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Costa
Rica Adventure
March 5-20, 2005
The next morning we caught a
bus down to the town of Quepos to go eat, bank, shop and explore. Quepos is a mid-sized town that survives
primarily on tourism but also has a larger local population than most of the
other places we’d been until then.
There are plenty of amenities like grocery stores, banks, internet
cafes, and the like. Unfortunately, everything runs
on Tico time to the extreme.
Breakfast took ages – Noella got refried eggs (yummy!) and lining up
at the bank to cash the last of our traveller’s cheques took even longer. By
the time those two errands were complete, most of the morning was gone. We set out in search of a
bathing suit store that Julie had told us about, where you could choose a
design and fabric and have a swimsuit custom-made. Both Mandy and Cathy bought new bathing suits and crossed their
fingers that they would come out okay.
We also did a little bit of souvenir shopping. It was March 17th,
so I phoned home to wish my Mom happy birthday. That of course also meant it was St. Patrick’s Day. To our surprise, this was important enough
to some people that they’d taken over a local bar and turned it into an Irish
pub for one day only. We stumbled
upon the bar by accident, advertising “today only” Guinness, Irish coffee,
and other green food. It also had a
bunch of people trying really hard to create an Irish atmosphere, with funny
hats, green outfits, streamers, and Irish music. Cathy, Mandy and I decided to go celebrate with some Irish
coffees and cheer.
St. Patrick’s Day in Quepos (Photo credit: SHS) We made our way back to the
hotel to get ready for our afternoon dolphin watch and sunset sail.
(Actually, it wasn’t really a sail since we were going on a motorboat and not
a sailboat, but whatever.) We went to
the dock and watched people unload massive fish, which would be shortly
appearing on somebody’s dinner plate.
Then we all climbed onto the boat and set out into the water. The boat ride was lots of
fun. I got to try snorkeling for the
first time. It was a bit trickier
than I’d expected, as I couldn’t exactly figure out how to use the tube properly
and I kept getting salt water in my mouth.
The visibility wasn’t fantastic but we did see some beautiful
fish. And it was fun swimming with
flippers.
Snorkelling near Manuel Antonio (Photo credit: SHS) The dolphins came right up to
our boat; they weren’t shy. We saw a whole bunch of them circling and
jumping; it was amazing. From the
boat, we also had a great view of the beaches of Manuel Antonio National
Park, where we were planning on spending the next day. Dinner was served on
the boat, and then we floated around and watched the spectacular sunset.
Sunset over the Pacific (Photo credit: SHS) Back to town for some
desperately-needed showers – except that there wasn’t any water. They weren’t kidding about the
shortage. We waited it out and
showered with whatever trickles we could get. All of us were still hungry
after returning to town, so we decided to head to a restaurant we’d passed on
the way to the beach the previous day. It was called El Avion and was built
around – and in – an old airplane. Very cool.
Bar in the cockpit of the airplane (Photo credit: SHS) The food was excellent and we
all enjoyed dinner immensely. There
were live musicians downstairs jamming Latin music. Although we sat upstairs,
we still had a fabulous time. After dinner, we headed back to the hotel and
went to sleep. Next: Manuel Antonio National Park |
