Well here I am at the end of week two! I realize it has only been two weeks, but it seems like time is flying by! This school week was full of meetings and on Thursday night some of the other new teachers and I headed to Manuel Antonio for a long weekend.
friday:
We woke up EARLY and headed into Manuel Antonio because we wanted to go to the National Park. It was a rough start because we had a few beers the night before... but we couldn't waste time, we had to get to the beach! We ate breakfast at hostel lindo (I think) and it was 2 mil for an entire typico Costa Rican breakfast! Eggs, beans and rice, fruit, pancake, coffee... YUM!
Next, we bought our tickets and headed into the national park. It was AMAZING in there. We had about a 15 minute walk to the beach and it was through the rain forest! On our way in we saw a huge snake (maybe a boa), spiders and a sloth! When we got to the beach we found a place to spend the day and went swimming! The water was calm and warm, I could have spent all day swimming! While we were at the beach we saw monkeys, lizards, another sloth, and amazing views. It was great!
We left the beach at about 3pm, exhausted, sun-burned and starving! On our way home we ran into some of the other teachers and made plans to meet them for dinner later. Our evening consisted of dinner, a few drinks and an early night!
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Once again we got up pretty early as we had to head into town to buy our bus tickets to leave the next morning. After that, we headed back down to Manuel Antonio to grab breakfast and hit the beach. We spent the day with our crew of ten on the beach. The public beach is different from the beach in the park. There are many locals trying to sell you things like tours, food, drinks, cigars, drugs...you get the idea. However, I was able to rent a surf board and try it out again. It was not as easy for me this time as I have tried it 3 years ago when I came to Costa Rica. The waves were big and I am not as strong as I once was! After nearly drowning and only getting up 3 times I decided to call it a day. It certainly was not as easy as I remember, but I will try it again some day soon. Saturday was also a pretty low-key evening. After 2 days at the beach most everyone was exhausted. The sun sure takes it out of you! After dinner and a few drinks, we called it a night, and boy was I ready to come "home".
lesson:
I learned a lot about myself and others on this little weekend trip. One, maybe I shouldn't travel with large groups because I really don't like taking care of adults on trips. Many people were unhappy with the living situation (it was 20 bucks a night, it was by no means fancy!) and some had issues with eachother. I learned that I need to choose friends carefully here, but it is hard when the school community are your friends! So much to learn....
I love the photos and your story about all the creatures you saw. Wow! the sun does take your energy. Sorry about the group issues, but you were smart to reflect. You will sort out who is best for you to hang with and who to avoid. That is part of life. I had 12 people in my Peace Corps group. We traveled together a lot at first and then sort of shifted into different small groups. One guy was a true pathological liar and was asked to leave the Peace Corps! Still have friends from there and some I still am in contact with. People are all part of the adventure!! Remember, their issues do not have to become your issues. Thanks for writing and sharing your adventure!
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