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Published: March 12th 2005
Crocodile Hangout
A group of crocs lounging under the bridge on the way to Manuel AntonioBuenos Dias everyone!
So after a week of intensive studying in Heredia it was about time I went to see other parts of the country, and what could be better than a weekend by the beach?!!! So after our exam testing our Spanish level, 6 of us and "tour guide" Gerry (a Costa Rican, aka "Tico") set off for Manuel Antonio, a beach resort/national park on the Pacific Coast. We stopped off at a bridge on the way where we saw about 20 crocodiles just lazing on their little island under the bridge!! (See the pictures.)We arrived at our sweet little hotel "Los Almendros" around 5pm and went straight to the beach which was a 3 minute walk away. The sea water was nice and warm and the waves were huge, there were several surfers which was really fun to watch. No relaxing in the sea though, as soon as you didn´t pay enough attention you would get hit by a massive wave from behind!!
The first night we had a lovely dinner on the beach, especially arranged for us by Gerry (one thing he was good at was using his contacts, apart from that he was a bit
Alex & Bambi
Bambi (we were very original when thinking of the name, I know!) -the not-so-shy deer that visited us at our hotel every morning and in the evening. of a rubbish guide) After the dinner we went out to a bar/disco on the beach, very resorty. It did start to rain a little bit at one point which only made it more sticky to dance. Still, it gave us a chance to practice our beginner salsa y meringue skills. After about half an hour, it seemed like several buses had just emptied out about 50 students from the US who were on spring break!!! Our little group danced a bit more and then went for a walk on the beach where we cooled off. As we were wet from the rain before we decided we might as well go swimming in the sea. Then one of the guys who had been living in Manuel Antonio for a while (a gringo from Michigan) told us we´d better stay closer to the shore, as it was known that the sharks come very close to the shore at night. (I was out in about 3 seconds) Swimming with jeans on turned out to really not be a very good idea after all, as it took the rest of the weekend to dry in the humid climate!
The next day we
Playa Manuel Antonio
Manuel Antonio beach inside the National Park took off at about 9.30am and walked to the National Park which was about 5 minutes walk from our hotel. We started off with a hike in the rainforest, where we saw several monkeys, iguanas (& Jesus lizards? They walk on water!), lots of colourful crabs and some amazing views of the Pacific ocean. After our hike we were sweating like mad and completely dehydrated, so we took about 4 hours to recover on the three beautiful beaches in the park. An American we met on the beach lent us his snorkelling gear so we even got to see some fishes (not an amazing variety but some cute bright coloured ones, the only one I could name was the parrotfish)
When we got back to the town we had a bite to eat in possibly the worst organised restaurant ever. They took all our orders, managed to get them all wrong, twice!! The owner was a guy from the Caribbean who just barked orders at all his staff while he watched his DVD, slept, and occasionally handled the bills. And even then, he couldn´t get the cash right!!! Still the food was good, so we even decided to return
Iguana
Out of all the iguanas we saw this one was the "prettiest" with his decorative back there for our dinner.(!)
Our last day in Manuel Antonio was spent lazing on beach chairs (covered up, we managed to get badly burnt on our shoulders, feet and shins) watching Ticos playing football, having the occasional cooldown in the sea and looking at the local arts and crafts that were brought to us. We arrived back late in Heredia last night and it now feels very cool in comparison, when it´s still about 28 degrees.
Next weekend we´ve got a planned trip to Nicaragua, not sure about the exact schedule, but you´ll soon get the update!
Hasta luego,
Flora xx
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anonymous
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Que cool!
Hola hermana, Wat leuk om van je te horen! Klinkt alsof je een mooi weekend hebt gehad. Ik heb eerder ook al geprobeerd een bericht achter te laten, ik hoop dat het nu wel lukt. Heb jij al een telefoonnummer? Dan kunnen we een keertje bellen in het weekend, we zitten redelijk op hetzelfde tijsdschema! dikke knuffel van mij, xxxx - Helen