Manuel Antonio!

This past weekend we made our trip to Manuel Antonio, which is about 4 hours south of San Jose. The trip started out a little like this:
Set our alarms to what I thought was 4:15 am to meet the guys on the street at 4:45am ( I only have my ipod as an alarm, and its still set to Michigan time.. But guess who didnt think of that).
Got on that street 10 minutes later than we planned and the guys werent there, walked to the bus stop, they werent there. Went to the Greens' house, by this time they were about 25 minutes late, where they spent the night, got into the house and found out they were still sleeping... We were pretty annoyed at this point so we woke them up in a whisper yell telling them we were already 20 minutes behind, scared Mark awake and did the same to Matt.... Except it was only 4:10 in the morning... We walked out of the house hanging our heads and waited outside for the guys. Got teased for awhile, yes it was my fault I will admit, but in my defense Kristen didnt think to check the time either.... At least we started out our morning with laughing?

Took a taxi to the bus stop, stopped to get some breakfast from a street vendor, and waited for the bus. Since we hadnt paid for tickets ahead of time, we had to stand in line while the ticket people went through. Finally getting in, there were 4 seats left. Thank the Lord. But, not so fast... the last 4 possible people to get on had tickets for the exact seats we were sitting in... So we stood. It wasnt so entirely bad, we improvised and sat in the aisle back to back and tried to sleep that way, it was pretty swishy, Kristen nearly got puked on by a baby so that was a pleasant thing to smell for the rest of the trip. Luckily, on a few stops some people got off to eventually everyone got a seat for the rest of the trip. FINALLY got to Quepos, my sandal broke so I fixed that while we waited for a bus into Manuel Antonio, alas half an hour later we were in Manuel Antonio. Dropped our stuff off at the coolest looking Hostel and walked to the beach that was about 2 minutes walk from our Hostel. Our hostel was also amazing! It was beautiful and the manager was so nice to us. I would definitely go again. I loved it, if I could live the life of a backpacker for awhile... I could totally get into that lifestyle. What a riot!

We spent the whole day at the beach, swimming in the ocean and relaxing. It was the best day, and Kristen and I didnt get too burnt either! We were pretty dedicated in putting on sunblock... but we did burn a bit still. Good thing I brought the aloe along to put on! The guys already looked like natives since they get to work outside at the construction site all day with their shirts off, so Kristen and I stood out all the more next to them! Later the guys decided they wanted to play volleyball, so Kristen and I went for a walk up and down the beach. A tica police called us over to look at a crocodile that was sitting in a lagoon. Apparently everytime they pull one out, another one appears, and if people dont keep their dogs on a leash they get eaten by the crocs! Found the guys, went to find food. We were starved! Couldnt really find a place that didnt cost an arm and a leg, so we finally settled for the lesser evil. Kristen Matt and I went to bed WAY early since we had been up for over 12 hours. Mark, the chatty kathy he is went a mingled and swam at night. Apparently  if you swim at night, the algae glows as you move. That would have been cool and all... But I was grateful for a bed and some sleep.

Woke up fairly early, ate breakfast super cheap and really good! Had some fantastic coffee and went our separate ways, Kristen and I decided to go hike through the National Park to see some monkeys and birds, and the guys went to the beach again. The hike was so awesome! We saw 3 monkeys, a sloth, and 3 lizards of various sizes... Not what we were expecting, but the views were fantastic! Came across a beach, swam and my Superman watch finally met its doom :(, hiked the rest of the loop and found the guys on the public beach. Swam for awhile longer, went back and took showers and then ate Mussmani, which is a popular and cheap bread company here and waited for the bus. We actually ended up staying on the bus for about 5 hours because something happened to the bridge we were going to cross... But ended up at the Greens and ate some burgers and went home to shower and bed.

What a weekend. I would love to repeat that, but back to reality?
I am so blessed to be here.