August 28, 2009: Quepos

Liam: At 7:15 our group of brothers rose from our deep slumber. We got up and ready for the day, we got the breakfast from our hotel while we waited for some of the other members of our group to get ready. After breakfast, we caught the 8:30 bus from Quepos to Manuel Antonio along with most of our group. After the bus ride we paid the admission to get into the park and went to look for some beaches. We found an all right beach for snorkeling but the visibility was not to good so we soon left. We started hiking to another better beach, but when we were almost there a rope stopped us and a sign telling us the road was closed. Our disappointed group went to the closest beach and ate lunch while we decided what to do for the remainder of the day.

After we ate and walked back out of the park to the beach we were at yesterday, we waiting for members of our group, that were buying lunch, to finish up. When they finished, we went and rented three surfboards for the rest of the day. It was very fun, Sean and Owen taught some people from our group to surf, and we all rotated through the boards. After a few hours of surfing, we had to leave the beach because there was a massive downpour and lighting. The rain was so hard that the street gutters started to flood everywhere, including onto the beach. After a run to catch the bus back to Quepos, we went swimming in the hotel pool to clean up. When we got out of the pool we rested in our room for a while before going to a nearby bakery to get some sandwiches for dinner. After we ate we went to a nearby restaurant to hang out with our tour guide and some of our group members for a while. When a couple of hours passed we went back to our hotel room and got ready for bed.

Owen: Today felt a lot longer than Liam made it seem. After breakfast and the bus ride, we went into the national park. The beaches were beautiful, but there were a ton of people and brave raccoons (I say brave because they would not hesitate to come up and inspect your stuff, even if you were sitting next to it), so that was a bummer and it got most of the group into a bad mood. I could tell today that this trip was the perfect duration because the people are getting sick of one and other, which doesn’t really matter at this point, seeing as tomorrow is our last day. Sad face.

We cut a deal with a guy renting surfboards when we returned to our favorite beach, and got the boards for pretty cheap. We used them from about 11:15 to 4 and got our money’s worth. I had an excellent time! We had 3 boards for 6 people, but I got to use boards for most of the time. After hours and hours of surfing, the rain swept in along the coast. After around half an hour of surfing in moderate rain, it went off the charts. It was astonishing! The streets began to flood, our visibility was virtually nothing, and a man told everyone to get out of the water. This was appropraitly timed because we were ready to go anyways, most of the people were tired or beat up, but Sean and I stayed out as long as possible. Around the time we were leaving, the ocean began to stink horribly. All the run off from the street and sewage was running straight to the ocean. We sprinted to get our belongings, and ran to catch the bus. We made it back to the hotel covered in sand and sopping wet. I made a B-line for the swimming pool, remembering how good it felt yesterday.

We swam around for a bit, returned to the room, showered and went to a bakery for dinner. We ate our din-din and after, we were invited our to a place with some of the group members. We left at 6:30, had a great time, and now its about 10:15. Today was a lot of fun. Also, we had to say goodbye to two of the group members today, Casey and Nick, because they had to catch an early flight home. And a little fun tidbit, I saw a man wearing a bright orange Oregon State shirt on the beach today, I approached him and he informed me that he and six other people from Corvallis are in Costa Rica accompanying him! What a small world!

Sean: I have to say, I enjoyed the National Park Manuel Antonio more than most of our group members today. Though somewhat crowded, it had beautiful beaches and some fun wildlife. On our walk to the beach we saw some monkeys, a cool snake, a few spiders, and lots of raccoons. After discovering that the raccoons were quite curious and the snorkeling fairly poor, we ate our lunch and returned to the large beach just outside of the national park.

As Owen mentioned, some of our group members are getting a bit sick of one another. Personally, I quite enjoy almost everyone’s company and find it a bit hard to juggle hanging out with the two subgroups that have formed in the last day or two. Very interesting group dynamics!

Surfing was super fun. I can’t believe it has been almost a year since I have been on a surfboard. I had almost forgotten how awesome it is! The three of us brothers went out together with the boards and I shook off some of the rust. After a while we went in and allowed the other group members to give it a shot. None of them had ever been on a surfboard before and I tried to give lessons to 3 people at once. It was quite difficult! Even so, I think everyone managed to stand up at some point during the day and everyone enjoyed the experience!

The rain that forced us off the beach was epic. It started as a light sprinkle and built into an incredibly strong downpour. I think everything got a bit wet. Luckily, I had my emergency poncho (thanks mom) and I was able to cover up our backpacks so that our cameras could survive the storm.