Day 2
Our first Costa Rican morning we gained two hours sleep, sweeet. There was a bang in the kitchen. Alarmed, we both said, “That wasn’t the coffee maker, was it?” The origin of the noise is still unknown. After good local coffee on the patio in any new place, transition to travel mode is officially complete.
We let the teen brain rewire and wake when she’d had enough sleep, which was noon CR time. We drove down the coast to the oft mentioned Manuel Antonio National Park, a rainforest with sloths and monkeys.
Still scouting for a town to call home for the summer, we dipped in and out to the coastal towns. We drove through walls of huge palm tree forests, different from the ones we have in FL. The leaves were gigantinormous. Who
were these trees for, giants? They made us feel small like we were in the George Shrinks mobile. There were men on bicycles shouldering long poles with scythes on the end. Not sure why there were so many miles of
these palm tree fields, but they were magnificent. Google footnote: We later learned these are African Oil Palm trees that produce palm oil.
What is lacked in general street signage is amply compensated for with distance signs to Quepos, the next town. It was like the road sign version of 100 bottles of beer on the wall, with updates every kilometer or two. Take one km
down, pass it around…
We quick-explored Quepos, just to rule it in or out of our top town options. It did boast a beautiful view of the Pacific.
From Quepos the road wiggles up, then down the mountain to Manuel Antonio. Now this is tourism mecca like I’ve rarely seen before. The curvy road is packed with hotels and restaurants, stacked onto the side of the mountain, overlooking the ocean. There were the cute hotels, quaint, rustic, bohemian, hostels, boutique, exclusive, the whole span of options present. There were restaurants with views (almost mandatory here), huge open fire pizza ovens, sushi chefs, even an old airplane should you need one for an optimal dining experience.
We drove down the mt into a bit of a parking frenzy to find the National Park. You have many entrepreneurial fellows trying to get you to park on the public streets and charge you for their directing services. One fellow was wearing a shirt he’d created that said he was with the National Park and this is where the official parking was, for a hefty fee. Twasn’t so. We sent Cali to ask some people from the town who said to drive up the mountain to the park
entrance and parking is free.
It was a pleasant hike through the Manuel Antonio National Park rainforest. We did find monkeys down at the beach stealing people’s food, keys, and credit cards. Perhaps not the rainforest experience most people expect. I will
quietly admit it was amusing as people tried to convince the monkeys to give their stuff back. It reminded me of the kid’s book Caps for Sale (by Esphyr Slobodkina) in which monkeys taunt and steal from a cap vendor. Then one
person suggested the universally known, pick up a stick and threaten him with it. Clearly they hadn’t read the book, but it worked. The monkey dropped his loot.
Seeing monkeys in their natural rainforest habitat, not so much. Seeing monkeys outsmart humans, supposedly more advanced on the evolutionary scale, check. Seeing sloths, well we’d had a better chance seeing those at the
zoo, maybe even a zoo that didn’t have sloths. Then again we know they’re in there somewhere, cuz the YouTube doth saith so.
We did see the Halloween crab with red pincers, a rainforest deer (no, it looks the same), a rainforest raccoon (same again), rainforest hermit crabs (yup, same), Cali got bitten by a red ant (same, same, same). We heard a loud growl on the way out, which we figured was the rarely heard rainforest yetti (not the same because this one lives in CR). So
there was that. We also saw some non-thieving monkeys eating red berry things off a tree, looking all crazy natural in their habitat. So there was that, too.
Next we went to the Manuel Antonio beach. There was a loud hissing sound everywhere on the beach coming from all the crab holes. Collectively it’s louder than you’d imagine, and doesn’t matter where you go, there’s that hum.
We wound our way back up the mountain to select a happy hour location with a spectacular drinking view (assumed). We passed on the plane bar and decided on pirates. It’s not as Niagara Falls as those two things make it sound. After hearing the Red Beard bar specializes in sushi and catch of the day, we decided to stay for supper. Turned out to be one of the most memorable meals we’ve had, with a spectacular Pacific Ocean view, where our supper was swimming a few hours ago.
There was a couple at the bar who where on their honeymoon from St. Louis. They either knew where Breckenridge Hills is or were being polite. The other couple next to us were from France. Our waiter was telling us places we
should visit. Lovely evening at the Red Beard. Half way through the meal our waiter changed from his daytime uniform (white t-shirt) to his more formal evening attire (black t-shirt). Who knew the best fish we’ve ever eaten would be at a pirate’s bar named Red Beard. It was over the top delicious. Our waiter was telling us things about CR we didn’t know. He said the government doesn’t have a military budget, instead they invest in education and tourism.
After being here for two whole days, I have some initial impressions why CR attracts travelers. It’s very clean, feels relatively safe, tourist scams seem minimal and manageable, good main highways, clean water, traffic speed
limits are enforced with heavy fines so the driving isn’t as crazy as some CA countries (or Miami for that matter), people are helpful, great internal bus system to get from town to town, buses aren’t belching out black smoke, and it’s
beautifully green everywhere, you feel immersed in nature.
There seems to be an overall valuing of life that I haven’t always experienced in some other CA countries. This is illustrated by an emphasis on literacy and education, heavy speeding fines ($500-750), helmet laws, striving for clean renewable energy. CR hopes to be carbon neutral by 2020. Respect. I’m excited to see more of this country.