Hanging out in Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica

Travelling to Manuel Antonio

We woke up at the usual time of 5.30am to the Costa Rican chorus of loud trucks zooming past and American people getting ready for a day of hiking. We managed to squeeze in a quick breakfast with our favourite man at Soda Mima’s at 6.30 on the dot and were ready for pick up by a van at 7am.

The van made two stops, one in the mists of the highlands at a free toilet and tourist gift shop. The mist was so thick at one point you could barely see 5 metres of road ahead! The second stop was further down south, boiling hot and muggy. There was a river with 10 enormous crocodiles floating around – they would’ve been about 3 metres long! Everyone was looking at them off a bridge and one person was dangling their GoPro above them on a string. The crocs kept leaping into the air to get it, very dangerous for the person on the other end of the string as the fence barrier was very low and it would’ve been easy to lose your balance if the croc managed to yank the camera down!

We arrived in Manuel Antonio to a huge hostel consisting of wooden frame dorms amongst a beautifully manicured jungle garden and pool. There is a taco bar, where we had some lunch. We swam in the big pool while waiting for our dorm to be ready. Susie and I got two single beds next to each other on a platform above the bunk beds. We unpacked and headed back to the pool as it was just so hot! Lots of other people were there and we got chatting to an Irish couple from Cork.

Around 4.30pm we walked into the town, ten minutes downhill on a very windy road with no sidewalk, to find a supermarket. There are rules about what food you can take into the national park tomorrow so we needed sandwich ingredients! We also got dinner food (more pasta) and water. We caught the bus back up the hill.

We were both too exhausted to research a place for dinner and then find it, so we went to a restaurant right next to our hostel. The food there was good, my dinner was absolutely enormous, to the point where Susie finished her meal before me for the first time ever! There was live music at the hostel down by the pool but we were tired so we just got our bags ready for tomorow.

Manuel Antonio National Park

I woke at 5.30am to the dawn chorus trumpeting through our open air dorm in the trees. There was no way anyone could sleep through that noise, but luckily I drifted off again before we got up. We were picked up at 7.30am while trying to wolf down some rice and beans (gallo pinto), eggs and coffee. On the ride there we saw the ‘town’ for the first time, a long stretched out road above the ocean, with the occasional great view stretching for miles only to be covered in jungle and shops. The town was on the beach front and the park just off it. Our driver introduced us to our tour guide for the day, there were 7 of us in the group, the rest Americans.

We walked through the park slowly, stopping every ten metres or so because our guide had spotted another tiny animal or insect somehow from the path we were on!
At the entrance there was a deer, sitting curled up in the jungle. But that wasn’t the strangest animal we saw – heaps of jungle crabs were about, with bright red legs and a purple body! We also saw an iguana high up in a tree, a gladiator frog, an agouti, and all three species of monkey in the park – squirrel, white face and howler monkeys! They were definitely the most visible animal, crashing through the tree tops and running along power lines. Just like the snake, the howler monkey had a very strong smell before you could see it. We also saw one sloth, it was awake and eating leaves! Once again, it was really high up in the tree.

Our tour ended at 10am at the beach inside the park. We could’ve stayed for 45 minutes then had an airconditioned ride back to the hostel, but instead we opted to stay at the beach longer and explore more. It was absolutely boiling, it hadn’t rained today (great for photos) but it meant the humidity was through the roof and our clothes were soaked from just walking around slowly. The sea was so cooling but it had huge surf waves. As we dried off on the beach, an enormous beach iguana appeared behind us in a sunny patch.

Next we went for a walk around Cathedral point, a peninsula between two beaches. It was so hot and sticky, it was really awful. But we saw lots of iguanas all over the path, one was eating a crab. Once we finished the walk we went straight back into the sea on the other side. It looked really calm with only a little wave on the shore, but the swell was huge and dragged you out then dumped you on the sand, all without the waves breaking! We tried to stay in but it was difficult, and the water was actually really warm. So we had a shower and walked back to the entrance. A quick frozen juice slushy helped us cool off enough to wander into the town and catch the bus home!

Back at the hostel I had a swim then a chicken taco and a cold beer by the pool. We are cooking dinner here tonight (another tomato pasta) so we’re just hanging out in the reception area under the fans. There’s good music playing and people are relaxing in hammocks.

Day Three Manuel Antonio - parting ways

I woke up much later than the dawn chorus that woke me at 5.30am the previous day! We had breakfast on the tiered balcony with all the hammocks about 8am and Susie decided she was going to double back on our trip, going to Monteverde by La Fortuna to see the cloud forest. I opted to stay in Manuel Antonio for two reasons, the first because I have a job interview today and I didn’t want to risk going to quite a remote area only to find the internet connection wouldn’t be able to handle it.

