After speaking with the hostel owner last night, the plan for today was to explore the Manuel Antonio National Park and beaches then make our way down to Samara. The company she recommended only did tours at 7:30am and was going to cost $45 for 2 hours, so we decided we would wake up early, get to the park, and walk around on our own. Well, it gets light very early in Costa Rica, and for whatever reason my phone and laptop are still on US east coast time so when I looked at the clock it read 7:30 but was really 5:30 here. Oops! Well, it let us get an early start to the day!
As we neared the park, we were flagged down by a couple of park rangers and pulled into a little parking lot. The guides there said they would do a tour for $30 each and that would include the $10 entrance fee to the park which we would need to pay anyway. We debated for a while thinking it might not be worth it, but then they pulled out a telescope to show us a two-toed sloth in the tree across the street. Even with my camera on the furthest zoom I couldn't make it out. So, we did the tour. Below are some of the pictures of the wildlife we saw, many taken thorough the telescope.
Black iguana
Baby black iguana
Baby Jesus lizard
Laughing falcon
Three-toed sloth
Fire-billed toucan
Slatey tail trogan
Green vine snake
White-faced monkey
White-faced monkeys playing
Me and Laura with our guide, Freddy
All in all, the tour was definitely worth the price. It was sunny and very humid, so by the time we got to the beach at the end we were ready to swim. The water was in the mid-80's (a lot like Florida beaches in August) and we tried out two of the beaches in the park. The first was Manuel Antonio beach where we tried to snorkel but the water was very murky so we weren't able to. The waves were pretty big and would have been perfect for body surfing but the sand was very coarse and there were some small rocks and shells mixed in - would not have been comfortable. The next beach we tried was Espadilla Sur which was just as nice but not as rocky so we got to body surf :). There were black iguanas roaming around on the path and in the trees all along the beach which was neat to see.
Just as we got to our car it began to thunder. We had seen an interesting restaurant on our way to Manuel Antonio and decided to stop on our way out for a post-hike margarita. The place, El Avion ("The Plane"), is three floors with the middle floor at street level and an enormous intact airplane in the middle of it. We sat along the railing to see the ocean, but you could sit inside the plane too!
El Avion
Mango margaritas!
View from our table at El Avion
We left El Avion heading toward Samara. We were both hungry (but the restaurant was a little pricey) so we decided to stop in Jaco on the way. We must have seen about 15 signs for pizza places our first day and another 10 today, so we decided we would see what the Costa Ricans had to offer. A place called Rioasis in Jaco had good reviews, so we stopped there. We wanted to try some Costa Rican beers, so I had a Bavaria dark and Laura had a Bavaria gold. Both were quite good considering most of the beers I have tried from Central America resemble Cornona, which I really do not care for. Also it was two-for-one night on pizzas, so we got a medium for dinner and took a small home for breakfast! The place was nice, right on a busy corner in downtown Jaco with great people watching. The pizza, made in a brick oven, was also very good - nice thin crust with local cheese and fresh ingredients.
The oven at Rioasis Pizzaria
It took us about three hours to get from Jaco to Samara, arriving at about 9:30pm local time. It was such a fun drive though! Lots of hills with winding roads and narrow bridges, plus it was no longer thundering but there was a ton of lightning so even though it was dark we could see a lot of our surroundings. We stayed the night at Las Mariposas which, although our room had a private bathroom, did not have a sink. There was, instead, a faucet at about knee level in the shower so we had to squat in the shower stall to brush our teeth and wash our faces. Just an interesting little side note ;) It was a great full first day in Costa Rica, and I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!
Playing on Manuel Antonio beach :)
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