The Prettiest Place in Costa Rica

I woke up in Quepos pretty early, and after packing my stuff headed right to the bus station. I caught a bus to Manuel Antonio, it was a short trip and I got off when I saw my hostel go by out the window. The hostel I went to was really nice, it's not in the book yet, but it has all the usual features, kitchen, tv room, etc, and even has its own tarzan swing and private beach, which is about a 30min hike away. After I dropped off my stuff I went for a walk into town. Manuel Antonio is a weird town, there's really no centre, just a 5km stretch of town on 1 long main road. It took me a while to figure this out, as I kept looking for the middle of the town, until I got to the end of this long road. The road ends at a beautiful beach right near the national park, and while I was walking down the beach I spotted San Fran (I'm calling him Mike from now on because we've left the girls and I think it bugged him.) Mike and I threw a frisbee around for a while, and at one point a local walked by as asked us to pass the frisbee to him, so Mike did, and he proceeded to throw it out into the ocean. I think he meant to throw it to me, but it was no where near. Mike then had to wade out into the ocean to grab it.

After frisbee I caught a bus back to the hostel, and by the time I had got back there Kristen and Chelsey had checked in. We made lunch together, and just hung out there until around 7:00 when we had plans to meet a few people back down at the beach for dinner. Kristen and Chelsey and I met up with Mike and Paula, and Paula brought a few friends from her hostel as well. One of them was an American from North Carolina and Kristen and Chelsey could not get over how much she chain smoked / drank. After dinner we went down to a "Beach Party" It was pretty poor, only a few people on the beach, and a DJ playing some really bad reggaeton. One local guy we were talking to told us how he rents surfboards, cars, boogeyboards, snorkels, balls, houses, his list just went on and on. Instead of shaking our hands to say hello he touched his elbow to ours, and then explained that "I was riding my motorbike, and I was really really drunk, and accidentally drove my bike into a tree." He was funny at first, but then when he kept asking us over and over to buy drugs off him we eventually had enough and pretty much had to tell him to leave us alone.

CURTIS!! MONKEYS!!!

After the beach party we went back up the hill near our hostel to go to a bar, but when we got to the door, they were asking for IDs. That's normal in Canada, but unheard of here. They were only asking our tourists IDs, and were letting all the locals go. Because I had my wallet stolen I only had my passport left, and there's no way I'm bringing that out to a bar with me in Costa Rica. After Kristen, Chelsey and I left to go back to the hostel, they agreed to let the others in, but the girls had to pay 1000 and the guys had to pay 5000. So they ended up just going back to the hostel as well.

The next day the girls and I caught the bus down to Manuel Antonio National Park. Right at the entrance of the park there's a knee level deep pond you have to wade through to get across. There's a couple of guys set up there with little boats to ferry people across, they tell everyone that there's crocs in the water, but the book says they're just lying to scare the tourists and make a buck. After the 3 of us waded through the water we paid at the gate to get in and walked over to the first beach. The beaches in this park were so beautiful, with white and bright green water. The 3 of us went for a swim, but this time kept a very close eye on our bags. We attempted to bodysurf, but the problem was that when the waves crashed, they crashed right on the sand. So you'd catch a wave and then 1 seconds later you were being beat into the beach. It was still fun and we did it a few times anyway, crashing into the sand and then laying there like a beached whale until another wave came and pulled us back into the ocean. While we were at that beach, a raccoon suddenly came out of the trees, walked around our stuff, and went back into the forest. Chelsey's reaction was really funny when it first came out "HOLY S#%T A RACCOON!" After we left that beach we went for a hike around a viewpoint and down to another beach, with even bigger waves. It was at this beach that we saw the monkeys. Again, Chelsey spotted them first. The girls were in the water, and I was on the beach watching the stuff when I suddenly heard "CURTIS!! MONKEYS!!!" and the girls came running out of the water to take pictures. The national park was really beautiful, and we left just before the nightly rainfall to get back to our hostel. After making dinner the Mike and the 3 of us went over to Paula's hostel and talked to people and played cards there for a while.

The next day I was going to be getting up early with Mike and Paula to go all the way across the country to Puerto Viejo, on the Caribbean coast. Kristen and Chelsey planned to stay another day in Manuel Antonio to go on a morning sailing trip.