Hotel Casitas Eclipse, Manual Antonio, CR @ 11:25pm, Jan 11

DAY 9
This morning we woke up early for our road trip to Manuel Antonio. We got
our things together, then had a breakfast at the Monteverde Country Lodge.
It was a humble little buffet consisting of rice and beans, scrambled eggs,
fruits, toast, and bacon wrapped chicken fried steak (just kidding.) At
8:30 we boarded our bus headed for Manuel Antonio.

The trip down from Monteverde was a rocky, uneasy one. We made it out alive
though, and made our first stop in some rest stop with a souvenir shop and
a Costa Rican version of Baskin Robbins. Jieling got a scoop of mango ice
cream. It was pretty good.

Our second stop was in a touristy beach town called Jacó, a hot place where
people walk around the streets wearing their swimsuits and carrying their
surfboards. I’m from Huntington Beach, also known as Surf City, so I felt
muy familiar con esta ciudad! We had lunch at this taco shack which looked
to have about 95% non Costa Rican customers and looked like it was run by
someone from
California. Definitely scared me that it was just a tourist trap, but the
food turned out to be pretty decent. Jieling and I sat down in our swings
at the bar (yes you read that correctly!) and shared a passionfruit
smoothie. We also shared a ceviche which was OK, but was was lacking a lot
in the acid department. The fish tacos were simple, consisting of just
tortillas with some fresh tasting fish. They were tasty, and they gave me
the energy to tackle the rest of our day!

We shopped at some Wal Mart offshoot grocery store for snacks (I think that
about sums up this town nicely) and headed for Manuel Antonio, which was
about an hour away. We passed a former women’s prison on the way, and our
guide joked that she met our driver while a prisoner there. Then we could
see the Pacific Ocean. It was sunny and the water was a beautiful, bright
blue. Beach here we come!

We arrived at our hotel, Casitas Eclipse. As the name implies, the hotel
consists of these cute little houses. Our room is the spacious 1st floor of
one of these houses. We even have a stove and a refrigerator!

We headed to the beach in the late afternoon to catch some sun and check
out the water. The water here is really warm, which is great. Dogs also
roam freely here, which is fantastic! We got tired and headed back to our
hotel to watch an episode of Law and Order: SVU, which happened to be
filmed/take place on the street in NY that we live on. Jieling and I don’t
want to go home anymore.

We ate a late dinner at El Avión, which is literally an airplane. She had a
mixed seafood and rice dish and I had a seared tuna. She also had a
pineapple smoothie. Jieling loves those fruit drinks! We shared a tres
leches sponge cake and were on our way. Not a bad dinner.

I don’t remember what we did after dinner, but we had to go to bed early so
we could wake up early the next day.

DAY 10
We woke up around 6:45 and put on our swimming clothes. Beach day! We got
breakfast at the hotel. I got a “típico” Costa Rican breakfast of rice and
beans, while Jieling got a “continental” breakfast that consisted of
fruits, yogurt, and toast. Jieling is boring. The bus arrived while she
was finishing her toast, so we were rushed to finish.

We got on the bus and made our way to Manuel Antonio National Park. We made
a short hike which was pretty uneventful, but we did witness one pretty
iridescent blue butterfly. We made it to a beach in the park which was the
highlight. This was much nicer than the public beach we were at because the
water was less rocky (painful) and the sand was nicer. It looked like
something out of a postcard: beautiful blue waters, bright sun, and nice
yellow sand. The sun was shining without a cloud in sight which means I was
able to make progress on my farmer’s tan. We swam for a while until some
girl in our group got stung by a jellyfish. I peed on her leg but she
didn’t seem to appreciate that. We alternated between tanning and swimming
for a couple hours before leaving the park and heading back to our hotel.

We ate lunch at El Avión again, since it’s right across from our hotel. I
had a seared tuna sandwich and Jieling had a similar fish sandwich. She
also had a fruity drink with rum called a “Peachy Mango.” The food isn’t
the greatest here, but it’s decent and they give you a lot.

We swam for a bit in the pool then headed to our room to shower. Jieling
napped, and I joined her after watching the end of the movie Julie and
Julia. I didn’t really like it all that much but maybe it’s because I was
tired.

We woke up from our nap and lounged for a bit. I had an incident with the
toilet which will go undescribed here, but it was fixed with a wooden
stick. Hurray! We then headed to the beach to get dinner. We both had it in
our mind that there were plenty of food options but we both had apparently
imagined this. The downtown beach area in Manuel Antonio basically has 3
restaurants which appear to be the same thing but with different names. I
forgot which one we chose but I don’t think it matters. We shared popcorn
shrimp, which was OK. Jieling had a ceviche, which was OK. I had a seafood
rice platter, which was better than OK. She also had two pineapple juices.
If the adage “you are what you eat” is true, I think Jieling is well on her
way to becoming a big smoothie.

We made friends with a strange homeless, shirtless Costa Rican surfer dude
who gave us advice on where to get the cheapest beer. We then took a taxi
to our hotel. We used the hotel’s wifi to check our email and such and made
our way back to our room.

Back in the room, Jieling read her Kindle while I watched ESPN in Spanish.
They talk a lot about fútbol. We are going on a catamaran and snorkeling
tomorrow, so we have to go to bed to wake up early. Good night!