We were woken up in Quepos to the feeling of dripping sweat on our bodies thanks to the lack of air conditioning in the hostel. One thing that the hostel in Quepos had that the rest of our hostels during the whole rest of the vacation lacked was a ceiling fan. This one appliance made the first night the most pleasant out of all the rest of the nights in the humidity. The locks from the prior night in our room actually kept all of our belongings, including ourselves safe.
Balys had gotten up at like 5am to take Harriet to the bus stop because she had to catch a bus back into San Jose to get to the airport, for she was on her way back to the U.K. So we were minus one for the beginning of day #2. We packed up and had decided that A.J., Balys, and me would all head to Manuel Antonio for the day. Hydi, Brian, and Kava were going to head down south because they were going to head into Peru to renew Hydi's 3-month Visa. Amy was going to an internet cafe to find other woofing opportunities in Costa Rica so she went her separate way right away. Before the rest of us were to split up, we went to the Soda Stand from the first night to get breakfast. Got the typical Costa Rican breakfast consisting of pintos (rice and beans), an egg, and a tortilla. After that went to the bus station to get our tickets to our respective destinations. At the bus station in Quepos Hydi, Brian, and Kava decided they wanted to come to Manuel Antonio with us. Balys says that he just wanted to be away from them, but I welcomed the addition of Hydi (cuz she was blonde and pretty hot, although she was 21) in particular, but after hanging with Kava I liked the Kiwi from New Zealand also. At the bus station I ran into Christina from the night before. Her and her beautiful big eyes were heading to San Jose because she was going to the Carribean side of the country to meet up with some other friends of hers.
So we got on the bus for the quick trip from Quepos to Manuel Antonio. It was about 20 minutes I guess. On the ride there, Balys pointed out a pretty sweet broken down cargo plane that was converted into a bar. Of course I don't have a picture of it, damn! But it still was cool because the fuselage was the main bar area and the wings with engine housing in tact were used as a shade for outside tables. We were dropped off in Manuel Antonio around noon and the four experienced travelers took us on a short walk to the hostel we were to stay in for the night so we could drop off our bags. The walk up to the hostel felt like walking in the surface streets of the San Diego Zoo. There was so much vegetation on both sides of us, and it was almost encroaching on us, but not quite like the canopy of the rain forest. The hostel we stayed in was called Costa Linda, and it was pretty sweet. In stark contrast to the dirt lot that the hostel in Quepos had, Costa Linda had all this vegetation in the courtyard complete with a huge tree for shade and lots of bushes lining the walkways. Already it was a totally different experience than Quepos. After dropping our stuff off at Costa Linda we headed to the beach.
Manuel Antonio looked like something out of Jurassic Park. In fact, at one point later that night I mentioned to Hydi that I felt like I was in Jurassic Park as we were walking back to the Costa Linda hostel. Mainly because when we were walking back at night with the jungle vegetation on both sides there were all these birds singing and monkeys hooting along with all the insects making their respective noises. The sounds along with the surrounding jungle environment totally felt like that movie. When I said that to Hydi she laughed and said, "That's pretty much what everyone says the first time I take them here."
The beach was like nothing I had ever seen before, granted I have never been to Hawaii. It had palm trees lining the sand, but it was more like a jungle than a beach atmosphere to me. Just a little ways in from the sand and further south it was very green all the way up to the sand. How green it was reminds me of the hills in North Carolina and Virginia in the Summertime with the hills blanketed with green trees, and not a trace of dirt in sight for miles. There were huge rocks out in the ocean probably about half a mile out with vegetation on the north side of them. It was here where Brian and A.J. decided to rent surfboards. I was scoping out the waves with my trusty pal Balys, and both him and I decided they did not look very inviting to us. I opted not to surf on this day. The waves were barely rolling at all, crashing in and closing out: not forming a very nice ride. Plus I was not about to try to get on any wave that was anything bigger than 3-4 feet. These waves were right around 5-6 feet and likely would've thrashed me all around the water from any wipe out I might experience.
I did get in the water here in Manuel Antonio. This was my first experience of the water temperature in Costa Rica. It was 80 degrees, and a totally different experience from the water temp of 60-70 degrees in San Diego! Up to this point in my life, I have never been in an ocean this warm. It was awesome! I swam around for a little bit, but once I couldn't touch the ocean floor I would venture a little closer to the shore to be able to stand on my two feet. I was super impressed with Hydi's swimming ability though. She was out in the waves treading water and just body surfing them without the help of a board. She literally was probably out swimming (not able to touch the ground) for over an hour. I couldn't believe that one could brave the ocean like that. I would've had a hard enough time the way these waves were crashing staying out if I had a surf board! Finally we decided to head back to the Costa Linda hostel after a while. On our way back, we saw monkeys jumping through the trees! Scavenging for coconuts and whatever food they could likely find.
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