We left Puerto Viejo and drove across the country to the Pacific coast again. This time our destination was Manuel Antonio. Once through San Jose, the rest of the drive was one of the most scenic through the mountains and with great views (second prettiest drive behind our second trip to Arenal when we got lost in Monteverde). We stopped in a tiny town that I don't even know the name of for a quick bite to eat. Quick so we thought. It was in the middle of nowhere and the people didn't speak english. We ordered just fine, but the waiter I guess just assumed we spoke Spanish and we pieced together what we could. It didn't seem like there was an issue with what we ordered. Candler's food came out 20 minutes later. 40 minutes later, Don and I still had no food. There was a window that we could see into the kitchen and there was one woman in there cooking, so we just assumed that she was working on our food. After about an hour, we realized our waiter was gone (it is not uncommon for a server to just leave. Not as in, I quit, but it's meal time, and they need their meal too. A 10% service fee is automatically included on the bill, so service here is not like service in the states.) and the woman in the kitchen was talking with friends. Finally, we just paid for Candler's food and left.
Once we arrived in Manuel Antonio, we met up with a man named Ron that we were going to rent a condo from. Turns out, Ron lived in Virginia Highlands in Atlanta and decided to move to Costa Rica a year ago. Yet another Atlien we've met here. We wound up renting the condo from him and the top picture on this post was the view from the condo. Manuel Antonio was probably the most beautiful place we've stayed...and the hilliest. The main part of town is set up high, and the road down to the beach is spotted with hotels and restaurants all the way down. The road is long, curvey, and steep. We were on the top of the mountain/cliff, and we had no car. Needless to say we got a ton of exercise in Manuel Antonio. We only took a taxi once because it was a downpour. Our legs were sore everyday, and on top of that we had some killer stairs to go up and down to get to the condo. It was great.
We went to the beach everyday and spent one day in Manuel Antonio park. We hiked most of the park which was mostly rainforest, and went to Manuel Antonio beach in the park. The park actually has several beaches, however it was high tide by the time we got to them and they were inaccessable. We saw several critters that I'd never seen before - most of which I still have no idea what they were. One was a possum/raccoon creature, another looked like a black guinea pig/pig mix thing - it was a little larger than a cat and tailless, and when we exited the p
ark there was a group of titi (squirrel) monkies on the roof of a restaurant next to the park. Titi monkeys live in groups of 15-40, and they weren't shy around humans at all. They were running and playing all around. We actually saw another group of them near our condo the following day on our hike down to the beach. We stopped and watched as they tried to cross a gravel road by jumping from tree to tree and across power lines. A baby was left behind and was too scared to cross the power lines, and it sat nervously in the tree crying. The mom eventually came back and tossed it on her back and made the way across. I can't get enough of all the monkeys here. Love it. Another thing I also loved about Manuel Antonio...the caution road signs...
We left Puerto Viejo and drove across the country to the Pacific coast again. This time our destination was Manuel Antonio. Once through San Jose, the rest of the drive was one of the most scenic through the mountains and with great views (second prettiest drive behind our second trip to Arenal when we got lost in Monteverde). We stopped in a tiny town that I don't even know the name of for a quick bite to eat. Quick so we thought. It was in the middle of nowhere and the people didn't speak english. We ordered just fine, but the waiter I guess just assumed we spoke Spanish and we pieced together what we could. It didn't seem like there was an issue with what we ordered. Candler's food came out 20 minutes later. 40 minutes later, Don and I still had no food. There was a window that we could see into the kitchen and there was one woman in there cooking, so we just assumed that she was working on our food. After about an hour, we realized our waiter was gone (it is not uncommon for a server to just leave. Not as in, I quit, but it's meal time, and they need their meal too. A 10% service fee is automatically included on the bill, so service here is not like service in the states.) and the woman in the kitchen was talking with friends. Finally, we just paid for Candler's food and left.
Once we arrived in Manuel Antonio, we met up with a man named Ron that we were going to rent a condo from. Turns out, Ron lived in Virginia Highlands in Atlanta and decided to move to Costa Rica a year ago. Yet another Atlien we've met here. We wound up renting the condo from him and the top picture on this post was the view from the condo. Manuel Antonio was probably the most beautiful place we've stayed...and the hilliest. The main part of town is set up high, and the road down to the beach is spotted with hotels and restaurants all the way down. The road is long, curvey, and steep. We were on the top of the mountain/cliff, and we had no car. Needless to say we got a ton of exercise in Manuel Antonio. We only took a taxi once because it was a downpour. Our legs were sore everyday, and on top of that we had some killer stairs to go up and down to get to the condo. It was great.
We went to the beach everyday and spent one day in Manuel Antonio park. We hiked most of the park which was mostly rainforest, and went to Manuel Antonio beach in the park. The park actually has several beaches, however it was high tide by the time we got to them and they were inaccessable. We saw several critters that I'd never seen before - most of which I still have no idea what they were. One was a possum/raccoon creature, another looked like a black guinea pig/pig mix thing - it was a little larger than a cat and tailless, and when we exited the p
ark there was a group of titi (squirrel) monkies on the roof of a restaurant next to the park. Titi monkeys live in groups of 15-40, and they weren't shy around humans at all. They were running and playing all around. We actually saw another group of them near our condo the following day on our hike down to the beach. We stopped and watched as they tried to cross a gravel road by jumping from tree to tree and across power lines. A baby was left behind and was too scared to cross the power lines, and it sat nervously in the tree crying. The mom eventually came back and tossed it on her back and made the way across. I can't get enough of all the monkeys here. Love it. Another thing I also loved about Manuel Antonio...the caution road signs...
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