making the most of the sun and the water. mosSot of us just stayed on the beach at Manuel Antonio, though Paula and Danne did take a trip into the National Park. We stayed fairly close to the van, taking turns watching it or going into the water, even Suzie got a bit more used to the hot sand and ventured out of the van for a while. Aaron and Brendan were busy for a while putting up the hammocks, debating whether they had enough rope for both, but eventually the decision was made that there wasn’t enough. Still one hammock was all that we really needed, since the rest of us had a place to stay. I took a few breaks from the beach, mainly to go use the internet, but by now I had learned that if I went to use one of the computers at the hotels, versus using the internet café, the price would be much more
affordable. Upon my return from the café, I ran into Eric and Kellie, for whom I had booked a room at Costa Linda once we arrived there the day before. Paula and Danne returned early in the afternoon, thrilled with the national park and all that they got to see and do there. The rest of us planned on visiting it in two days, since the park is closed on Mondays. Danne was leaving on the 5:30 bus back to San Jose, since his flight departed early the next morning for Peru, so he had to go back and gather his bags. To pass the time until the bus came, we chose two tables at Marlin’s restaurant, just in time for happy hour and 2 X 1 drinks. We barely got to sip our first drinks when it started dripping; not a big deal, especially in such a humid place, but it soon turned into a downpour. It was so heavy in fact that we had to relocate to another table inside the restaurant. And this is when the sad goodbyes started – we had all been traveling together for at least a week, though for most people it was two, as for Kellie, Eric and I it had been more than a month since we met at Laguna de Apoyo, Nicaragua. Danne was the first one of our group to leave, and we all wished him well on his continued adventures. He was really nice and even got bracelets for all of us, all different colours that he thought were fitting; and he was absolutely right: he picked a dark blue one for me since most of my clothes and my backpack are all the same shade. The toughest goodbye was between Paula and Danne, and even though they had their private farewell at the bus stop, it was really hard to lift up her spirits when she returned. It was
a bit of a downer experience for all of us, though we did try to joke around and bring the situation around. We all reflected on how the rainy season was looming over us, and how it arrived a few days early, but with vengeance. We really had been lucky with the weather these last few months.
After is got dark, we returned to Costa Linda, where we had a small dinner, and then walked to the van, where the fire was already going. The machetes that Aaron and Brendan bought really did come in handy for chopping up the wood. We took turns adding to the fire and fanning it to keep it alive (which brought about more jokes, many made at Dana’s expense – though she was a willing participant). We played a few drinking games, but mainly we used the evening to reflect
on the times we had together, as our group was about to be disbanded even more after this day. Even the cops showed up at some point, all of us thinking that we would get into trouble for having a fire on the beach; however they just came in to check up on us, to make sure that we would be keeping the fire under control, and telling us to be careful as there had been a number of thefts reported in the area. We had already had first hand knowledge of this from David, but we thanked them for their attention and then they were on their way. As the wood supply was diminishing, the fire started to dwindle and so did the party for the night. We headed back to the hotel for some much needed sleep, knowing the next day would bring more hugs and tears.
We woke up as Aaron, Brendan and Audrey came by our hotel – they wanted to use the showers and bathrooms before continuing their road trip, and we had one more breakfast together. We started to refer to these as our ‘last dinner’ or ‘last breakfast’, losing sight that most of us were to continue traveling, just in separate directions. Once they were ready to go, we asked to
accompany them to Quepos since the rest of us needed to buy bus tickets for our return to San Jose in the next few days. That’s where we said goodbye to Aaron, Audrey, Brendan and of course Suzie, who were first going to meet a friend of Audrey’s in Jaco, their destination being playa Herradura. They were planning on continuing to make their way up north, wanting to leave Costa Rica as soon as possible (by now we had all realized how much more expensive it is to be here than, say, Panama or Nicaragua). Their ultimate destination is California, and I still hold out some hope that I may run into them when I return to Central America. After a few hugs and well wishes, Dana, Paula, Eric, Kellie and I were left at the side of the road, looking as the
van drove off into the distance. Those were great memories that we created together…
Though Quepos is not much of a big town, we spent a bit of time walking around, stopping at a bank machine, and looking at some shops before buying our tickets to San Jose. Paula and Dana stayed behind, since they wanted to do more shopping, while the three of us briefly stopped at an internet café before catching the bus back to Manuel Antonio. Eric and I returned to Marlin’s and had lunch, an expensive but really big and really good burger, then we joined Kellie on the beach. She had splurged on beach chairs (I think this was the first time I had used them since the beginning of my trip), but unfortunately it wasn’t much of a beach day. The sky was
overcast, and after about an hour or so, it started to drip, so we took refuge at Costa Linda. Luckily it was just a quick shower, so we did return to the beach afterward, but our hopes for a nice sunset were all but dashed. I took a walk with Eric to what we thought was a book exchange not to far from the village – I was wrong on both accounts: it was neither close nor a book exchange: just a book store, and the walk there seemed so long that we were ready to turn around as we got to it. He did manage to buy a book and we retraced our steps to where the girls were on the beach. We still stayed out, and in the end we got to see a few rays before it got dark, but nowhere near the sunset I had experienced there before. I should have remembered this
from before as well, since Manuel Antonio’s slowest day is Monday, when the park is closed, many restaurants and bars also take the night off, including the one at Costa Linda, the one affordable place in town. That’s when I recalled that I had the same dilemma last time as I was there, and we solved it by going to this little Soda right on the main street that I always used to pass by. It was eerily similar to the same night months before… we even pulled the same three tables together, dined outside with the waves within an earshot, I even ordered the same casado as last time – the similarities can go on and on. We were also joined by another Canadian couple, who work for the fisheries ministry and RCMP, if I remember correctly (my friends will have to
help me out with names), so we were again a group of seven. Well, this group of seven had so much food to deal with that for the first time on this trip I have seen Eric not being able to lick his plate clean (let alone that often we finishes Kellie’s meals too). The poor RCMP woman ordered nachos from the ‘snacks’ section and received a plate bigger than her head, filled with so many vegetables that we are all asking – are there nachos under there? By the end, we carted the rest of the food, and more difficultly ourselves back to Costa Linda, where we were too tired and full to even sit and hang out, so almost everyone went to sleep right away. We knew the next day we would still have to wake up early, to go (re) visit Manuel Antonio National Park.
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