Blogs from Manuel Antonio, Puntarenas, Costa Rica, Central America Caribbean
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Day 43: Bye bye beach...back to San Jose
Published: May 22nd 2013Central America Caribbean » Costa Rica » Puntarenas » Manuel AntonioSorry folks, you've still got to put up with my (Ben's) rambling as I have the advantage of being able to type away whilst on the bus and we're currently snaking our way up into the Panamian mountains...but that's for a blog in a few days time. We woke up a little disgruntled given we had to leave our beach paradise and travel back to the dirty capital. We could've have easily spent another couple of days relaxing but alas, the tour must go on. It wasn't all bad though, as our public bus back to San Jose wasn't leaving until noon so we had the morning to 'chill-out'. I rose around 8.30am, chucked my running gear on and went for a jog along the beach. As soon as I opened the front door I was ... read more
Day 42: Monkey Business in Manuel Antonio National Park
Published: May 20th 2013Central America Caribbean » Costa Rica » Puntarenas » Manuel AntonioWe allowed ourselves a bit of a sleep in this morning given our frantic week of bussing all around the country. We wandered 3 doors up from our hotel to a hostel that did $4 'big breakfasts' – fruit platter, scrambled eggs, toast, coffee and of course, Central America's favourite dish, rice and beans. The sun was already beating down on us and it felt like 100% humidity, as even sitting down and eating would raise a sweat. We wandered up to the entrance of Manuel Antonio National Park, paid our $10 entrance fee for foreigners (if I was Costa Rican, the entrance price was about 50c), shrugged off the would-be guides who were trying to obtain our business and strolled into the park, confident of seeing the elusive sloth. The Manuel Antonio National Park is ... read more
Day 41: Arriving in Manuel Antonio
Published: May 20th 2013Central America Caribbean » Costa Rica » Puntarenas » Manuel AntonioWe 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. ... read more
Manuel Antonio, Quepos and the national park
Published: March 10th 2013Central America Caribbean » Costa Rica » Puntarenas » Manuel AntonioMANUEL ANTONIO: It's no wonder thousands of vacationers flock to Manuel Antonio during the dry season. It's not only home to a famous national park, but also has pristine white-sand beaches framed by jungle. Is has a little something for everyone: good swimming areas and surfing spots, delicious restaurants and 2x1 drink specials, parasailing and beach bumming. Its Costa Rica's own Orange County. The only thing this tiny town doesn't have is much nightlife. We checked into the national park backpackers hostel about a hundred feet from the entrance of the park and a five minute walk to the beach. This is the first hostel we've stayed at that had a pool. Even though it felt like bath water, it was still a nice relief from the intense heat. Every night they show a movie on ... read more
Quepos - Manuel Antonio NP, Costa Rica
Published: February 28th 2013Central America Caribbean » Costa Rica » Puntarenas » Manuel AntonioAfter leaving Paradise, we quickly realized that the rest of our vacation would be entirely different -- not worse or better, just different. We were dropped off by boat in the AM in Golfito and spent about 3 hours on the rocky beach waiting for our 2PM bus to Quepos. We read, chilled and played games-- followed by a fresh ceviche lunch. Delicious :) We got on the bus around 2:30 PM and arrived in Quepos right at dusk about 6-6:30PM. We met a very nice woman who helped us call a cab, and were dropped off at Casa Buena Vista. Casa Buena Vista was another gem that I found on airbnb -- Anita, has lived in her home or 38 years, she has 8 rooms (If I remember correctly) and loves having visitors with her ... read more
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Costa Rica Blog #3 . . . . Finishing our Tour on the Pacific Coast
