Costa Rica: Manuel Antonio

Jessica and my Costa Rican adventure headed to the beach when we left San Jose by bus and traveled to Manuel Antonio. We rode the bus just a few short hours and very soon found ourselves in a real, live paradise - a GORGEOUS resort called El Parador with beautiful views, awesome beach and pina coladas on demand.

A lot of things to watch out for when driving in the jungle.

The bus dropped us off and we decided to hoof it to the hotel. Real classy arriving like this to a very fancy resort.

We had certainly arrived!! The swimming pool of the resort looking out to the Pacific Ocean.

Jessica said that her dream for this vacation was to relax and drink Pina Coladas. All of her dreams came true here. These were our first of many non-alcoholic beverages delivered by the waiter.

This guy waited at our feet for anything to drop.

Once we got our room, we immediately changed and went hiking down to a beach to swim.

The water felt great, but the swim was short lived. What we didn't know about this place was that at 4pm every single day a huge rain storm rolls in. Every one else had cleared out. We followed.

Instead we went to swim in the peaceful "Adults Only" pool. Still a little bit of rain, very dark at about 6pm and the sound of howler monkeys in the jungle around. Quite the experience.

Sunday morning we woke up and enjoyed the breakfast buffet the hotel offered. I just kept pounding all the delicious tropical fruit and fruit juices. This day was all about jugo de sandia for me. SO GOOD!

We took a taxi into the town of Quepos in search of los Mormones. We found them at a small little building across a river. When we arrived we noticed a blown up pool in the back. We asked the sister missionaries about it and they told us about a man that was being baptized right after the meetings.

We got to experience one of the favorite things about traveling to another country for both of us - church. And even better, singing the hymns and listening to testimony meeting in Spanish. We both felt so happy to be there even though we were dripping from sweat inside that chapel from humidity and calor.

After church we hit the beach! That's right. We did try to make sure and lounge and relax as much as possible though just to be respectful of the Sabbath day. We wandered through Manuel Antonio National Park and ended up lying on one of the most beautiful stretches of beach I've ever been to. The water was so warm and nice. It was heaven to be there. 

Tawna asked how my hair did in all that humidity. Well, thanks to Jessica's mad camera skills, you get to see for yourself.

Third swim suit of the trip.

Our spot.

A sloth hanging out in the trees above us on the beach.

Remember all that fruit we bought in San Jose? We sat on the beach and ate mango, persimmon and mamon.

I wanted to check out the jungle mountain behind us, so I took off for awhile on my own. I hiked around the mountain point. It was thick, green jungle with views out to the ocean. Just breathtaking. At one point I stopped to watch these monkeys jumping around and playing in the trees above me.

I came back to the beach to find Jessica was the only person left on the sand. Well, once again, they all knew the rain was coming and boy, did it ever. It pounded rain, but we were just fine under the trees. We got to stroll out of the park as the last ones there. The rain was done by the time we got out.

When the rain ended and we had emerged from the National Park, we found ourselves in the little beach town on the ocean down the hill from where we were staying. We roamed through the souvenir shops and then had a really good dinner accompanied by a delicious Pina Colada (of course) right here before taking the bus back up to our hotel. 

The next morning, after breakfast, I went for another little hike on "the monkey trail". Once again, I found myself alone in a dense, lush, green jungle with sweat dripping down my back from the 80 percent humidity, flip flops stuck in all the mud from the rain and some crazy jungle sounds around me. Pretty cool.

I came back to the resort decided on giving up the adventurous life for the day and to join Jessica in lounging the day away pool side with Pina Colada in hand. This was possibly the favorite day for both of us! It was pure heaven. The sun was shining, the water was perfect, it was quiet and the view was beautiful. What a day! Jessica was right on when she planned this dream of hers. I was just so grateful to be a part of it.

 Swim up pool bar for Mango Daquiris.

Could it get any better? Really. I don't think so.

We had to leave that heavenly paradise later that afternoon for a five hour drive up to Monte Verde. We went from the beach to high up in the mountains. I'll report on the fun from Monte Verde next.