Manuel Antonio

According to my tica mom, Manuel Antonio is the most beautiful beach in Costa Rica, warm water, white sand, right next to the rainforest, monkies, shopping, restaurantes, lots of interesting people to. So this past weekend a group of us went to the beach! (Clint, Luke, Jen, Lisa, Rachel, Janet, and I). We paid about $7-$10 for some hotels (the first night was kinda sketchy...but oh well, when in Costa Rica, right? That's kind of become my new phrase). Let's see...bus tickets were $5 for the 3 1/2 hour bus ride. We got into Quepos (the town right outside of Manuel Antonio) at about 10, found a cheap hotel there, and hit the hay. Then we woke up at 6:30 and hit the beach! Manuel Antonio is actually a Nacional Park, and also the beach, and it is about 7 km (like 4 miles) from Quepos...so we rode this bus that up through the windy hills (mom you would have been sick!). But there are some awesome veiws! Then we hung out at the beach from 8 am to 5 pm. NO JOKE. Layed out, read some books, jumped in the water lots, played in the waves, climed some rocks, tried to surf (okay, I more just rode the surf board in, but give me a break...being under water is not my favorite thing), swallowed way too much salt water, and probably soaked up way too much sun. I think we all put on sunscreen 5 or 6 times... but ever single on of us got burned...mostly me and clint since we are such whities...But everyone has been saying I look tan, so that's nice. Clint also informed me this morning that I am more blond than before we left. I have a feeling I am going to be barbie blond when I return to the states. Haha, that'll be interesting. The town strip right above the beach is cool too - sometimes we would go take a walk to get off of the EXTREMEMLY hot sand. There is a lot of shopping there (just like vendors on the side of the road who sell cool stuff, like jewelery, dresses, purses, knick knacks, etc...), but it is really expensive becuase this is the beach where all the tourists go. We saw so many stinking gringos...There was actually a couple from washington. We also ate a lot of hamburgers...That's mostly what the restaurants had...besides gallo pinto...which we eat everday with our families....so we already needed a little break from that. (Gallo pinto is black beans and rice mixed together with different spices - it's actually good...we just eat it a lot! for every single meal). Let's see, after a full day at the beach, we watched the sunset!!! BEAUTIFUL...and then saw like 30 monkies! The little white faced ones. It was the coolest thing ever. We went looking for some, and saw one...and that was good enough...but then about 25 or more came out, and we got to feed them bananas from our hand. Luke was actually holding one in his hand for about 4 seconds. I cannot even describe how awesome it was. The next morning we went into Manuel Anotonio Parque Nacional - which is a rainforest with AWESOME sights...I also took a lot of pictures there. We hiked in the raiforest for about 4 hours. I HAVE NEVER BEEN SO HOT AND HUMID IN MY ENTIRE LIFE. it was the feeling where you just want to strip of all your clothes because it is so hot - but you know that wouldn't even help. We looked pretty nasty that day. But it was worth it. We saw tons of hermit crabs, sand crabs, and these HUGE rat looking things (I don't remeber what they are called), but they were sick! But we didn't see any iguanas, which my dad said was strange. I want to see one so bad! Maybe soon! The bus ride home was almost 5 hours because of traffic...And the bus stop getting back into San Jose is really sketchy, and we had to walk 6 blocks at 10 pm to get to our next bus stop to get home. Good thing we had the boys with us - otherwise we would have been scared out of our minds. But I tell you, it was so nice to come "home". When I got back to my host families house, I honestly felt like I was at home, and it is so much safer and cleaner here in San Jose (especially in my Urbanizacion) than in Quepos...crazy. I have so much more to say....but that'll have to do for now. Soon I will tell you some things about the program I am in and the goals of this trip. I am definitely encountering some HUGE world issues that have already changed me in so many ways. My faith is being streched and is growing. Anyways, love and miss you all. I don't think I am going to use photobucket to post pics anymore, it is too much work. I will post them to facebook - and for those of you who don't have a facebook, I think I will be able to attach a link to the album on my blog...I'll try it soon.
Good news to leave you with - My mom and my papa are coming to visit me in Costa Rica in March!!!!!!!! I am super excited.
Ciao for now.