruit they were eating down on our tin roof. Once this started it was so noisy that it pretty much meant we needed to get up. We spent most days in Puerto Viejo. It was a longer drive, but I guess that is my fault. Jason was having issues with being in another country, and Puerto Viejo was the most Americanized place around. We had dinner at El Parquecito almost every night. The food was absolutely amazing!!! On our 2nd day, we went zipling. We were picked up by a really casual, funny, rasta looking guy who drove us up into the mountains. Once we got up there, it was just us and the two guides, and one of their girlfriends. It was just so informal, and not at all what I expected. I loved the ziplining, but I think Jason was sick of it before it started. The next day, we tried the jungle trek to the ocean. We followed a path from our
house that was barely marked through the dense jungle. It was kind of scary, but well worth the trip. It was beautiful in there. Then through the trees, we could see the ocean. We came out on a private secluded beach. No people for as far a we could see. Costa Rica was truly a beautiful country, and great for anyone who enjoys nature.
P.S. Jason left his wedding ring in the dish at security in San Jose!!!
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