Secondly, I had told myself at the start of the trip that I wanted to collect experiences, not tick off a sight-seeing list. The cloud forest was top of Susie’s, but I had never heard of them before I came to Costa Rica so it wasn’t a major for me. They do sound amazing though – like a rainforest, but with only clouds and no rainfall! I decided I would have a better experience relaxing at the beautiful hostel, swimming the in pool, visiting the unique beaches and generally travelling a bit slower.

It was pouring with rain so I left Susie to make her bookings and went to do some yoga on the covered rooftop terrace above our roof. I must have done about an hour, with sea views to one side and jungle filled with colourful birds on the other - it was super relaxing!

We went out for lunch to a falafel bar run by an Israeli woman, which turned out to be incredible – maybe one of the best places we’ve eaten in Latin America so far! Unfortunately, the chicken in mine must not have been cooked fully because I got a bit of an upset tummy. The rain had stopped by now. I waved goodbye to Susie in her van and then packed my stuff to go to a secret beach near the hostel.

I had a hand drawn route from the hostel receptionist saved on my phone but also could see the trail on Maps.me offline maps. It involved lots of things like ‘look for an old Villa Teca sign’ – an empty hotel with no water in the pool and all the rooms needing a good wash and paint. The only thing around were a couple of massive black vultures. The path then dropped into a jungle valley, but a couple of cars went past and there were hotels down there. But still there were lots of rustling noises to my left and right as I walked alone. As I walked past a construction site I heard a noise above me. A family of squirrel monkeys were in the tree! There was a mother with a baby on her back.

The path went very uphill and at the top was a sign saying no cars, only walking. A proper jungle path dropped steeply down the hill again. It was quite slippery and there was a tonne of rustling around me, freaking me out until I saw what was causing it – red legged forest crabs. The path got narrower and narrower, turning into a stream. I would’ve probably turned around at that point if it hadn’t been such a steep uphill to get out. Plus I could see footprints in the mud, someone had been here recently. Finally it swept around and a beach became visible. I climbed down onto an empty black sand beach with volcanic rocks. Or I thought it was empty until I spied three young boys sitting on a towel on the opposite side. I waved and went into the water – sand and foam swirling around my legs. It was warm water and felt so good after a sweaty walk! I dried off a bit and walked back out. It wasn’t the nicest day for sunbathing. The uphill walk was definitely steep, hot and I was sweating a lot! My dress had gone dark green from my togs and sweat.

As I came down to where the squirrel monkeys were, I met a man walking his dog. He pointed at the monkeys and said something in Spanish, I told him there were more further up. We got chatting – he was Andres from Argentina, he knew a bit about New Zealand and told me good places to ski in Argentina. He spoke in Spanish slowly so I could understand, taught me a few new words and was the second person to say ‘Espanol es muy practical’ to me – the man at Soda Mima being the first. I now grasped the meaning, people will help you more, give you discounts, treat you better that the average tourist.

He also told me at low tide on the beach – Playa Macha there is a ‘trampa’, a natural pathway that the indigenous people built for sea turtles. (I think this must be where the New Zealand word for hiking, ‘tramp’ comes from because he was very surprised that I understood the word right away). Apparently you can see lots of them at low tide! If low tide wasn’t at dark (6am and 6pm) at the moment I would’ve gone back. We chatted for a long while and he said he was very glad to meet me, but not in the sleazy way Costa Rican men tend to say it. He put his hands in the namaste position, bowed and walked on.

I returned to the hostel feeling incredibly proud I did such an intrepid trampa alone, and happy I was rewarded with such an interesting bilingual talk with a stranger under a pack of squirrel monkeys!

I went straight to the pool to cool down. I found out my interview was actually tomorrow, the time difference had tricked me! There I met Hannah and Lucy, German and Australian girls travelling alone. We chatted for ages about what to do in the area. Hannah was keen to check out the whale’s tail beach and Lucy was a flight attendant on holiday doing a surf school.

I went out for dinner with Lucy, the Soda (local restaurant) we wanted was closed. It seems ‘open every day’ doesn’t apply to Sundays here. We ended up at a touristy and empty restaurant, where the chefs spent most of the time looking at a motorbike outside while we ate fish burgers. It was on the waterfront of Quepos and hundreds of birds were squarking at a deafening level as the sun went down. We got the bus back. My dorm is empty tonight although the hostel has people in it, no queues for the bathroom! My legs are aching from the walk.

Solo and meeting friends at Hostel Plinio, Manuel Antonio

I woke up alone in my big room around 7.30am to sunlight coming in through the mesh on the balcony. It was going to be another beautiful scorcher of a day. I had breakfast down in the kitchen and checked my emails. Then I did half an hour of yoga up on my private yoga room! It was hot and sunny there today so I worked up a bit of a sweat.

