Manuel Antonio National Park/Quepos

Last weekend 5 of us decided to head to the small town of Quepos which is where Manuel Antonio National Park is. Everyone I had talked to had told us that Manuel Antonio had some of the most beautiful, white sand beaches in the entire country and they were right! There was a curvy road that connected the town of Quepos and the little strip of a town where the National Park was at, and along that curvy road is where all of the hostels, hotels, restaurants and bars were at. Our house mom Nury had told us that she had a friend named Sonia who owned a hostel and that we should give her a call. She ended up giving us a great deal on one of her rooms because we were Nury's students. About a mile down the road from the actual hostel, Sonia owns a two story house where she rents out the bottom floor to travelers, and she and her boyfriend live upstairs, and we were lucky enough to get the house for a great deal. It was so nice!







We had two bedrooms a good sized bathroom, a living room, huge kitchen where we could cook all of our own meals, and a huge patio area with 4 or 5 hammocks. It was definitely a nice surprise after our weekend in the Jaco Hostel. The little area of Manuel Antonio was so cute, very laid back and super hot. When we first got there on Friday we went to the supermarket to buy our groceries for the weekend, and then headed down to explore one of the beaches. We walked for about 20 minutes down a HUGE curvy hill that was very secluded besides a couple of ritzy villa type resorts that looked empty for the most part. We finally got the bottom of the hill and cut off onto a trail that led us on a 5 minute hike down to the beach. The beach was so awesome, it wasn't a public beach so it was extremely secluded in a quiet little cove, and there were only like 6 or 7 other people down there. It kinda sucked because it was hide tide so the water was up really high and there was almost no beach left, and the tide had brought in a bunch of leaves and sand, but nevertheless it was BEAUTIFUL. After the long treck down the hill we were sweating and I didnt hesitate to drop everything and jump right into the water. After we swam and took pictures for a while, we were lucky enough to see a taxi drive by who stopped and drove us back up to our hotel. We walked a little ways down the road to a perfect little grassy area where we stopped and watched the sun set over the pacific.








We spent that night hanging out and relaxing in our hammocks at the house because we were getting up early to head to the national park. Someone in town had told us that it was only a “short, 20 minute walk to the national park” but the next morning if definitely took a good 45 minutes in the hot sun, I honestly don't think I have ever been so sweaty in my entire life, I even stopped at bought a bottled water from some lady on the side of the road lol. And wearing sandals was not the brightest idea I had of the day because after walking all the way to the park, and then hiking to the different beaches, my feet were in a lot of pain. The park itself was absolutely beautiful, and thus far it is my favorite place in Costa Rica, there is no doubt that I want to go back before I leave the country. Inside the park there are four different beaches, but we only ended up making it to two of them that day. There were a ton of hiking trails but a lot of them were closed for maintenance. The beaches were white sand and had the some of the clearest water I had ever seen (besides the Virgin Islands I went to two years ago with my sisters, I don't know if I'll ever go to beaches that clear again). The park had lots of people but wasn't too crowded. The sun was definitely the most intense sun we have been in because even though I was putting on a ton of sunscreen all day long, I somehow managed to get extremely sunburned (even with the great base tan I already have). Throughout the park there was a TON of wildlife, I saw a bright green snake slithering through the bushes (I wanted to cry..it was so gross, but cool looking nonetheless), we saw a bunch of cool birds, a million little crabs, some rodent anteater type thing, a bunch of iguanas and lizards and MONKEYS!!



There was a little stretch of trees in between the two beaches we went to and there were little white faced monkeys everywhere, they were so cute but don't let them fool you, they are sneaky little guys, we saw two different monkeys come down to the beach, unzip a ladies backpack, rummage through the bag, found a little something that he liked, and ran back up into the trees. I got a ton of great pictures, and even though I wasn't supposed to, I took out a bag of chips and made friends with all the monkeys. We have a couple videos of them opening up the trash can and searching for something to eat, it was hilarious but these little guys were a little bit scary hahah they were on a mission! They loved the food and I got to get soooo close to them, I wish I could have grabbed one and brought it home, but Nury wouldn't have liked that!! lol The National Park was the highlight of the trip is by far the best place I've been in Costa Rica, the beaches and jungles are unbeatable and you are able to get up close and personal with so many animals! While we were there, there was a guy sitting under a tree eating his lunch and a huge iguana jumped out of the tree and on to his lap, and then bit the guy while trying to steal his food, he had blood all over him and to say the least, after that I'm staying away from the trees and lizards. After the day at the park we went back to our house and relaxed until bed time, we attempted to enjoy some TV in English, but when we turned it on, we saw the news coverage of Whitney Houston on every channel, very sad!
Anyways that was our weekend at Manuel Antonio, if anyone ever gets the chance to go there, GO! And look into staying at Serena Vista Hostel, absolutely amazing!

