July+5,+2011

July 5, 2011

We were up at the crack of dawn because we wanted to get an early start to Antonio Manuel National Park. It is a beautiful beach only the Pacific Ocean. We were all loaded on the bus by 630 AM, but the bus wouldn’t start. Eventually Mario called to San Jose to order another bus. In the mean time, Jorge continued to work on the bus and was able to get it going. He pulled it into the area in front of the hotel, only to have a small engine fire break out. Thankfully, one hotel worker was there with a water hose cleaning off the chairs and they were able to put it out quickly. And the other bus was there in twenty minutes. The best part of the morning was watching all the guys push the crippled bus back into its parking spot.

After our late start (we were on the road by 830) we enjoyed a scenic drive along the beach, through commercial palm tree forests and rice fields. We stopped briefly at a market for snacks and then straight to the beach.

Even going to the beach was a hiking experience with Mario. We hiked up and down and over tree roots to get to our secluded beach in a lovely cove. Once we were there, we laid out our towels in the shade of the palm trees and Mario stood guard over our belonging. He had to protect them from monkeys and raccoons that have found picnic baskets hold many nice treats in them. It wasn’t very long before the white-faced primates turned up seeing what they could wrangle. I was busily taking a picture of one when all of a sudden he made a move for a hidden bagged lunch under a towel. After my initial shock, I was able to scare him enough that he dropped the bag and ran.

The water at the beach was perfect temperature. I was able to stay in the tropical water for a long long time without getting cold. We had fun playing in the gentle surf, looking for seashells and coral, finding hermit crabs, building sand castles, burying each other and watching the pelicans. When you are in Costa Rica, it is like living in a zoo.

Later on a group of raccoons walked through the area and tried to snag some treats too. There was a howler monkey up the path and in the other direction was a two-toed sloth. There was also a baby monkey clinging to his mother’s back. His face was so cute and human-like.

We stayed all day at the beach, reloaded the buses, and drove back. And it rained again. By the time we got to the hotel, it was pouring. The thunder storm lasted for over two hours. We watched the pools fill to the point of almost overflowing and a few of the rooms on the lower floor actually flooded.

A day at the beach is exhausting, so almost everyone is crawling in bed early. Tomorrow we head to back to San Jose, with a shopping stop in route.