Advertisement
Published: February 19th 2008
Hey ho!
OK, so I am back in San Jose to improve my Spanish, which is going rather well!
We took a bus on Friday morning at 6am to Manuel Antonio, which is a town on the Pacific Coast, close to Quepos. It took us just under 4 hours to get there, which was actually not to bad, considering we only paid something like 7 USD return!!! The beach is actually not that far away, probably 150km, but the infrastructure over here is just not brilliant and we had to drive through mountains, up and down and well, it was not the nicest tour!! So, when we finally got there it was already rather hot, so we just tried to find our hostel and changed there to go to the beach. The hostel was pretty basic, we had bunk beds and a communal bath, where one of the showers didn't work. Oh well, its not like we were planning to spend a lot of time there anyway!
The beach was so nice! So good to swim in the sea! Luckily, although I only used SPF 12, I didnt get burned, well, that happened Saturday (back) and Sunday (front)... I
am still kind of red but, it doesnt hurt anymore and is starting to turn into a nice tan, at least I like to think so...
We spent all Saturday in the National Park in Manuel Antonio to admire the nature and see some animal in action. Well, not that there was much action involved watching the Sloths move, but hey, it was fun! Also saw Iguanas, anteaters, baby sloths, monkeys, and crabs. As for the monkeys, well, they are not the friendliest animals. On top of hiking and watching animals and tourists, the park also has quite a few beaches around it. So, after we spent hours hiking, we decided to just laze at the beach, fully prepared for a picknick... We soon discovered that Iguanas are not as shy as you d think, seeing them walking towards us slowly.. So, I took some pictures, while the other girls screamed and walked away. After a while they left though and I saw monkeys somewhere close by, so I left to take pictures of the monkeys. I probably took 2 pictures when suddenly they all ran off to the girls, I barely had a chance to shout and warn them
so within seconds, our bread was gone, than an apple that was hidden in Christina's bag and an empty cookie wrapper... Well, its not like we wanted to feed them!!! But we were still told off by an American biologist whom we met in a bar that night and is currently working in the park to study the behavior of the monkeys. Anyway, I was just laughing my head off, still taking pictures while Jasmine and Christina just wanted them to go away.. Oh well. that was fun!
Manuel Antonio itself is quite nice, but very touristy and overpriced. We didnt even have to try and speak Spanish, everything was posted in English anyway!
Mhh, am pretty tired now, as we got back late Sunday and went out to a Jazz bar last night..
School is still great! Learning lots and lots every day! We also have a new student in our class, Paul from New York, quite a hunk, I have got to say! Oh and the English girl left as she couldn't quite keep up with our speed.
OK, so, cant hink of anything else... Oh, I decided on my volunteer project, will be going to Gandoca Manzillo on the Carribean Coast, between Puerto Limon and Panama. Its about 5 hours away from San Jose and I will be staying in cabins on site. Apparently we are not allowed alcohol on site and only get 1 day off a week, and we also have to be back in the camp every night, so no overnight stays anywhere else.. Not that I was planing that anyway!
All right, got to go... Have to plan our next trip...
Hasta luego!!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.045s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 8; qc: 27; dbt: 0.0192s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb
Juergen
non-member comment
Article on Radio
Hello Katrin, just two days agon when i drove home from work i heard an article in the radio about the grean ocean turtle. Maybe that couldt be of interest for you. If you want to read the spoken article, please copy the following link in your browser adress line: http://www.dradio.de/dlf/sendungen/forschak/742333/ Also Costa Rica is mentioned in that article. I have read all your last entries and i was very impressed, how detailed you discribe your live overthere. It is very interesting. Thank you for all your informations. I think, that you are doing quite well. All the best and always good effectiveness. Especially with learning spanish. Con un cordial saludo, Juergen