We took the 6am bus from Monteverde to Puntarenas and thence to Quepos and finally to Manuel Antonio. Three buses, 9.5 hours total, 8 hours of sweating and stickyness. Apparently air conditioning is against the principals of eco-something and so unless you have your own car you will be sweating your way around the country. I would like to say that travelling in a group sauna results in weight loss but no, simply sweaty and stinky.
Puntarenas is located at the tip of a very narrow peninsula in the Golfo de Nicoya and is the port city of the Pacific side. There was a cruise ship docked 100ft off the shore against a pier but thankfully no hordes of boaties milling around. Either they had already left for their various enhanced-package tours or were still at the trough (it was only 9am). While walking from one bus stop to the next we met a young couple visiting from Maine on their spring break. Turned out the man was none other than the nephew of my friend Don Taylor! It really is a small world.
We spent the rest of the day with them on the buses, winding up with cocktails and dinner in Manuel Antonio at El Avion which, as the name implies, is built around the hulk of a plane. A C126 to be exact, that was once used to ferry supplies and weapons to the Contras in Nicaragua! Food was ok, beer was cold, company was great.
The next day we hooked up with Adrian and his friend Stephanie who were just coming down from the Nicoya Peninsula where they had spent the last few days sunning at Playa Del Cocos. Adrian, in his short-termers quest for a tan (he originates from Washington DC) was impressively sunburned. We spent the day at the beach down in Manuel Antonio, had a mediocre meal with massively expensive glasses of what was billed as sangria but tasted like blackberry punch ($8 a glass! much to our collective horror as we had had 6 glasses in total), splashed in the waves, swam for several hours and had our usual great time.
9am the following morning saw Adrian, Darcie and myself at the entrance to the Manuel Antonio Park for three+ hours of hiking. There were hordes of guides exhorting us to take their services or we wouldn’t see anything ($20/per person) which we declined gracefully much to their annoyance, rudely so in one instance.
Despite the lack of a guide we still saw hordes of capuchins, two sloths, a bunch of iguanas, crabs, little lizards, spiders, great views and lots of sweat. This was by far and away the sweatiest we have been the whole trip. You could literally wring out our clothes, it was disgusting. While we were sweating, Steph had wisely chosen to go on a mangrove tour by boat and was enjoying herself immensely. The capuchins by the beach have been named the Monkey Mafia by the guides since they have become very adept at stealing food from inattentive tourists, (“Hey!!! That monkey stole my banana”).
We had lunch, picked Steph up and went off to the harbor for our most expensive tour of the trip so far, a $75 per person catamaran sunset cruise (no wind as usual so no sailing) for sight seeing, swimming and snorkeling. The cruise provided drinks (rum or vodka mixed with your choice of sugar drink) and a nice, fresh marlin kebab lunch/dinner cooked on board while we were snorkeling. The boat has been equipped with a swim-up bar which many people availed themselves of after snorkeling. After our meal we motored back out of the cove we had been snorkeling in and watched the sunset. Lots of fun, met a group of people studying Spanish for two months or so at one of the local schools (CR is not the place to do this as it is VERY expensive) and no one got seasick (perhaps a little queasy but not bad).
We wrapped the night up making a tour of the hostels in Manuel Antonio and having a few beers along the way at each of the hostels. The hostels are all full of vacationing American college students on spring break so we have had to settle with a hotel, El Mono Azul, which is nice but lacks the convivial ambiance of the hostels. There are pools though so we can cool down when we are not at the beach.
Adrian and I dropped the ladies off early next morning (hah! 10:30am) at Manuel Antonio so they could have a guided hike while we went off to Playa Hermosa for some big wave/beach time. Adrian of course was working on his tan (sunburn) since this was his last day. His haole rot is impressive and too disgusting to show in this venue (although I have a photo for future blackmail).
After Hermosa, we picked up Darcie and Steph, had a slowish, expensive and lousy lunch at a tourist trap on the Manuel Antonio/Quepos road and then headed south down the newly paved, fantastic road towards Dominical in search of another beach.
We came across a dirt road leading towards the coast which we followed bumpily down, dodging cows and such until the “road” opened up onto what turned out to be Playa Matapalo. This is a fantastic beach, blessedly uncrowded, really only populated by locals, verdant jungly edges, nice waves, really great. We also discovered that there was a nice paved road which we totally missed!
We spent three hours there having a great time splashing, swimming and body-surfing. And then there was the obligatory sunset, yet another amazing sunset. Dinner was at a local steak joint, a few last beers with Adrian and we parted ways, us to return to our hotel and Adrian to pack and then head back to San Jose for his 2pm flight the following day.
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