I just got back from a weekend trip to Manuel Antonio National Park. A hefty group of 20 of us went, but it actually went very smoothly considering how big of a group we had.
The weekend started at 6am on Friday for me. I woke up early to go on a bike ride with a fellow student and Tico from the university. We ended up doing a 14 1/2 mile loop with around 2,000 feet of climbing. There are no real trails here, just fire roads, but the views were stunning! It was a solid workout and a great way to start the day.
After the ride I scrambled to class and then after class I scrambled to the bus station to leave.
Three different groups of us headed down and we all arrived within an hour of each other. Taking the bus was just over $6 for about 6 hours of traveling.
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| View from the bus |
We arrived Friday night and had no clue what to expect. The hostel seemed nice; there was a nice looking deck with four hammocks spread out and some seating areas, but we couldn't see what it was looking out on.
We watched Costa Rica beat the USA in soccer which was a very fun game. Both of Costa Rica's goals were crossovers to heading in! USA's only goal was a penalty kick.. Go Ticos!
Three of us slept on the hammocks outside and the next morning we got to wake up to straight beauty. Woke up at 5 and stayed up, thanks to a couple cups of coffee and some toast.
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| My phone's HDR kills it! |
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| It was fun to go to the beach for a day, but I could do this forever. |
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| A guy at the hostel showing me what fearless is. If it weren't for him, I would have never dreamed of touching it, but I ended up holding it as well! I think that because the spider was so big, it was beyond scary and I could get over my fear. I really don't know though.. Definitely if not one of the biggest spiders I have seen, the biggest spider I have held. |
Saturday pretty much all of us headed to the state park, which is a beautiful jungle that you walk through that leads to the beach. The water was warm, but not too warm. The same was white and soft. There were monkeys and raccoons scavenging around taking people's food, which was pretty amusing. They are not afraid of humans; I saved one of the girls' wallets from a coon! Although it was pretty touristy with paths nice enough to walk in flip flops, it was a cool experience. I will find another jungle here where I need a machete to hike through.
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| Didn't get any monkey or coon shots, but this is the group watching a coon do work |
We headed back to the hostel to find another group of 20 from San Jose. We all hung out at the hostel together and had a fun time. I slept in the hammock again; it was too good not to.
We all got up in the morning and again, three groups headed back at different times. I arrived back home to a beautiful sunset; what a perfect way to end an amazing weekend!
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