August 27, 2009: Quepos

Owen: Today was such a long day! We woke up late at around 4:56, having to be on the bus by 5. Luckily, we had prepared all our stuff, packed our bags and such last night. We made it to the bus with time to spare! Departing Santa Elena/Monteverde was sad because I enjoyed that leg of the expedition very much, but we were heading to the place I was looking forward to for a while! The beaches of Quepos! WOOT! We stopped online the way for breakfast, Gallo Pinto con Huevos Rancheros for me, and viewed massive crocodiles from a nearby bridge. There must have been 12 or 15! We also saw a grand snowy egret fishing in the same river, also very cool. But the highlight of the stop was seeing two scarlet macaws fly overhead. Danny, our tour guide, congratulated us on being the first group he has ever had to see both the Green and Scarlet macaw in one trip! We have been very lucky this trip, not only did we see both species of macaw, but also the incredibly rare King Vulture, Quail Dove, Black and Yellow Dart Frog, and a tarantula on the hunt! Not many people see any of those things!

Anyways, we arrived in Quepos around 10, and checked out our hotel. It is very nice! Soon, we headed out for the bus station to go toward Manuel Antonio National Park, where all the nice beaches are, or so we ignorant tourists believe. We spent hours and hour there! It was a beautiful setting, nice sand and good body surfing waves. We stayed in the blistering sun till about 4ish (I say blistering for good reason, Liam will tell you why…) and got back on the bus. We took a swim in the cold pool at the hotel, which Casey described as “falling into silk sheets”. It did feel very good on the skin. Soon, we returned to the room, showered up and read our books for a bit. We became hungry and went to eat our usual PB&J, which the Londoners hadn’t heard of! We hung out in the eating area for a while and talked with the crew. We all headed out to “El Avion”. This is an astoundingly large cargo airplane that was turned into a restaurant. Very cool.

We are in our hotel now, lathering Liam with Aloe Vera. Sean is in the process of shaving as I type (yes, he gave in on the beard for the whole trip idea), we will see how that turns out. I am tired so I will type some more tomorrow! Hasta la Pasta!

Liam: When we stopped for breakfast on the way to Quepos I got a omelet that was very good. The restaurant we stopped at was interesting, almost everyone was still very tired and Elena, from Germany, said the coffee tasted like horse. We got to our hotel and settled in for a bit before we were rushing off to catch the next bus to Manuel Antonio. While the group ran to the bus station, Sean went to get more money from a nearby bank. When we got to the bus stop Sean wasn’t there yet so Owen and I went running to all the nearby banks looking for him. Luckily he came jogging up to the group with about five minutes to spare, so we all went to a nearby market and got some snacks for the day.

The beach was great when we arrived; it was about 11 o’clock and very warm. The whole group jumped into the water to cool off, and it felt very good. After many hours of playing in the waves, we got ready to leave at about 3:45. We had great luck in getting to the bus stop within about three minutes of the bus pulling up. It was a short bus ride back to our hotel where we showered and relaxed. Sean went out to get food supplies, and while he was gone it started pouring rain and lighting started. He got back and we made some sandwiches. After eating I looked at the sunburns I got that day. I got my first sunburn of the trip and my first sunburn in about a year. That’s pretty amazing for a ginger, but anyways I got burned on my shoulders and my arms. After all that we went to dinner where Owen, Sean, and I just got desserts while the group ate. We took a cab home and got ready for bed.

Sean: I started out today on a silly note. Instead of setting my alarm for 4:30am I accidentally set it for 4:30pm. As such, we did not wake up until Danny knocked on our door a few minutes before we were supposed to be on the bus. It was a stressful few minutes but we managed to make it to the bus on time. But I still hate being the last one of the group to be ready…

I slept most of the bus ride and when we awake we were at the restaurant. I very much enjoyed looking over the bridge and seeing so many crocodiles. When we arrived in Quepos I thought our hotel looked a little shady. However, once inside, I was quite impressed. The place even has an indoor pool!

The beach was as amazing as the boys described. The sun was hot and the water warm. Unfortunately, the waves did not look that great for surfing so we decided to body surf instead. Luckily, most of our group came to the beach so we were able to take turns watching the waves while the others were in the water. The sun was so hot that I had to reapply sunscreen numerous times. Sadly, Liam did not listen to me until it was too late. I tried my best to keep him from getting burnt, honest!

Anyway, on the ride back from the beach I fell asleep. After a quick dip and a shower I was more awake and set out to get the snacks. It was a longer walk than I anticipated because the first store I visited did not carry any peanut butter. As I left the larger market it started the typical tropical downpour. Needless to say, I got soaked and had to change my clothes again when I got back to the room.

The restaurant we went to for dinner was very cool and the centerpiece was a cargo plane that was shot down in Nicaragua during the Contra episode there. The plane has been turned into a really cool bar in the middle of the restaurant.