We had a fantastic stay on the Nicoya Peninsula surfing, lounging in hammocks, eating wonderful food, walking on the beach, chilling with the expats, and playing Rook. We also visited some other little towns beyond Playa Carmen like Montezuma. There we went cliff jumping beside a magnificient waterfall, did some "bird watching" (I put that one in for the boys), bought jewelry from the local dredlocked hippies, and of course drank guanabana smoothies and ate avocado sandwiches.
On our way to Manual Antonio, we witnessed a riot at the Paquero ferry which was pretty exciting. Spraypainted signs surrounded us and people were standing on the side of the road with arms outstretched praying or chanting over the bay. A man told me no ferries would be in use for maybe a few days and that we'd need to drive to a port about an hour away. We did so, and all of us sat around doing random things like reading and pondering in vain as to who was president after JFK (very random, I know...but, in case you are wondering, it was LBJ!) while waiting for our new ferry.
The trip from the Nicoya Penisula to Manuel Antonio is quite lengthy, but we had fun driving over wooden bridges, looking at wild crocodiles, and singing Top Gun songs at the top of our lungs.
In Manuel Antonio our first night, all seven of us smashed into a non-airconditioned tiny room with four of us sleeping on the floor. But we only paid 40 dollars total. In the morning we saw sloths, monkeys, massive birds, and beautiful vistas of deep blue ocean and cliff islands in Manuel Antonio National Park. In the afternoon, some of us went SCUBA diving. Oddly enough, one of the dive masters is friends with some people that went to SAU. The world is really small. She and her mother led us around the ocean floor. The visibility kind of sucked, but we did see a spotted eel, a moray eel, a yellow phase box fish, and the typical sgt. majors, parrot fish, yellow snapper, etc.
We made it back in time to do some street vendor shopping. Of course the one place that I stopped to look at was owned by an Argentine. I don't know how that always happens. I spent approximately the next 20 minutes chatting and buying some of her beaded wares.
That night I witnessed a feat I had previously thought impossible. At Agua Azul, a restaurant recommended to us by the dive guides, Mike consumed first a guanabana smoothie, then shared a pitcher of more guanabana smoothie with Ryan and Jonathan (about 2 more smoothies), ate a "Big A** vegetarian burger" (that was really its name) the size of my head, French fries, the leftovers of my burger, then another smoothie, and finally a banana and ice cream desert. Wow.
Admittingly we had all been somewhat gluttonous, but were somehow still able to move our bodies and luggage to one of the best hostels in which I've ever stayed. It is perched atop a tall mountain that overlooks the sunset side of the ocean. In the morning, we swayed back and forth on the hammocks or munched on our ubiquitous pb&j sandwiches while looking out into the serenity of the bay.
Manuel Antonio is amazing, and is the one place in which I really wish we could have spent more time. Someday I'd like to go kayaking there; I tried to go, but it's the dry season and the local kayakers were doing Class IV-V rivers. I chose life instead.
Anyhoo, we sadly had to return to Liberia too soon. Kat, Mike, and Jonathon had a later flight than Ryan and I, so they rented a small car and took off to check out the beach in Tamarindo. Ryan and I found the extremely cheap but charming Hotel Liberia--it had hammocks and brightly painted colored wooden buildings, so I was happy. We then went to explore the town's two main attractions. The first is Liberia's oldest church. It was closed, so we busted out the hacky sack and probably played for over an hour in front of the edifice. I kept asking young people that rode on their bikes or walked by us if they wanted to play, but I was denied every time. We eventually tired and decided to check out Liberia's second biggest attraction, the main plaza. We sat on a bench in front of a very modern cathedral and watched numerous boys do wheelies across the lenghth of the plaza on their BMX bikes or we turned around to see others do 360's off the town gazebo. All the action made us hungry, so we purchased some fruit, returned and watched a bit more. Back at the hotel, we discussed all the hilarious observations and happenings of the trip, then called it an early night. We had to wake up at 3AM the next morning to catch our flight. Urg.
Unfortunately our early flight didn't help us get to Nashville early. Instead once again I spent most of the day in Houston. Everyone was being bumped off planes due to weather and the masses of people going on spring break. I was just thankful our spring break falls a week earlier than most other schools so we didn't have to go through so much craziness on the way to Costa Rica (sans my passport drama). Hoarg, but now I am back, and reality must continue. If only we could return to the waves, dancing Quakers, and guanabana smoothies!!!
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