The Beach

We went to breakfast at 7 this morning and were supposed to leave at 7:30 on the bus to travel about an hour and a half to the Manuel Antonio National Park (Beach). As we were leaving the property, some workmen were cutting the bamboo, which had fallen on the road because of the heavy rain last night. The bamboo canes had filled with water and were sagging over the roadway, so the bus couldn’t pass through. The finished their harvesting and we were on our way. We were warned that there was a walk of about a mile to get from the town to the National Park and I was soo glad I hadn’t worn my sandals. The road was gravel interspersed with various sizes of smooth river rock—not really easy to walk on.

We finally arrived, I got changed and N and I enjoyed the warm Pacific water.




There were many monkeys chattering in the trees and one bold little guy hopped out of the tree, stole a person’s sack on his towel and hopped back into the tree. He took whatever was in the sack, dropped the sack and headed for a high limb to check out his treasure. N got some really cute monkey pictures- up close and personal.




While we were in the water, we looked at the shore where we had left my bag with clothes, etc and N’s camera bag. A trio of raccoons was rummaging in our stuff. Luckily I had zipped everything up nice and tight and one of our neighbors shooed them off. We remembered later that we had each squirreled away a banana from breakfast and they must have smelled them.

Anyway they went away empty pawed and we had nothing missing.

It is really difficult to get sand and salt off skin and out of hair. I felt so much better when we got back to the room and showered. The rest of the day we were on our own. While walking around, we saw some scarlet Macaws playing and screaming. He got pictures, but they aren’t as good as he hoped.



Once during supper tonite the electricity totally went out in the hotel’s restaurant. We did have little table candles already lit, but it was still quite dark. The power was restored and we finished the meal—and by the way I had tenderloin and it was the best meat I’ve had in a very long time. On getting to our room, a neighbor told us that all the lights were out everywhere. I’m surprised that our key cards worked, but they did. We sat in the dark for awhile when I remembered a candle on the table. I opened the computer, which gave enough light to see the candle and found the matches right beside it. Bingo we had light. About 10 minutes later, the power was restored in the room and N is very happy that the a/c is working. He gets VERY grumpy without a fan or something while he sleeps. And Oh, yeah, he got lots more sun than he thought. We're both pretty pink, with tight tender skin in places.

We leave tomorrow to return to San Jose by way of an artisan center and yep, souvenir shops. Haven't bought a great deal so far (shirts, gee-gaws,a monkey, headband) but that may change.
Don’t leave til 10, so we can take our time in the morning. Only 2 more days of blog.