This morning we left Monte Verde, and made our way by minivan to Manuel Antonio.
The drive took us down from the cloud forest to the coastline. The roads, especially coming down the mountain were steep, narrow and bumpy dirt roads. The view, nothing short of spectacular!!!
One thing I noticed today whilst we were driving was the distinct lack of check points along the way. In all the countries we had visited prior to Costa Rica, they all had a very strong military presence, especially at check points. The difference with Costa Rica is they don't even have an army!! Instead they invest the resources that would normally go into military and redistribute them to other areas to improve the countries assets. The other huge difference is that Costa Rica has realised that nature is a huge part of their tourism trade, therefore they are making a conscious effort to preserve and protect the environment. In some of the other countries we have visited this far, there has also been a push to protect the environment. However when your family has nothing to eat other than what you can catch in the forest or the ocean, it's pretty hard to convince them to not eat it!!
Anyway, the drive today was about 5hrs. We stopped a couple of times for toilet breaks. The second time however was a surprise that Lisa our tour guide had been saving for us. We pulled over, just in front of this big bridge. We all got out and started walking to the bridge.... We stopped in the middle and looked down, and that's when we saw about 30 crocodiles just sunning themselves on a mud bank in the middle of the river. They looked pretty chilled out!!
We jumped back in the van and finally arrived at our hotel in Manuel Antonio. It is a great location. A 2 min walk to the national park and 2 min walk to the beach. All in all a great location.
We had a quick bite to eat and then swiftly made our way to the beach. We ran in the ocean, only to find that the beach was in fact a surf beach. Nothing quite like being continually hit with wave after wave. You couldn't lose concentration for a second... because if you did you were hit hard by another wave.
After we all got sick of being taught a lesson by Mother Nature...... AGAIN, we decided to sit on the beach. That too only lasted a very short time, as the tide was coming in. The beach didn't have a large sandy area, so the places that we could safely sit was getting narrower and narrower with each wave that came in. The decision was made....to the pool!!
We all walked back to the hotel where we jumped into the pool!! We hung out there for a while. It's also where we hatched a master plan for dinner....we will catch a taxi to the next town (up the hill which you can't walk down from as it is too dangerous, especially the way people drive around here) and go to a restaurant that is located inside an old American fighter plane. Sounds good to me!!!
We organised a few taxis to ferry the 12 of us up the hill, no problems. Next stop, El Avion. Although there was a bit of commotion and entertainment going on at the beach in front of the taxi stand. There were a stack of police cars and a police dog finishing off a drug bust.
El Avion was exactly as I described, an old American fighter plane that pretty much had a building built over the top of it. The menu was actually quite extensive. We were warned that it might be expensive, but it wasn't too bad. Costa Rica in general has been the most expensive place we have visited to date. It doesn't help when the currency is in millions!! Although I must say it is very nice to be a millionaire!!
We had just sat down when the police car precession rolled on by with about 10 guys arrested in a police van!! Good drug bust I'm thinking!!
After dinner we took the typical tourist photos, sitting in the cockpit pretending to fly the plane. It's just cool to do that isn't it??
Two groups of four had already caught taxis back down the hill... However there was no taxi waiting for us. So the nice security guard called a taxi for us. A minute later a taxi arrived and we all jumped in. Slight problem none of us could quite tell him where we needed to go. We originally said down town, and the taxi driver pointed the opposite way to where we needed to go. Nope, that's not it. Eventually we explained down the hill. He asked what hotel.... yep we couldn't quite remember that either. It was ok anyway, as we were dropped off along the beach and we walked the 2min back to the hotel.
Another day done!!