Jaco Tacos

So for our first solo trip we decided to just go to the closest beach town for a relaxing weekend since we were all worn out from all the excursions and wanted to save a little bit of money. We decided on the town of Jaco which was about an hour and half drive from San Jose. The bus tickets were really cheap, 2,000 colones each way (so about 8 bucks round trip) and it dropped us off about 2 blocks away from our hostel. This was also my first experience in a hostel. The easiest way to explain our room was one bunk bed and two double beds (enough space for 6 people but we fit 7 girls in there all weekend), it had a tiny cubicle of a bathroom with a shower and toilet, it was EXTREMELY hot and even with the 3 fans you were sweating all weekend (Jaco was really hot that weekend, in the mid to high 90's) so a tiny room with 7 girls and 3 fans wasn't exactly the most comfortable but we made it work and enjoyed ourselves. The place didnt have hot showers, but I wouldn't have wanted one even if they did because of the weather and outside there was a patio area with chairs, a table, bar, grill, 2 hammocks and a ping pong table, it was such a neat little place and the hammock area was perfect for hanging out at night. You couldn't beat the $10 bucks a night price no matter how hot and dirty the place was. On Friday night a group of guys from Georgia and New York showed up and were staying a couple doors down from us, we ended up having friends to hang out with all weekend which was a nice surprise. The beaches in Jaco are definitely not the nicest in Costa Rica, really rocky and crowded and the water wasn't the cleanest, but obviously still beautiful, and the sunset Friday evening was one of the prettiest I've seen in Costa Rica so far. Friday night for dinner we ate at the restaurant Jaco Tacos which was surprisingly one of the best restaurant meals I have eaten since I've been here, plus the plates were huge so me and my roommate were able to split a meal between the two of us.

Since we weren't too found of the beach in town, the guys we were hanging out with had a rental car and we all decided to make the short drive to Playa Hermosa (Beautiful Beach) which was about a 10 or 15 minute car ride out of town. It was definitely worth it, the beach had beautiful black sand and there were a ton of big waves to play in. It was really hot that day but fortunatlely it was really really overcast and actually sprinkled rain a few times throughout the day, it was a nice break from the blistering hot sun the day before. Even with all the clouds I managed to get pretty sunburned after falling asleep in the sand for a couple hours, but I can't complain about getting this much sun in the middle of winter when everyone at home was stuck in a snow storm. After spending the day relaxing we walked down the beach to this cute little smoothie shop for some hydration and then headed back to Jaco (fyi Costa Rica has the best smoothie places in the entire world! I have never had such fresh, juicy fruit in my life. Definitely one of the things I am going to miss most!). That night we hung out in the hammocks after eating dinner and me and Chelsea my roommate hit the sack pretty early because we were so tired, while a couple of the others went out on the town for a while. Sunday morning before taking the bus back to San Jose we browsed the souvenior shops and I bought a really awesome Costa Rican tank top for only 6 bucks. We enjoyed the beach and sun for a little bit longer and then headed to the bus stop around 12. All in all it was a fun weekend, I loved the little shops and of course I always love the beach and sun, but the town of Jaco is definitely a little more on the sketchy side, a lot of prostitutes and sketchy guys walking around, plus there was a Harley Davidson motorcycle convention going on the entire weekend so the town was PACKED full of people, some that didn't look so friendly lol. I would probably return just because it is close and cheap, but there are lots of new places I need to explore first!!

Monteverde Cloud Forest

The weekend after Arenal Volcano we went to the Monteverde Cloud Forest. It was about a 5 hour bus ride, the last hour of which was on a gravel/dirt road on the edge of the mountains, it was a little nerve racking to say the least. On the way to our hotel we stopped at the actual Monteverde National Park where we hiked and explored for an hour. Since we didnt have that much time I didnt get to see the hanging bridges or anything that cool but the hike was very pretty and we got to see a small waterfall. We arrived at the hotel and it was beyond beautiful, the rooms reminded me of cottages up in the mountains and everything was so nice. From our balcony you could see all the way to the coast and we were able to watch the sun setting over the pacific ocean both nights. On Saturday we had a day full of activities, early in the morning I went horseback riding through the mountains and later we went zip lining. The horseback riding was a lot of fun but it definitely gets uncomfortable and a little painful being on the back of a horse after a couple hours of going up and down the mountains. The zip lining was SO MUCH FUN. It is actually a lot scarier than I thought it would be and a little bit more challenging, each time you zip across the line you have to stop yourself at each plank by grabbing the line and pulling down fairly hard. After thirteen different lines my arms were killing me, and the next day I was so sore from the zip lining plus the horseback riding. The last line was really really long and I can't deny I got a little nervous when I started to slow down thinking I was going to get stuck out on the line hundreds of feet above the canopies, but everything was great. The view is absolutely amazing, pictures or stories don't do it any justice, you have to zip line yourself to understand what it's like. At the end of the zip lining we all the option to do the “tarzan swing” which I can only explain as a bungee jumping, swinging rope type thing (the video of me doing it is on facebook, check it out, and excuse my language, it was a little scary). You have to walk to the edge of a hanging bridge that is at least 300 hundred feet in the air, they clip you to the rope swing and tell you to jump, it was hands down the scariest thing I have ever done in my life (I had been planning on going bungee jumping while I was down here at a really popular spot, but after the tarzan swing I changed my mind lol no more bungee for me). The first 3 or 4 seconds is a straight free fall where you feel like you're not connected to anything at all, then after that you feel the rope grab you and swing you back and forth. It was a once in a lifetime experience, but I don't know if I would ever do it again. After our day of adventures, we ate a big lunch at the hotel and spent the rest of the day relaxing in the sun and exploring our huge resort. I would love to return to Monteverde to be able to explore the National Park more and of course stay at the same hotel (although I doubt I would ever be able to afford a place like that anytime soon lol). It was a very fun weekend away from the city and it was our last excursion with the ISA program staff or in other words, it was the last weekend we got to stay in a nice hotel with fun day trips, from here on out it was time for cheap hostels and public transportation.