Playa Manuel Antonio

Week 2

Last weekend, after we got back from rafting on the Pacuare (and were all beaten, bruised, and sore), a couple of us girls decided to go dancing. We were recommended two places, but Miredys' family said one of them often had problems with gunfights, so we decided to go to Discotheque Castro. I got asked to dance as soon as we walked in, but I didn't understand a word the guy was saying - ok first, who talks while they're salsa dancing, and it's loud, plus I don't know any Spanish. We all had fun, dancing with different guys all night, and headed home about 1 am. Carli and Anna crashed in my room so they wouldn't have to travel by themselves at night, because it isn't really safe.

Monday, class, blah. Tuesday we took a field trip to this place called Heredia. A guy there talked about charging for water, and how to make people ok with a small tax for what they consider a public good. The talk was supposed to last about 20 minutes, but ended up lasting two hours, so I amused myself with tres leches and cafe con leche. There was also a playground we were able to play on for a while before lunch, and we all acted pretty much like children.

Thursday, we headed out after class to the beach at Manuel Antonio. We decided to stay at this place called Costa Verde, which is extremely nice, with air conditioning, delicious drinks, and a view to die for. We even had a sloth right outside our room, which we dubbed Julius. We talked them down $15 per room per night, because we were paying in cash, and one group even got a free room upgrade. We hung out some at the pool, where we found out both Michael Jackson and Farah Fawcett had died, then showered and headed over to a little cantina for dinner. I had dinner rolls and pineapple chicken (amazing!) and when everyone else went out, I went back and slept.

The next day we headed down to the beach early-ish. We had a delicious breakfast at the Marlin, where I had strawberry pancakes and fresh squeezed orange juice. We laid on the beach and played in the waves for about 3 hours, at which point I was getting fried and needed an ATM. We walked down the beach and I bought some jewelry, when we ran into the other group that had just gotten into town. We all made plans to go to El Avigon, or the airplane bar, which is this really cool bar made out of an airplane that was shot down over Nicaragua in the 1980's.

Saturday, everyone but Mackenzie and I went hiking in the national park. We slept late, only to discover that a tree had fallen, and knocked out the power for the entire town. It was just coming back on as we headed down to the beach, so we got lunch and met up with some of the people who had been hiking. Saturday night, we went to Ronny's, which was supposed to have the best sunset view, but sadly it was too cloudy to see. We headed back on Sunday, when sadly, I had to actually do some work.

Pura Vida, and bye for now!