Blogs from Manuel Antonio, Puntarenas, Costa Rica, Central America Caribbean - page 4

Costa Rica 2013: Day 11: Playas del Coco to Manuel Antonio: We were ready to leave our room at Laura's House by 6am, but unfortunately the lady who had been in the cafe the morning before wasn't there, so no coffee. We made our way to the bus stop in Playas del Coco to catch the 6:30am bus to Liberia and arrived with time to spare. The "bus stop" is just a place on the side of the road where the Pulmiton busses stop. When we arrived in Liberia, it was just past 7:30am, so we walked the block or so to the bus station for Puntarensas, and lo and behold, the 7:30 bus to Puntarenas was just leaving, so we hopped on, already an hour ahead of schedule, as I'd planned on catching the 8:30 ... read more

We 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

MANUEL 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

Hola 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

Dag 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