Manuel Antonio National Park

  Quepos, Province of Puntarenas, Costa Rica
Monday, October 20, 2008

Itīs time for us to leave Monteverde and drive to the Pacific coast to Manuel Antonio National Park. Before we even left Quepos we noticed that we had a puncture in the tire. The owner of our B&B gave us directions to the closest garage. The roads are so awful that we hadnīt even noticed it before. The mechanic pushed a bit of rubber into the puncture (there was a big screw in the tire) and told us it would be safe to drive all the way to Quepos. Oh well, fingers crossed.

The view coming down was amazing, seeing the mountains covered in luxurious flora. The weather was great too so the conditions were optimal. We stopped every now and then for pictures. It seemed that on this side of the mountain the roads were a bit less crappy than on the other side, or maybe it was just because we were doing it by day this time so it seemed easier. Well anyway, do not do it if you have a bad back or if you donīt have a 4x4. We also cleaned off all the evidence of our adventure in Monteverde. The car was filthy and Sean's muddy hand prints were all over the bonnet. Finally the road became normal again. It felt so silent in the car!



A few cars overtook a slow truck, so we copied them and then the police stopped all of us. Damn. It was not even dangerous. What are they talking about. Anyway, we played it all smiles, gave the papers of the car, my driving license. We were talking and talking. The fine was $100 that needed to be paid  in a city which was at the opposite of where we wanted to go. I told him it would take ages for us to get to our destination and that we had to bring the car back. On top of it all we had gone the wrong way, so the cop gave us directions to get back on track. More talking, a bit of puppy eyes (you know the ones, Clodagh) and a bit of cleavage showing and the guy went to see his boss. The boss had sunglasses like in ''Chips'' and when we saw him arriving in the mirror we had to focus not to laugh. More blahdblah, yes it was dangerous, no i will never do it again ... and finally he said ok we could go and showed us the directions. They probably just wanted to scare us. I donīt know. Their directions were a bit crap, because we got lost again, asked a few people and finally found our way. When we finally saw signs for Quepos, we were delighted. The road signs in Costa Rica are terrible. Then we got stopped by the police, again!

Now come on, we didnīt do anything this time. We pulled in and he said ''good, you have your seat belts on''. That was all. They take themselves a bit seriously over there. Finally we reached the coast, where some of the beaches are black (volcano country) and others are white. We found our B&B quickly enough. It was nice, but not quite clean, there were mushrooms growing in the bathroom!! Then it was time for us to bring back our car, but the airheads that we are, we had forgotten to refill the tank so we went back to put in a few colones worth of petrol. I don't know if I mentioned that $1 equals something like 550 colones. Imagine the prices on the menu. We stayed in the hotel that night and had a few beers, with the owners huge dog, Ulysses.

The next day we went to Manuel Antonio National Park. We did not take a guide this time, we just tagged along behind some other groups. As soon as we entered we saw a sloth moving. We heard the guide saying that the sloth was going to poo, and that this only happens once a week. Well, thatīs handy. We spotted a monkey ourselves, so we thought we were the real deal. Sean really got into it, making animal sounds and all. We had a long walk in the forest. We even saw a blue butterfly, the famous ones of Costa Rica. Blue is a rare colour in nature. We bumped into some people who asked Sean if he was French.. He must spend way too much time with me! In the national park there were also a few small coves with lovely beaches. The water was pretty warm and there were loads of little crabs and other crustaceans walking and hiding in the sand. We relaxed a bit there and read.

After that, we walked a bit more down along the coast and found a nice little place for lunch. There were loads of monkeys, iguanas and racoonish kinda animals so we hadnīt needed to pay into the National Park at all in order to see some animals. Then we collected our laundry. The woman didnīt open the door with her towel on this time, thank God. She gave us too much change back, as had the bus driver on the way back from the park. Seems like Costa Ricans canīt really count. We got back to our room and then had a few beers downstairs. Weīve not had any dinner for the last few nights, weīve just been drinking a few beers ... Sean got talking to an American guy about the recession, stocks ... bla bla bla ... they seemed to be agreeing with each other, surprisingly enough. Snooze for me, though ...Can I have another beer?

Van, jurée! Ben ca alors. Trop bien, jīespčre que  tu pourras en faire au moins un. Tu dois ętre toute folle.