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Published: June 27th 2011
Dos locos
The people singing are the ownersDay 10, the Interbus picked us up. They were early, but kind enough to let us finish breaking our fast. The bus ride was long but only bumpy for the first 1 hour or so. After that it was nothing but paved highways! About 2.5 hours in, our driver pulled over so he could eat lunch. The rest stop had lots of touristy goods for sale and free coffee. Yay!
As we drew close to Quepos, we started seeing fields upon fields of palm trees. Apparently Costa Rica exports lots of the palm oil used in many bath products.
Upon arriving in Quepos, our first impression was... mixed. The city was weathered and the streets weren't as clean as elsewhere in Costa Rica (like a baby San Jose). We were dropped off at the Wide Mouth Frog and checked into our room. The hostel was pretty nice. We were missing a couple of luxuries - i.e. hot water and A/C. Not a problem though, given that our room had a mini jet engine strapped to the ceiling. Okay, not quite a jet engine, but it was the largest scariest fan I've ever seen.
After we were settled, we
Funny sign
This sign was at the Wide Mouth Frog hostel left to wander around the city. Shavonn picked up a bag from the shop of a french ex-pat who moved to Costa Rica some 20 years ago. We were hungry, so we asked for a dinner recommendation and the ex-pat said that her favorite place was a little italian joint. So, we left the french shop to go eat italian (in Costa Rica). 😊
Turns out the italian here is amazing! But, it must be laden with unisom, as it put us into a deep food coma. Hours later when we woke up, we went to the front desk and signed up for white water rafting (more on that later). Then, we went down to Dos Locos and had some drinks and listened to live music.
The next day, we woke up extra early (5:15AM) and hopped a public bus to Manuel Antonio. The bus dropped us off between the old and new exit. We grabbed a quick bite, then headed into the park. We were so early that we were the first people in the park. Shavonn and I hit the head, then when we came out there were maybe 50 people waiting to get in... Darned
tourist busses. 😊
Given that we'd already been on several guided tours, we opted to just walk around the park on our own. We started out our exploration walking down the main path. We saw some crabs and were startled by some howler monkey grunts (unfortunately, we never actually saw the howler monkeys). At the end of the main trail, we decided to branch out and head towards Playa Escondido. We went to a small secluded beach where we were... um... secluded.... For about 5 minutes. Then, the hundreds of tourists attacked! Caucasian Invasion!
On the way back from the beach, we had to cross a little stream. The rocks were pretty slippery. At one point, I started to fall, so I reached out to grab the closest tree. Turns out the closest tree was covered in giant needles. My middle finger got the worst of it (don't know why). By the time we got to where I could wash my hand, most of my hand was covered in blood. The wound wasn't bad, but it was a bleeder. No big deal. Bandaged it up and went to check out the other beach.
On the other beach,
Manuel Antonio Beach
We were the first ones there... we saw tons of monkeys. They were freaking cute. They had faces like little old men. 😊 We had heard that they were theiving little buggers. Apparenltly one of the ladies who was on the beach had heard the same thing... She told us that she filled up a bag with sand and left it laying around like she had forgotten it. Sure enough, one of the monkies grabbed it, opened it up, and threw it at the ground angrily.
After we got our fill of the monkies, we went on a hike around the peninsula. It was a pretty tough hike, but had some great views. By the time we finished it, we were soaking from sweat and famished.
On the way out of the park, we hit a point where high tide created a waste deep stream between us and escape. There were people with boats offering rides across the stream (maybe 10 feet) for approximately $2.00 per person. That seemed steep for a 10 foot boat ride, so Shavonn and I decided to chance it. We walked up stream a bit and waded our way across. Some people saw that you didn't have to take
a boat - and - next thing you know, there was a mass of dozens of people wading across the stream. 😊 It was quite a sight.
During the walk back into town, we met an artist from the states who works in Costa Rica painting murals for businesses. She said there weren't any good restaurants around, so we hopped the bus back to Quepos.
Back in Quepos, we ate, relaxed, had a drink, and crashed.
The next day, we woke up, ate breakfast at the hostel, and hopped into the bus with our white water tour guides! During the drive, we passed through a town called Silencio. Apparently they use their own local currency in addition to Costa Rican currency. Also, this is where they make a lot of the teak wood furniture in Costa Rica. Very cool.
When we arrived at the rapids, we hopped in the boat with another family (aunt from WI and niece/nephew from CA). The rapids were great! The boat didn't tip, and noone fell out (though a few, including myself, jumped). 😊
Half way down the river, we stopped at a beautiful waterall, swam for a bit, and
Stupid tree!
This is the little bugger that stabbed me! ate a snack on mangos, pineapple, and watermellon. Afterwards, we finished off the rapids and drove back to town to eat lunch with the rafting group. We ate at a little restaurant called Cubanitas. The food was typical, but good. For anyone in Quepos who might be reading this, Unique Adventures is a great group to do rafting with. The whole drive down, they taught us things about plants. In fact, they kept pulling over to grab plants for us to smell, or play with. At one point, our guide even made us a grasshopper out of a giant blade of grass. It was pretty sweet. 😊
Now, we're back at the hostel and debating what to do next. Tonight is our last night in Costa Rica. 😞 Therefore, this will probably be the last blog (for this trip anyways). Our hostel has a policy about posting pictures via their computers, so the pictures will have to wait until we get back to the states.
Till then, Pura Vida!
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