Manuel Antonio

On our free days all 27 of us decided to go to the beach at Manuel Antonio while Glenn and Saul lived it up in Cuba. We took a small bus on a four hour ride once again on some pretty crappy roads. I would like to give a shout out to Ronald our usual bus driver because he always seems to get us around while avoiding the traffic while this weekend we saw San Jose rush hour at its best.
After the bus ride through the mountains we arrived at the hotel. We immediatly headed to town to check it out. Most people ate but a few of us packed sandwiches so Peter, Matt, Paul, Bob and myself hit the water right away. O yeah...it rained for the whole trip but it did not slow us down. The group eating had slow service so we were in the water for about an hour before anyone else got in there. The ocean was amazing. I forgot how magnifisant it looks as i have not been there for many years now, and the water wsa warm. I could do without the salt though. Long story short we all had a blast at the beach in the rain for many hours then we hit up happy hour 2 for 1 on about 5 varieties of drinks. We all had a blast and then ate at the same restaraunt. Chase and I were lucky enough to get on the waiters good side so we each got two free rounds (of two drinks that is). Happy hour was the highlight of the trip for most people i think.
On a side note we have learned to barter. Some of us went to a local market where I will be buying all of my souveniers and bartered for all kinds of stuff.
Back to the weekend, I was able to haggle a 40 dollar box of cigars fdown to $15 dollars so some of us tried a cigar during happy hour. After dinner we all checked out a local dance club slash bar. Some poeople called it a night early and some people stayed out till 2 or 3. I was personally at the hotel around 1230.
The next morning (today) it was still raining so i skipped the nature hike...this was a good call according to the people that went, then we left for home around 230 after lunch.
It was a fun trip but not close to what we have been doing.
We saw our first monkey...sweet.
It never stops raining.
The bus rides are getting old but i could not be having more fun in Costa Rica.

Really quickly the beach was a tourist site for sure. Locals were trying to sell us stuff the minute we got there. All the shops and restaraunts took american currency. The hotels were cheap for tourists ...and everyone i suppose. And i saw very few people that lived at Manuel Antonio most people were from North America I think.
Fun weeks see ya later.