Manuel Antonio

This weekend was spent at a spectacular beach. Our hotel was on a cliff, over looking the gorgeous beach below. Manuel Antonio is one of the biggest tourist beaches in Costa Rica, and if you look at a post card, this is most likely the beach photographed. The cliffs are covered by green rain forests, and there are several rocky islands in the ocean.

Saturday morning we got up and walked to the national park. It was a standard $10 entrance fee, but totally worth it. We walked a mile and a half to a hidden waterfall, but the tropic storms had destroyed the paths, so it was quite an adventure to get there. On the way we finally saw a frog, a neon yellow and black one. It was so hard to spot, but really cool to finally see one. After the trek through the slippery mud we arrived at the waterfall, and were able to go stand under it. people in my group were scared to get in and stand under it, but I was not going to lose the opportunity to stand under a waterfall in the rain forest. it was well worth it, and everyone joined me right away. It was amazing.

After the waterfall, we went to a beach with in the pack. It was in a cove, blocking the waves so you could just go float in the water. The cove to me was the definition of paradise. There was a coral reef, where we could view awesome fish. The cove has a rocky side that was covered in Hermit crabs, and it was crazy to explore. Laying on the beach, racoons, iguanas, and monkeys came close enough to your towel to steal your food. We literally fed a monkey that was 5 feet from us. It was amazing. At the end of the day, on the way back to the hotel we saw two white tailed deer fawns right on the trail. It was a nice reminder of home. That night we went to an outdoor restaurant on the roof of our hotel and watched the sun set.

Sunday morning we went to the public beach in the town and met a ton of cool people. Lots of backpackers from Boulder and Oregon and Kentucky. It was nice to speak in English to our new friends. There were isles of stands with dresses and crafts made by the people, and it was fun to walk and barter over prices. I ended up with a cute coverup and a nice sarong that I learned to tie in several different styles.

A quick bus ride home to San Jose to finish my papers completed my weekend. My roommate is now gone back to the states, so I spent a good part of the evening with my hermanotico (homestay brother) discussing the world cup. During the game Friday, we all had the live feed running on our computers during class. It is fun to be here, where everyone loves futbol, during the World Cup. oh, and when I wore my new Costa Rica jersey, I got lots of comments from the locals.

Hope everyone had a nice weekend back home, can't wait to hear how it went.

p.s. it is crazy that I have been here 3 weeks now, I feel like I have already done so much.