Before my trip I did a lot of research on what type of shoes were best for the kind of adventure I was going on and the activities I planned to do. Some activities I wanted shoes for included hiking, going on the water, the beach, relaxing and looking nice if I went out at night. I found a lot of different options online, ordered/tried on hundreds of shoes and finally here is what I ended up buying/packing: **Note: I purchased most of my shoes on Amazon or at REI with a prime account you get free 2 day shipping, and they now have free returns for most items. This way I could order the size or shoe I thought I wanted and if I needed something different or didn't want it, returns/refunds were quick and easy. Just a thought if you are an Amazon lover like me!** 1. Teva's Olowahu flip flops (Around $15 on Amazon)- I brought these for comfort, they have been my go to sandals for the last 4 years and I LOVE them, they are comfortable and stylish...the only downfall is the foam is slippery when wet...so far I've worn them just for relaxing around the lodge and easy walks around town...I am happy I packed them. 2. Teva's Original Universal flip flops (Around $25 on Amazon)- LOVE these, they have been great! I can adjust them for comfort or tighter if were doing more hiking...I wouldn't suggest them for any intense hiking but if you are just exploring around town and do some trails you should be okay. They have also been perfect for the beach, but the tan line isn't the prettiest ;) Overall they are super useful and versatile. They work well when wet but aren't great for walking on big rocks in the river...but what shoes are? 3. Ahnu Maia Sandals (I got them for $30 on Amazon, prices change often)- I've been here almost two weeks and I haven't even taken these out of my bag...I love how comfortable and cute they are but I'm not sure if they are necessary? I haven't had the opportunity to go out or dress up yet though...so we will see! But they do come in lots of cute colors and even if I don't end up using them much on my trip, I know I will wear them a lot back home. 4. Ahnu Sugarpine Air Mesh Hiking Shoes (non-waterproof version) (I got them at REI on clearance $40.00)- When I bought these I struggled a lot between getting the waterproof or normal version. A lot of reviews I read said the normal version was sufficient, and so far it has been. I submerged my feet in the river with these on and my feet did get soaking but not uncomfortable. When my feet are not submerged they do stay pretty dry. They dry quickly outside too, which is a huge plus! But if you think you will be using them somewhere that is extremely wet all the time, I'd probably opt for the waterproof version. I tried A LOT of hiking shoes and brands before settling on these shoes, the reason I picked them is they were the most comfortable for my feet. So far I would say I am happy I brought these shoes. *Update: after the trip I ended up returning these shoes, I thought they were a great idea, good traction and dry quickly but my feet got achy quickly in them...I don't think that would happen for anyone but I think the arch support was too high for my foot. 5. Toms (Bought these a long time ago)- I brought these because they are cute, comfortable and lightweight to pack...I didn't end up wearing them at all, easy to pack but didn't need them! Would not take on another trip. ** Toms also donates one pair of shoes for every pair purchased...pretty awesome!** I considered bringing my keen sandals, but after I wore them in St. John and found that I got a lot of rocks in them when hiking, I decided not to bring them this time. (Note: I took them on the second part of my trip and they were awesome!) However, I think these shoes could work GREAT for lots of people traveling to Costa Rica or Panama and I would keep them on the list of shoes to consider. If I had more space, I would have brought mine a long and I am sure I would have worn them a few times by now. Shoes I'm considering for the rest of the trip: water shoes or neoprene booties for exploring rivers. I might also bring my nike free runs on the next trip for a light weight daily shoe when I'm not exploring nature...not sure yet though. If you have any questions feel free to ask!
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Two weeks ago Steve and I had a weekend off to go to Manuel Antonio. I wrote a post about our first day but never got around to telling you what we did with the rest of the weekend! I strayed from my blog for two weeks because I was trying to enjoy and take-in our time off...not be consumed by the internet, blogging, facebook, etc. After that weekend things got busy around the lodge and time got away from me. But here I am now! Ready to fill you in on the rest of our weekend off....
