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Published: February 14th 2006
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Monkey Bread
While it's not recommended to feed the monkeys, sometimes they take it upon themselves to steal food. To our blog faithful (Especially Faith),
I must apologize for letting Elise get hold of the keyboard for the previous post. Know that she means well, and when it comes to organizing a trip and keeping us within budget she's the "Go To Teeth," but when it's time to keep our friends and fam in the loop, I'll handle those duties.
Manuel Antonio
We spent a week just outside the beautiful environs of Manuel Antonio National Park and the small town of Quepos. Our days were spent alternately at the national park which has rain forest and beaches all wrapped up into one neat little monkey-filled package, and at our hotel's pool which was very nice and virtually deserted... Many Costa Ricans that we spoke with lamented over the lack of tourism this year versus years past, and while we felt their pain, we couldn't help but enjoy the fact that we had the pool to ourselves, never waited at any restaurants, didn't have to share the monkeys and so on.
Another noteworthy trait of this area is the street. Unlike most of the cities that we live in,dear readers, most of Costa Rica's towns revolve around
Sunset, Sunset!
One of MANY sunsets we chased, and eventually caught. one main street with maybe a few smaller legs off this main street. In Manuel Antonio this street is as Paul McCartney would say a "long and winding road". Except that instead of leading back to "you" it leads to near death. I don't know if its the a) constant up and down of the hilly road, b) utter lack of street lights, c) non-existent sidewalks, d) buses coming towards us at top speed, e) all of the above - but on the bright side, at least it was paved.
While we spent our longest stint in Manuel Antonio there is not a whole lot to report on due to a pre-meditated lack of activity. While we monkeyed around at the Nat'l Park enough, we did not go on any sort of organized tours since we thought ourselves to be experts on the travel patterns of the Costa Rican two-toed Sloth already... and since a Sloth (living up to its name) moves slower than Dick Cheney reporting a hunting accident we were justified in this.
The park was way up there with our favorite destinations in Costa Rica since it combined the natural beauty and animal watching of
Our View... WOW!
The world's best Living Room. Monteverde with the warm blue waters and (mostly) sandy beaches of the Pacific Coast. We also met some new friends, Jeff and Jack, who became our partners in crime for much of this part of our trip.... the crime being showtunes (in Elise and Jack's case) and books (in Jeff and Gregg's case), and of course monkey spotting in all of our cases.
The four of us spent a day hiking up to
Punta Catedral one of the higher points in the park offering breathtaking vistas of the vast blueness that is the Pacific Ocean, then on to the beaches where many idiotic tourists fed the monkeys right out of their hands despite the constant warnings not to. Monkeys can get sick, and complacent (sounds like me in Costa Rica) when fed human food. However, in many cases the monkeys take it upon themselves to "borrow" food from humans - I guess its sort of a primate to primate understanding.
Another of Manuel Antonio's draws are the beautiful sunsets. Note to male readers - if traveling with a woman, budget about 75%!o(MISSING)f your trip towards talking about sunsets, planning to view sunsets, getting angry at missing sunsets,
Los Suenos
One night in this hotel would have cost more than a week in most of our others. plotting future sunsets, discussing best places to see sunsets, oh and occasionally viewing sunsets. Having said all of that, they were pretty nice. The colors blended smoothly like the milky bottom of a bowl of fruit loops, apple jacks, and fruity pebbles mixed together and painted into the panaromic backdrop of the rain forest and rolling hills.
Other Highlights
- Poolside Superbowl - watching the highly irrelevant (to us) Pittsburgh-Seattle matchup while sipping smoothies (with rum for Elise, none for the still sick Gregg) at the pool bar of the hotel Si Como No.
- Rum waterbottle - Due to the presidential election (mentioned in a past blog), Elise carried around a water bottle fillled with Bacardi should we want to "Irish" up, or I guess "Puerto Rico" up any of our drinks during the booze drought.
- Coconut Margaritas - who'da thunk it? Karola's restaurant, thats who. Mmmmm, quite good.
- Our balcony - we looked out onto the Ocean, and forests filled with both White Faced, and Squirrel Monkeys flitting from tree to tree only feet away from where we lived!
Los Suenos Resort
The last official leg of our journey was two 3 days, 2 nights at the Marriott Los Suenos Resort in Playa Herradura (1 hour north of Manuel Antonio). This is a looooooong way from the bug filled, overheated little rooms of our earlier trip. Thanks to the good folks at Producer USA and their credit card usage (aka Gregg's parents) we traded in many AmEx points for our 2 nights at this hotel. In an ironic twist this was our cheapest hotel, and would have cost more for one night than a week anywhere else. While it was a very noticeable departure from the "real" Costa Rica we had experienced all along, we were not opposed to a little pampering before returning to the States.
The grounds of the hotel are sprawled out on several acres along Playa Herradura, a less than impressive beach. However, the pools at the hotel were laid out in a serpentine maze with little nooks, a swim up bar, and an open area for pool volleyball.
The staff of the hotel were friendly and professional and were apparantly VERY concerned with dental hygeine. We estimate that 80%!o(MISSING)f the staff wore braces which either means,
a. the hotel demands superior smiles
b. the hotel offers a superior dental plan
Either way, Big Teeth Productions certainly approves of any and all tooth improvement regimens.
Brown-O-Meter
For our final B-O-M of the trip, as you'll see in the pictures, we have rapidly progressed...
Elise, defying the odds and browning like she's never browned before, final total = 6.5
Gregg, surprising none, except maybe the customs agents at the airport = 8.75
Thanks for following our journey and stay tuned for our final entry where we'll detail some of our best and worst lists of the whole trip and some final thoughts on our re-entry to the United States.
Adios,
G and E
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Sunsets
What no sunrises? Doesn't surprise me. Sounds like all in all Costa Rica was enjoyed by all two of you. Can't wait to see you both and your fabulous tans.