I decided to go to Playa Biesanz today, the one recommended for calm water. I waited at the bus stop and the Swiss-German receptionist joined me with his surf board. We chatted on the bus about New Zealand and he helpfully told me the way to the beach.
I got off the bus the same time as another American turista – she said she was heading to Biesanz too. I quickly bought a sarong (as I’d be using my towel at the hostel and didn’t want it to get sandy) and she let out a perfect stream of Spanish with the shopkeeper. Turns out she’d lived in Costa Rica for two years. He gave me a discount for buying it in Spanish.

Then we walked down the steep hill to the beach for about 2km chatting about our jobs, she works with education and refugees in Texas. The path was definitely more built up than Playa Macha! At the bottom we stepped out into a beautiful jungle cove, almost perfectly circular from where we were standing. The tide was high and the waves were strong. I could see the same riptides as in Manuel Antonio park, where the water doesn’t break but almost overlaps each other from two different directions.

There were lots of people there because the park was closed, all sitting on deckchairs you could purchase. We found a tiny patch of sand above the huge waves then swam, drank and ate fresh coconuts, I hired a paddleboard and drifted about for about half an hour. Mostly I just got dragged out to the opening of the harbour and then frantically paddled to a safer area, only to be washed into the shore. But it was fun!

A group of tattoed and weed-smoking ticos (Costa Rican people) sat by us and compared tats, then made sandwiches while a giant racoon lurked in the bushes behind them. A large multi-family group of Americans chatted amongst themselves and tried to clear rocks off the beach. One lady was very nice and talked to us lots. We saw the all-American mum with blonde coiffed up-do smash a crab on the beach and then eat it. That was bizarre. A family of 7 red-headed teenage children also sat with us and applied sunblock for about half an hour, offering me some! I also saw a howler monkey up close, only a few metres away.

My new friend painted a watercolour of the beach as we dried off. I was keeping an eye on the time and left around 2.30pm to hike back up the hill. I was sweating like crazy by the top, but spied a restaurant with an amazing view over Manuel Antonio and then realised it had just been recommended to me by the American girl. I wondered if they would let me sit down looking like I did, but they didn’t blink. They just offered me iced tap water while I mopped my forehead. I had a falafel pita and a fresh juice. Then I walked to the bus, only to be joined by Hannah, the German girl I met yesterday. She was also sweating like crazy.

Then I had a swim in the pool to cool off, Lucy the Australian flight attendant was there with scratches down her legs from her surfing lesson. By 4.30pm I was sitting in the nicest area of the hostel I could find, make-up and hair done in the cleanest white t-shirt I had. My interview went well, it was very informal which made it hard to gauge. But it was really lovely talking to kiwis, even in a professional sense!

After that I lay in the hammock while the most incredible sunset happened in front of me. I called Josh and had a big chat. Then I made dinner in the hostel kitchen (tomato pasta again) while a huge group of surfer French-Canadians from Montreal played Kanye West at full volume and yelled in French at each other, burning their sausages.

My room is full again tonight and I need to plan how I’m getting back to San Jose. We are only having one night there and catching an early flight to Cuba!

Travelling from Costa Rica

On my last day at Hostel Plinio I woke up, everyone was asleep in my room around 8am! I had a shower with no queues and went down to breakfast. I bumped into German Hannah with two other blonde, tanned Europeans but they were all speaking English. At first I was going to sit alone, but the table was dirty so I joined them. I ended up spending the entire morning sitting with them – they were hilarious! One guy from Belgium was returning today (home), and a girl from Amsterdam bought her flights home on my phone after 2 and a half years travelling! We all checked out together and went to get the midday bus to San Jose.

The directo bus was so much better, fast, airconditioning! I sat with the Belgium guy. At the toilet stop he dropped an entire pineapple slice on the ground in front of the bus, washed it off and kept eating. It was very funny.

I said goodbye to my new friends at San Jose and got the most confusing taxi of my life. The driver spoke no English but wanted me to give him directions. It was stressful but we ended up laughing, possibly at each other.

I arrived at the hostel and checked in. A nice black English woman called Evelyn showed me the room. The whole hostel was like a 70s house, untouched with pictures of the occupants on the sideboard in the living room. It was bizarre. Our room was erily spacious, my bed a good 5 metres from Susie’s and surrounded by retro office furniture. The bathroom was huge and all pink lino. I did my interview assignment then we went out to dinner in a trendy barrio with restaurants to rival any big city.

We went to a beer and cheese factory place, I had a really good burger, even by NZ standards! Then we walked home. Two people at our hostel were also going to the airport at 3am so we jumped on their booking.