Published: January 12th 2013Central America Caribbean » Costa Rica » Puntarenas » Manuel AntonioHola everyone. We are still having fun on our Costa Rican Quest tour! We packed up on a chilly and windy morning from Monteverde to start our trek to the Pacific Coast. It was amazing how the weather changed and became hotter and hotter as we got closer to the ocean. On the way we stopped for some fresh fruit and had a look at a bunch of crocodiolios sunning themselves in the river. A scary sight!!! We arrived in Manuel Antonio mid morning. We were pleasantly surprised when we checked into our room at The Blue Monkey Hotel to find we had a huge luxurious suite with two king sized beds and white leather furniture fit for a king! And to top it off, our room was only steps from one of the pools and ... read more
Last week/weekend in Costa Rica
Published: December 9th 2012Central America Caribbean » Costa Rica » Puntarenas » Manuel AntonioI survived my presentation and the rest of finals last week. Hopefully everything went well. Friday at 5 am Rachel, Ashley and I took the bus for 5.5 hours to Manuel Antonio National Park. We stayed in a hostel- my first time staying in one. It was actually fairly nice- dorm room style with one set of bathrooms for everyone. I was surprised. Manuel Antonio is how I imagined all of Costa Rica to be, so beautiful. We spent the day enjoying the sun on the beach. Around 5 we decided to get surfing lessons! It was actually a lot easier than I thought it was going to be, but I know I couldn't do it without the guy telling me which wave I need to get up on and pushing me. So much fun surfing ... read more
Dag 13: Finding Nemo
Published: December 8th 2012Central America Caribbean » Costa Rica » Puntarenas » Manuel AntonioDag iedereen, We zitten al aan onze laaste dag in Manuel Antonio. Morgen om 7u15 (het is vervroegd) worden we opgehaald door Interbus om naar Volcan Arenal (La Fortuna) te gaan. We genieten dus nog van elk zeebriesje en elke streep felle zon! Vandaag zijn we naar een ander strand gegaan waar je kan snorkelen. We huurden snorkelgerief en kregen ook een stuk fruit mee dat de vissen lokt, waardoor ze dichter bij jou komen. Als de verhuurder dat zei, kreeg ik plots wat schrik om zo alleen naar dat eilandje te zwemmen (toch vrij ver in het water) niet wetende wat voor soort vissen op me gingen afkomen. Met een bang hart stapte ik (of probeerde te stappen met die zwemvliezen) in het water en begon te zwemmen. De stroming was vrij sterk dus het ... read more
Dag 11: Halfway
Published: December 6th 2012Central America Caribbean » Costa Rica » Puntarenas » Manuel AntonioDag iedereen, Vandaag was een dagje zoals de andere. Zeer mooi weer, strand en plezier! Het zullen dus kortere blogjes worden want we zien nu niet zoveel nieuws. Vandaag zijn we een halve dag in het huisje gebleven en een halve dag naar de zee gegaan. Onze huisgenoten zijn vandaag in de late middag vertrokken. We zijn hier eigenlijk wel blij mee want die hadden overal veel gerief staan, ruimden nooit op en bleven dag in dag uit in het huisje (gingen dus nooit weg). Nu ze weg zijn is ons huisje veel leuker! Een beetje feest dus. Nore heeft haar vandaag echt te pletter geamuseerd op het strand. Ze kreeg van een Amerikaans koppel een speelgoedvisje en netje waarmee ze kon spelen. Achter ons kwam er ook een lieve hond liggen die ze kon strelen. ... read more
Dag 10: National Park Manuel Antonio
Published: December 5th 2012Central America Caribbean » Costa Rica » Puntarenas » Manuel AntonioDag iedereen, Vandaag was het weer een stralende dag! Hier geen sneeuw te bekennen, enkel een mooie warme zon ;) We zijn naar het nationale park in Manuel Antonio geweest, dat park is hier maar 2km verderop dus dat was eens gemakkelijk. We namen een gids om meer te weten te komen maar dat hebben we ons nog beklaagd. We hadden namelijk de meest ongemotiveerde, minst spraakzame en de minst intelligente gids van het park getroffen. We hebben er dus lang over gedaan om dat te slikken want onze gids ging overal veel sneller, nam veel minder de tijd en we bleven soms even bij een andere groep hangen omdat die meer aan het vertellen was over iets wat we net gezien hadden. Maar ale, als we het achteraf bekijken, hebben we toch meer gezien dan ... read more
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