Manuel Antonio

I am doing my volunteer work right now, but I will try to give a bit of an update because it has been awhile since my last.

This past weekend I went to Manuel Anotonio which is on the Pacific Coast. It is part of the National Park so the beaches are really well preserved. I left with seven other people from San Jose at 6:30 on Friday and got to the hotel at about 11 or so. The bus ride was fine. Everyone was really tired so we all went to bed. The next morning we woke up at seven, got ready, and ate breakfast. I didn't have time to stop by the bank before we left so I was completely broke. Actually I had about 11 dollars for the entire weekend, but entrance into the park cost 7, so that gave me four dollars for the weekend. I brought some bread and what I thought was apple juice until I read the label again before drinking it that it was actually liquid yogurt (called likigurt). It wasn't too bad, but I couldn't drink the entire box. Everyone else had a regular breakfast that wasn't so good either, so I didn't miss out on much. After that, we went into the park to go to the beach. It wasn't a very long walk to Playa #3. Let me try to paint a picture of the park. You enter the park and you are walking through part of the rainforest. You go a couple of meters straight and see the beautiful ocean with little waves and a clear sky. We were advised to go to the third beach because the other beaches have waves that are a bit rough, so we turned left and kept walking for about 700 meters. We are in the rainforest still but a couple of meters to our right is the great beach. We get to Playa Tres and it is excellent. The beach and the surrounding rocks make a crescent shape around a sort of pool of the ocean (It is a lot safer because of the crescent shaped land and the beach is inclosed by the coral reef, so there aren't as many waves). The water is a little bit too warm, but everything else was fine. A friend of mine and I went to see what the next beach was like. We thought it was close and I was wet so I didn't want to put on my shoes for the hike, which was a mistake because it was quite the hike. I didn't get cut or anything but my soles were pretty raw by the time we got back. The other beach was not worth it at all. So we came back to Playa Tres and hung out for a couple of hours. I got a little darker and burnt a little, but it was cool because I was just laying there listening to my ipod with the sound of the ocean in the background. We came back to the hotel and showered. Then I had to go into Quepos alone to try and buy a ticket for the ride home because I lost mine, so I hopped on the bus at four thirty and tried to get into town by five, because that is when the station stops selling tickets. So I get there too late and I wait around for about an hour because I thought the rest of my group was coming into town to eat (Quepos is really nasty, so I am glad that we didn't end up eating there). I finally got back on the bus and went back to Manuel Antonio and by chance one of the people in my group saw me getting off the bus and they hadn't eaten yet so we were all able to eat together. Dinner was so good. I ate more in that meal than I think I have ever eaten in one sitting. Then I got some Dos Pinos ice cream, which is one of the best packaged ice cream ever. The group was going to go to a club that night but I went to sleep instead after watching the Men in Black. I woke up the next morning and wrote in my journal. Then went to the beach that was right outside our hotel and sat there for a little bit listening to more music. I ate some breakfast then had to go into Quepos again to see if I could get a ticket. A girl in my group lost her's as well so we went together. We got to the vendor and explained our situation and they didn't make us pay for anothe one. Instead they just made a replacement ticket and stamped and signed it for us. That was pretty lucky. We went back to meet with the group in Manueal Antonio and to eat lunch. I wasn't that hungry and by this time my stomach wasn't doing so well. I ordered just guacamole with chips. The guacamole was amazing. It was the best I ever had. So after that we got on the bus ride to go back home. The bus ride was horrible. The rode was really windy through the mountains and I was feeling sick from the get go. I took a dramamine but it didn't knock me out that much. I kept falling into a light sleep but woke up easily. At one point I knew I was going to vomit so I got a plastic bag that I had out. I didn't vomit then and we stopped at a little rest stop. I used the restroom and got back on the bus. We drove for a little while longer and I had the vomit feeling again. I felt really warm and started to breathe hard. I grabbed my bag and vomitted. I felt a lot better afterwards, but it made everyone else in the bus really uncomfortable. I took another dramamine which seemed to actually wake me up. So the rest of the ride was uneventful. I took a taxi with a couple of girls back to our neighborhood. I felt sick the rest of the night. I will post photos later when I have my camera and a computer.