It was amazing. It felt so good to be out on our own, exploring the town and not having any expectations from others. On Friday we went to Manuel Antonio National Park. Part of the fun was the journey getting there. We took the bus into Manuel Antonio and then walked a small rode/path that led to the park. The rode was beautiful...palm trees, cute stands with necklaces & other trinkets, ice cream stores, coconut water stands, etc. The park costs $16 a person. We decided not to do a guided tour based on local advice, we were told that there are so many tours everywhere you can just watch and see what the guides point at. Very true. We were able to walk to park at our own pace by caught a glimpse of sloths, monkeys & snakes when guides pointed them out. You honestly couldn't miss them because all the people would point, gather and pull out their cameras. The park itself is beautiful and we were so excited to finally see monkeys! They were so adorable, we saw monkeys up close and got some great pictures and video! (Which hopefully I can post on here soon). At one point we watch baby monkeys jump around 8 feet from one tree to another...it was an amazing experience. We also saw a poisonous snake on a tree and of course Steve got closer than I was comfortable with, but we all know I have no control over that! We got some cool pictures of that as well. After exploring the jungle a bit we headed to the National Park beach. The sand at this beach was much nice and the waves were calmer. They were the perfect waves for relaxing and bobbing up and down. The water was warm and it was an amazing time laying out, building sand castles, bobbing in the water and reading by the beach. We even had some raccoons try to sneak by our bags. We weren't impressed by this but a lot of the other tourists were...it was hilarious they were pulling out their nice cameras trying desperately to get good pictures of RACCOONS! We also saw some bearded dragons and got amazing pictures of them. I can't wait to post some of these pictures for you guys to see once we get better Internet. After the beach we headed out of the park and stopped at a local ice cream shop. The guy who owned it was running it with his two young daughters, they moved here a few years ago from California. We have run into a lot of families who moved here after vacationing. It sounds pretty cool, but I am still not sold on the idea of moving to Costa Rica. Too humid and hot all of the time, and not sure how I feel about the culture. Everything here is about earning tips. (I will get into that in another post) After our ice cream we watched the sunset on the public beach and then took the bus back into Quepos. Once in Quepos we at at a local restaurant called Ticos Bar y Restaurate, it was priced well, good food and 2 for 1 margaritas and sangria...perfect for us. We chose to eat there because it looked like a nice atmosphere, beautiful bricks inside. I'm not going to lie, I ordered chicken fingers. Steve had Ceviche and he loved it...only wished he had a bigger bowl! After dinner we headed back to Villas Jacquelina and called it a night. On Saturday we did a Manuel Antonio Sunset Catamaran tour with Planet Dolphin. It was beautiful! We couldn't have asked for a nicer day. We got on the tour at the Quepos Marina and headed out to sea. There were about 30 other tourists with us. The second we got on the boat we were handed a drink. The tour included 8 drinks and dinner...but the drinks were extremely weak. We saw sting rays, dolphins, etc all swimming near our boat. The boat drove around the different views of Manuel Antonio National Park and then stopped by some reef for snorkeling. The snorkeling was pointless...there was NOTHING to see at the reef. I mean nothing. Then they opened up slides on top of the boat and people began going down the slides and jumping off the top. I got some funny videos of Steve on the slide. It was clear everyone on the boat was having a good time...there was a lot of laughing. Then dinner was served while we headed out to the sunset. We had fish skewers, noodles and fresh fruit. It was all fresh and yummy. The sunset ended up being a let down, hardly any color and lots of clouds but we didn't care...we see plenty of pretty sunsets at home on the lake in the summer...we were just happy to have the views of the beaches and mountains. Sunday concluded our trip to Manuel Antonio. We did a little bit of shopping, ate at SUBWAY :) Yes there is a subway, and yes it tastes the same. Then we headed back to the Lodge for another week of work....hi ho hi ho, off to work we go.... Review of Villas Jacquelina in Quepos, Costa Rica
Location: The location was OK…it outside the city of Quepos, which we thought would help with noise (not the case). Whenever we wanted to go in to Quepos or Manuel Antonio we had to pay $3.00 for a taxi plus $1.50 for a half hour bus ride. It is not near any groceries or food without walking 15-20 minutes. We could have walked to town but it was too hot during the day and not sure about safety at night…so we always took a taxi. Accommodations: It was simple, a bed and a night stand. No a/c but an overhead fan that works pretty well. The bed was not comfortable and the pillows were flat. The air flow was good and the sheets were clean. Each day our room was cleaned and it looked nice. The windows don’t shut securely so anyone could break in at any moment. We weren’t super worried about break ins because we were outside of the city, but the owner did tell us he was robbed once. The showers were OK, the first night we had freezing cold showers because no one told us about a switch we had to flip, so the second night we got hot showers because we flipped the switch, and then the third night (even though we had the switch on) no hot water would come out. The bathroom was shared. It was clean, however, there was no toilet paper on the third day. As for noise, the