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.
1 Comment
Dad
12/4/2015 09:52:25 am
Happy to hear your exploration in the city turned up some great sights - CLEAN IS GOOD - just nice to have the hot shower. Sounds like you are getting more in tune with the local food...
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