Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Costa Rica – Day 7 – Manuel Antonio

We started off by heading into Quepos to buy our bus tickets, some souvenirs, and snack supplies for the beach. Leanne bought some cool boxes, Esther bought a panda ice cream bar that reminded her of the motherland, Amy bought a bag of fritos, and I tested out all the musical frogs possible. Now I must explain more about the musical frogs, which I first saw in Monteverde.  They are wooden frogs with a ridged back which you pass an included wooden stick over, and they make a frog noise!  I found these frogs endlessly amusing and ended buying 5 of them as gifts.  I plan to keep a trifecta of these musical frogs, one of each wood color.  Off to the beach!

Manuel Antonio National Park

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After a 15 minute hike on a dirt road, we were suddenly at the beach!  The water was blue, the sand was white, and the trees were so vividly green.  We planted ourselves under a shady tree, laid out our towels, and plopped down for a day at the beach.  We all ventured into the water, enjoyed a swim, a nap, light beach reading, and eating fritos- for a while.  I was sitting on my towel turning my head back and forth to enjoy the view, when I spotted a raccoon right beside Esther and Amy’s head.  I screamed. The raccoon grabbed the bag of fritos in its teeth and ran off.  It dumped the bag out right next to the trail and started eating them about 15 ft away.

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That’s when I noticed monkeys hanging out in the nearby trees.  They were adorable, picking insects off eachother, sliding down the branches, and splaying out across the branch just chilling out.  Then they spotted the fritos, shooed the raccoon away, and ate them.  I think the excess sodium in the fritos made the monkeys more aggressive because then they got closer and closer to our stuff.  One monkey was hovering in the tree, right above my bag which didn’t even contain any food, staring at it.  Below is a picture of a different monkey, and how close it got to me when attempting to steal my stuff.  Yes, it was right at my feet as shown in the below pic.  That was not the only animal that got close to my feet however.  Earlier in the day I had been laying down, and felt something brush my foot.  I sat up, and it had been a small iguana!

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 Agua Azul

We decided to go to a restaurant owned by two Americans called Agua Azul that we overheard a girl recommended to another group of Americans on the bus.  Leanne and I got the Panko-crusted Tuna, Amy got the Coconut encrusted mahi mahi with an avocado/pineapple slaw, and Esther got Mango BBQ Ribs.  They were all delicious and went well with our fruity margaritas.  When they tried to take away Esther’s ribs, Leanne and I said “NOOOOoooooooo” and finished them off for her.  For dessert, three of us got the Brownie Sundaes and devoured them.  When the busboy tried to take Amy’s unfinished plate away, she said “NOOOOooooooo,” and he backed off.  It was that good, no bites left behind. mmmm.

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