Costa Rica: Manuel Antonio, Hotel Costa Verde

Thu Aug 15^th. We woke up and wrapped up the packing and got ready for a long 5 hour ride to Manuel Antonio from Monteverde. Los Pinos did not have a restaurant, so I decided to get some coffee and cake from the bakery across the road, went there and ordered the items. When I pulled my wallet to pay for it, I found it EMPTY! The credit cards were there, but all monies, both USD and CRC were gone. It was most bizarre. A crime worthy of Sherlock Holmes’ time? I trotted back to the room and traced back the event from the previous evening – around 7 pm, I had done a sanity check of our funds and placed $120 in the wallet for expenses the following day. The wallet was left by a window and we were in the room all the time before I noticed the money missing. We were pretty bummed out – the fact that someone could open the window, pick the money and leave the wallet back seemed too creepy. I walked up the reception to complain and after listening to me, the girl mentioned that this hasn’t happened in Los Pinos, but is not unusual in the area. The most amazing thing was that she pulled out 60,000 CRC from her office money box and gave it to me! I experienced the worst and best of CR within an hour on Thursday. Why should the hotel make me whole? Simply based on my statement, she gave me the money that I said I had lost? While the possibility exists that this couldn’t have happened without some inside knowledge/job, I choose to believe that Costa Rica is fundamentally nice and the girl behind the counter was genuine in sympathizing with me and giving me the money that was robbed from me! 

Until we were well out of Monteverde, we were traveling in dirt roads, roughing us up with jolts and bumps. If you are ever visiting Monteverde, do brace yourselves for a rough ride all the time you are there. The roads became better after a while and our ride took us via the port town of Puntarenas on our way to Manuel Antonio. We stopped at another bridge, this time famous for crocodiles. The river and its banks had several crocodiles basking. After a James Bond style switch from one vehicle to another, we pulled into Manuel Antonio around 1 pm. Being a coastal town, it was hot and muggy here, as opposed to cool in Monteverde. Lunch at Raphael’s Terraza, a restaurant that had a great view of the pacific coast was great – Jana claimed that the burrito she had was the best she’s ever had. Food was very good, but extremely slow in coming. I guess you have to wait for all good things in life. Or not be behind a very large gathering of family in a restaurant :) 

We wanted to swing by the beach, but it started raining and we decided to sit it out. By the time it stopped raining, it was getting dark, we were just able to take some distant shots of the ocean. The extreme late lunch meant we weren’t hungry enough for dinner. We also had an early start the following day, a guided hike in Manuel Antonio National Park, so we retired early that evening. 

Friday was our last full day in CR. After breakfast, we were picked up by Wilbur, our guide for the morning hike. It was raining and kept raining for more than 2 hours. CR activities are good, “rain or shine”. We were walking in the rain, with our rain gear, but that made spotting animals hard and taking photographs even harder. That said, we did get to see our fair share of flora and fauna even on this rainy day. Did you realize a male spider is 1/10^th the size of a female? And the webs they weave are super strong? We got to see a very colorful crab called Halloween crab, the bright yellow and venomous eyelash viper, hermit crabs, more iguanas and lizards, raccoons, agouti, the laughing falcon, two toed and three toed sloths. The rain finally let up as we reached the beautiful beach nestled inside the national park. The water looked great and azure blue. Several folks decided to swim, we stayed put on the shores. We met a very nice American family from Orange country, CA and another backpacker from San Francisco. It is amazing how when you start a tour with different people, you are circumspect in the beginning but end up being very comfortable with each other by the time the tour ends. 

We went back to Raphael’s Terraza for lunch again – our only repeat restaurant “by choice”. Until now, all the sloths we saw were way up in the tree – and they appeared as blobs most of the time. We started calling them “sloth blobs”. Interestingly, in the trees by the restaurant were two three toed sloths that was putting on the best sloth show for us. Following the lunch, we walked back to the beach. And just as we reached there, it started raining again. We tried waiting it out, but the rain wasn’t letting up. We took a local bus back to the hotel avoiding the 30 minute walk back uphill in rain. It was nearly 4 pm and it didn’t stop raining that day at all. It just lightened around 7 when I dashed out to get pizza back to our room. Interestingly, when they made the pizza, each slice had just one topping each. All the onions were on one slice; all the bell peppers were on another; all the tomatoes on one… you get the idea. Jaya and I spent bulk of the evening drying up the clothes, shoes and packing up while the girls were lounging in style :)

Saturday, 17^th we left at 5:30 am to SJO airport. It was only a 2 ½ hour ride, but the planners insisted on giving 3 ½ hours to be safe. That was good in a way – we got to enjoy the traditional rice & bean for breakfast on our way to the airport. After dishing out a hefty $29 per person in departure tax, we were ready to head home.

Costa Rica Pics (Nearly 150 photos in all uploaded by now) 

It was a memorable trip – Costa Rica is a beautiful and colorful country, though predominantly green :), with friendly folks (except the one person who stole my money), with rich bio-diversity, very aware ecologically and eco-friendly, with their people in general, being happy with life. 

Costa Ricans call their way of living Pura Vida – Pure Life.

Pura Vida, Costa Rica! Thank you for a memorable week!