Manuel Antonio

This past weekend, I took my first excursion to Manuel Antonio, which is a beach town along the Pacific Ocean. It is said to be the prettiest and most expensive city in all of Costa Rica.

So on Thursday night, we took a 4 hour bus ride to the beach. We arrived around ten at night to our Hostel called Backpackers Manuel Antonio. Here we stayed in a huge dorm room with about ten bunk beds. The Hostel was pretty awesome. It had a pool, lounge area, kitchen, hamock setup area and a mini restaurant. We met so many crazy people. One of which I will never forget. I never seemed to catch his name, but we all refered to his as Banana Boy. The reason for that is, this boy eats thirty to forty bananas a DAY. I am not kidding. He is from Sweden and only eats fruits and vegetables, but as he put it, he will eat nuts if he picks them from a farm. He was quite the character.

Friday morning came around and we woke up to the beautiful rain. Who would have thought we would leave the rain in the valley to go to the rain at the beach? But it all worked out in our favor. Me, my friend Erin, and Sammy went on an ATV tour. We were shown pinapple plantations and farms and such and we road through a river and ended up at two awesome waterfalls. By the end of the tour I was covered in mud. We ate lunch with the group and the headed back to the hostel and relaxed for the afternoon.

That night we went to dinner at a restuarant that was built around an old airplane. The front bar is the inside of the airplane and you are able to go into the area where the pilots fly the plane and check it out. The rest of the restuarant is built around that part. Its pretty amazing.

Saturday meant beach day. Waking up to the sunshine we were determined to hit the beach. Body surfing and tanning was great. We walked through the national park and saw all sorts of monkeys and animals. The animals were so friendly, they would walk right up to you or just get really close.
Saturday night was a very intersting experience. We went back to the hostel, went to dinner and then our new friend, a tour guide, wanted to take us out. So he drove us in his tourismo bus to a place called Bamba Jam. It is a Tica bar with a live band and dancing. Henry, the guide, was a great dancer and was determined to get us gringas dancing like ticas. Too bad I have only been to my zumba class once. This night was really fun and we definetly got a taste of the Costa Rican night life.

Sunday meant back to reality. It was a great trip. The funny thing for me was, everywhere I went, I had memories from my first trip with my family and the Gordons. It was a nice feeling and I was able to add on to those memories.

As for photos, I have lots that I took, but due to my computer braking, I am working on uploading them to my temporary one. I will get them up as soon as possible.

Next stop... Puerto Viejo.

Pura Vida