Our house sat on the crest of the hill looking down over the Manuel Antonio coastline so walking downhill to the beach didn't seem too bad of an idea. The road curved it's way down the hill and for the second half of the 3km walk we were tantalisingly close to the beach except for the private properties in between. Finally, we came across a beach access that was almost at the most southern end of the beach, which also happened to be the busy part. Busy meaning loads of vendors trying to sell sunbeds, cigars, tours, surf lessons, coconuts etc. and full of tourists too lazy to walk far from where the bus dropped them off.

Looking for a bit more peace and quiet, we walked up the beach to the northern end. Although the sand was white, it reminded us of west coast Auckland beaches, with big sweeping waves surging up over the sand - this was not really a beach for swimming at. The top end of the beach was where the serious surfers and body boarders headed to too. As the tide rose closer to it's highest point, the waves coming through seemed to get bigger. Within a couple of hours the waist high waves had increased to head height. From the shore we could hear whoops of satisfaction from guys who had an awesome ride but it wasn't all joy. One guy, who rode a right hander a bit too close to the rock, came out the water with his board snapped in half.

The tide was coming up the beach quick and to avoid getting stranded in the jungle, we decided to make our way back towards the crowded end of the beach. A woman was riding what could be best described as a fairytale horse, it was a huge white stallion with incredibly long, white mane and tail. As we approached, it was crossing a river running through the beach and was perhaps spooked by a large sweeping wave coming up from the sea. It stumbled a bit and then started that high gaited sideways walk that horses seem to do when they are not under full control of the rider. It was coming our way too, so we made a hasty retreat while the rider settled it down and they went on their way.

We made it through the barrage of vendors at the end of the beach without buying anything. We settled for an ice cream from the shop by the bus stop while we waited for the bus to come. David was nearly finished his when he discovered a couple of bugs in it. They we so small, he could probably have eaten them without a fuss but the shop decided to offer him a new one, of a different flavour, which he accepted, of course.

Back at the house, we could hear a commotion out in the garden. There were some capuchin monkeys in the trees getting over excited and screeching. It turned out there was another monkey actually on the roof of our house and they didn't like each other. It was interesting to hear an angry monkey on the metal roof of your house, jumping around and banging.

Almost like clockwork, the thunder and rain started at 4pm. We were prepared today though and bought some food and wine to have dinner at home. It wasn't the best pots and pans or stove but David still managed to make a pretty good pasta.