mornings were loud…screaming babies, loud children, people talking, birds squeaking…there really isn’t much sleeping after 6am. Price: Over priced at $40 a night. Hard to cancel. We tried to cancel 1 of the 3 nights (with 2 days notice, per their rules) once we saw the location, but the owner gave us a hard time. Overall not worth what we paid. Recommendations: Don’t stay here. It's not located near any stores or food. You have to pay to get a taxi to the bus stations. On our way in to Manuel Antonio we saw accommodations for Manuel Antonio Backpackers…we wish we had stayed there, good location, in a nice area, across from a supermarket and according to their website private rooms, hot showers, etc for $35 a night. Also right next to the bus stop. Its here!! Finally we have some time to ourselves and get to see more of Costa Rica! Today we caught a ride with Diane and Scott (the lodge owners) into Quepos to our hostel, Villas Jaquelina. The owner wasn’t there when we arrived, but his wife showed us to our room, gave us a key and let us put our stuff in there without paying and said we could pay later…pretty cool. Everyone is so laid back here. We were also given two pipa’s which are small round coconuts with YUMMY water in them. I normally don’t like coconut water but it was very tastey & sweet! We packed up a bag for the day and called a taxi to take us to Quepos. We brought our hammock, misquito spray, suntan lotion, money, snorkel gear and towels in our bags. We only needed to bring money & sunscreen everything else was useless and a pain to carry. In Quepos we ate at Dos Locos, which we picked because it was outdoors and had a nice patio to sit on…once we sat down we noticed ALL the people eating there were travelers. This made us feel a little more comfortable since it was our first time in Quepos. We ordered nachos with beans, queso, guacamole and chicken that were awesome. It was a great meal, really filling--but one thing we started to notice, the prices in Costa Rica aren’t what we expected. We expected everything to be cheap, but in reality the meals here cost about the same as at home..5-10$ a person for a cheap meal. Which is kind of disappointing as we were hoping to eat out often and try the local restaurants...but we plan to keep exploring and trying to find cheap yummy places to eat. After lunch we went to the Quepos bus stop and hopped on a bus to Manuel Antonio. The bus is super cheap and was easy to figure out, but HOT. Be prepared to sweat and I mean drip sweat the entire ride. We just stayed on until we saw the beach which took about 20 minutes. The drive through Manuel Antonio is beautiful, lots of cool places to eat and houses to look at, compared to Quepos which looked pretty run down. Compared to Quepos, Manual Antonio had travelers everywhere you looked. I felt safe with my purse, but still paid attention to my surroundings. We decided to hang out on the public beach. When we walked on the beach we were bombarded by at least 10 people trying to get us to buy their beach chairs and umbrellas to use. At first we were thrown off and then after looking at the beach it seemed almost everyone rented chairs and an umbrella. The sun in hotter here in Costa Rica than anywhere else I have been yet, and I burn really easily. So we got an umbrella and chairs for $6. I think it was worth it...but if you ask Steve he will disagree. We set our stuff down and were quickly approached by every kind of sales person you can think of: jewelery, sunglasses, food, water, ice cream, etc...but we didn't want anything and they didn't always seem happy about that. Oh well. Then we went in the water (always keeping an eye on our stuff and chairs) We weren't sure how safe the beach was for leaving things out but we had our wallets, phones and my kindle at our chairs so we were cautious. But nothing happened, no one even approached our chairs. The water was so WARM and if I think it is warm it is warm. I usually take showers so hot my skin turns red, so I was happy to have warm swimming water. The waves were a tad rough and I fell over at least once and ended up with a lot of sand in my bathing suit. But still...I was on a beach in Costa Rica, I was pretty darn happy. After Steve and I floated in the waves for a bit I got out and read my kindle while he body surfed the waves. Then we went for a walk down the beach (which wasn't super long) to the end where their were huge rocks. From a distance it didn't look that pretty but when we got down there it was impressive! It was so beautiful (I will add pictures once I get better Internet!!) After the beach we made our way across the street to look at some of the local vendors. It hard to just look because every vendor is yelling at you in Spanish to buy their stuff. So I tried to look around, continuously interrupted by other vendors. There were wraps/dress/banners that you could basically do whatever with, jewelery, other small things and LOTS of teeshirts. I ended up getting a sarong, which Steve managed to get down to "10 dollars African price" after telling the guys how cheap he got them in Africa. After that we walked around the rest of the stores which all basically look exactly the same, with the same items. Then we had dinner on the roof top of a nice restaurant in Manuel Antonio over looking the sunset. I got chicken fingers and Steve got guacamole and chips. It was beautiful. The sunsets in Manuel Antonio are beautiful. We headed back to our hotel after dinner, using the public bus system. The buses were a tad difficult to figure out at first but once you get the system down its really easy...just pay the bus driver a small fee and you can go anywhere the bus stops! However, there is no A/C and it is crowded and hot. We got back to our Hotel Jaquelina (Review will be posted) and took advantage of the good Wifi for the night.
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