Day 41: Arriving in Manuel Antonio

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We were on the road relatively early again as we made our departure from Monteverde, down out of the mountains and back down to sea level. The view was amazing as our little mini-bus spiralled its way along this windy gravel road. Rolling green mountains, some of which were baked in sunshine whilst others were covered by low hanging cloud. Rach tried unsuccessfully to capture the moment, the bumpiness and trees lining the road proving an obstacle.

We stopped after about 2 hours and we knew we'd come down out of the mountains as the first thing that hit us was the heat! It was only about 10am by this point but whilst we waited at the little truck stop we all chatted about not being able to wait to hit the beach in Manuel Antonio.

Back on the road again, however only for an hour after which we pulled over just before a bridge and our guide tells us to get out and have a wander across the bridge. We had no idea why the hell we'd want to stop in the middle of nowhere and take a look at the scenary but we obliged. As we approached the bridge, I had a feeling there was probably something to see of interest as we weren't the only bus to pull over on the side of the road. Whilst Rach was amusing herself trying to take a photo of an iguana, I strolled on ahead to the main prize. As I got to the centre of the bridge, the logs floating in the dirty river below turned out to have four little legs and a giant head full of sharp teeth...crocodiles! There was heaps of them, I counted 28 in all. Some were just floating in the river, whilst others were sunbaking themselves of the riverbank. I'm glad we were 10m up as I wouldn't like to have gotten too close to the shoreline!

We jumped back into the bus and continued on towards the west coast. We arrived in Manuel Antonio and found our hotel to be right at the doorstep of the national park. It was about 2pm by this point so we dumped our bags and headed off to explore the little beach-side village in search of some lunch. We sat down at the Marlin Restaurant, an open air eatery with great views of the beach. Rach and I both ordered a chicken salad and fresh fruit juices and it was delicious! Rach reminded me again that the juices in Costa Rica are the best she's ever had!

We crossed the road and felt the sand between our toes for the first time since Roatan Island. Unfortunately the weather gods reminded us that we are at the start of the Central American wet season and our lovely morning sunshine had turned into an afternoon thunderstorm. It was still really hot so we dumped our stuff on the beach and joined Katerina and John for a swim in the Pacific Ocean. It was only lightly raining and was a little refreshing. We jumped into the water and it was like hopping into a warm bath. We paddled our way out into the waves which we dumping around 2-3m high. This sparked a childhood memory for Rach and she proceeded to tell us about a game that she used to play as a child with her Nanny and Gramps. As a wave approaches, each person would take it in turns of yelling 'under' or 'over', depending on the best strategy for getting through the next big wave. When it was Katerina's first turn, we looked up to see this massive wave that was about to break infront of us, meaning that the sensible approach would have been 'under'. To our surprise and horror, Katerina yelled in her Russian accent, 'over'. What! Before we knew it, we were smashed whilst attempting to launch ourselves over the swell, quickly discovering what it is like to be in a washing machine. We all surfaced spitting out sand and seawater to which Katerina responds 'I think we should've gone under'.

We played under and over for about an hour until we had each drunk enough seawater and salt. We clambered out of the surf and attempted to dry off however the rain hadn't really subsided. We wondered back to our hotel to get ready for dinner (and also quickly Skype the folks).

For dinner that night, we wandered back into town and went to the Dragon Fly Thai Restaurant, even in Costa Rica you can still find Thai food! Rach got the sweet and sour chicken and I got a red chicken curry. It was ok however not the best Thai food I've ever had however I must remember that we're about a million miles from Thailand. We called it quits after dinner and retired for the night, ready for our day in the national park tomorrow.

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Photos

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the road to manuel antonio

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the stop on the way. iguana on the side of the road....

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and 28 crocs!!!

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and some really appetizing looking watermelons...yes they are giant bugs!

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handstanding in yet another storm in costa rica!