Manuel Antonio
We had a mini bus drive from Santa Elena. The bus was driven by a bloke who looked like a garden gnome - all of our luggage was strapped onto the roof and we were convinced it wasn't going to stay there - we even stopped once as we were convinced something had fallen off - fortunately it proved to be a bit of old tyre not a bag lying on the road.
The roads were quite bad in places and some of the bridges we crossed were suicidal -there was a massive tail back over one of the bridges as they did some emergency repairs. On the way we also stopped at a river full of crocodiles - what amazed me was the fact that you could have quite easily gone swimming further up stream and just not known.
We arrived at Manuel Antonio National Park, one of the most popular parks in the country. This celebrated park has lagoons, palm fringed beaches, a vast array of animals and lush green forests.
The hotel rooms were pretty strange as they had a bunk bed and a double bed, a full kitchen and a backyard complete with washing line. There was however a nice swimming pool.
We headed down to the beach but unfortuanately it started to rain so we took shelter in a beach bar - the bar didn't do food but went and got a menu from a neighbouring bar and had the food brought up which I thought was a nice touch. We stayed there for best part of the afternoon. When we tried to leave they tried to pull a fast one with the bill - they didn't put up an arguement at all when I quizzed them which was a bit dodgy.
Well the rain brought with it the sand flies and I got bitten to death. I should have known it was going to be a town of bad service after the last bar but at the restaurant we ordered food and drink and they came in the most random disorganised way - after about 30 minutes when I had neither food nor drink - I checked up and they asked what I ordered - about ten minutes later they came back and said they didn't have any - I just laughed - ordered a rum and coke and refused to pay the service charge - what amazed me was the waitress thought I was being unreasonable while the manager just nodded as he knew I had a point. We continued the drinks in a Raggae bar.
We were up early the next day to head into the park. The beaches certainly were impressive.
When we went in there was what seemed to be a small stream to cross with two guys sitting in their rowing boats - most people waded around the boats and we continued into the park. At the start of the trail there was (allegedly) a Sloth that I couldn't see. Myself Wayne and Caroline decided to do one of the bigger trails through the forest - it was pretty good trail with some excellent sea views - we saw some a strange rodent, multi-coloured crabs and more monkeys. The monkeys were not scared by us and came up really close.
The trail looped back to the beach - I got a surprise as I though we were deep in the jungle!! We then decided to have a look at the Sloth Trail. We cheated a bit as we just looked for the people crowding around particular trees, but we saw about 4 or 5 of the fellas which I think are now my second favourite animals (after the Weasel, of course).
When we came to leave the park after checking out the beach for a bit we got back to the entrance and noticed that what had been a stream when we came in had become a river and the boats were now ferrying people accross.
We grabbed some lunch at a tapas place although they were definately a Costa Rican version of tapas as the Spanish omletted was Scrambled egg with chips in! I then caught some footie before having a bit of a siesta (This is the life!)
Wayne had gone to supervise Dave and Silas surf lesson and was horrified. Their instructor was a complete stoner who didn't explain anything and Wayne said the boards were like sponges and should have been put in the bin - I was glad I hadn't paid for one as had been tempted after my first surfing attempts in Peru.
That night we went up to a bar / restaurant called El Avion (the plane), built around a Fairchild C-123 cargo plane. The story around the plane and how it was transported is pretty interesting and worth a read (just click on the link). The bar was right up on the cliffs and we had a good view of the sunset.
We then went back to the Reggae bar where it was ladies night and it took them forever to cotton on to the fact that the ladies were buying all the drinks!
Next day we had a lie in then caught the bus back to San Jose. I used the San Jose stop as a chance to catch up with phone calls and Internet.
We had to pack a much smaller back pack as the boats we were going to be travelling on could not support the full weight of our packs. Next morning we headed off to Port Limon on the Carribean coast.
The roads were quite bad in places and some of the bridges we crossed were suicidal -there was a massive tail back over one of the bridges as they did some emergency repairs. On the way we also stopped at a river full of crocodiles - what amazed me was the fact that you could have quite easily gone swimming further up stream and just not known.
We arrived at Manuel Antonio National Park, one of the most popular parks in the country. This celebrated park has lagoons, palm fringed beaches, a vast array of animals and lush green forests.
The hotel rooms were pretty strange as they had a bunk bed and a double bed, a full kitchen and a backyard complete with washing line. There was however a nice swimming pool.
We headed down to the beach but unfortuanately it started to rain so we took shelter in a beach bar - the bar didn't do food but went and got a menu from a neighbouring bar and had the food brought up which I thought was a nice touch. We stayed there for best part of the afternoon. When we tried to leave they tried to pull a fast one with the bill - they didn't put up an arguement at all when I quizzed them which was a bit dodgy.
Well the rain brought with it the sand flies and I got bitten to death. I should have known it was going to be a town of bad service after the last bar but at the restaurant we ordered food and drink and they came in the most random disorganised way - after about 30 minutes when I had neither food nor drink - I checked up and they asked what I ordered - about ten minutes later they came back and said they didn't have any - I just laughed - ordered a rum and coke and refused to pay the service charge - what amazed me was the waitress thought I was being unreasonable while the manager just nodded as he knew I had a point. We continued the drinks in a Raggae bar.
We were up early the next day to head into the park. The beaches certainly were impressive.
When we went in there was what seemed to be a small stream to cross with two guys sitting in their rowing boats - most people waded around the boats and we continued into the park. At the start of the trail there was (allegedly) a Sloth that I couldn't see. Myself Wayne and Caroline decided to do one of the bigger trails through the forest - it was pretty good trail with some excellent sea views - we saw some a strange rodent, multi-coloured crabs and more monkeys. The monkeys were not scared by us and came up really close.
The trail looped back to the beach - I got a surprise as I though we were deep in the jungle!! We then decided to have a look at the Sloth Trail. We cheated a bit as we just looked for the people crowding around particular trees, but we saw about 4 or 5 of the fellas which I think are now my second favourite animals (after the Weasel, of course).
When we came to leave the park after checking out the beach for a bit we got back to the entrance and noticed that what had been a stream when we came in had become a river and the boats were now ferrying people accross.
We grabbed some lunch at a tapas place although they were definately a Costa Rican version of tapas as the Spanish omletted was Scrambled egg with chips in! I then caught some footie before having a bit of a siesta (This is the life!)
Wayne had gone to supervise Dave and Silas surf lesson and was horrified. Their instructor was a complete stoner who didn't explain anything and Wayne said the boards were like sponges and should have been put in the bin - I was glad I hadn't paid for one as had been tempted after my first surfing attempts in Peru.
That night we went up to a bar / restaurant called El Avion (the plane), built around a Fairchild C-123 cargo plane. The story around the plane and how it was transported is pretty interesting and worth a read (just click on the link). The bar was right up on the cliffs and we had a good view of the sunset.
We then went back to the Reggae bar where it was ladies night and it took them forever to cotton on to the fact that the ladies were buying all the drinks!
Next day we had a lie in then caught the bus back to San Jose. I used the San Jose stop as a chance to catch up with phone calls and Internet.
We had to pack a much smaller back pack as the boats we were going to be travelling on could not support the full weight of our packs. Next morning we headed off to Port Limon on the Carribean coast.
posted by Phil at 8:29 AM
1 Comments:
No pic of sleeping sloth? Jen x
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