The next morning we caught a bus down to the town of Quepos to go eat, bank, shop and explore. Quepos is a mid-sized town that survives primarily on tourism but also has a larger local population than most of the other places we’d been until then. There are plenty of amenities like grocery stores, banks, internet cafes, and the like.
Unfortunately, everything runs on Tico time to the extreme. Breakfast took ages – Noella got refried eggs (yummy!) and lining up at the bank to cash the last of our traveller’s cheques took even longer. By the time those two errands were complete, most of the morning was gone.
We set out in search of a bathing suit store that Julie had told us about, where you could choose a design and fabric and have a swimsuit custom-made. Both Mandy and Cathy bought new bathing suits and crossed their fingers that they would come out okay. We also did a little bit of souvenir shopping.
It was March 17th, so I phoned home to wish my Mom happy birthday. That of course also meant it was St. Patrick’s Day. To our surprise, this was important enough to some people that they’d taken over a local bar and turned it into an Irish pub for one day only. We stumbled upon the bar by accident, advertising “today only” Guinness, Irish coffee, and other green food. It also had a bunch of people trying really hard to create an Irish atmosphere, with funny hats, green outfits, streamers, and Irish music. Cathy, Mandy and I decided to go celebrate with some Irish coffees and cheer.
We made our way back to the hotel to get ready for our afternoon dolphin watch and sunset sail. (Actually, it wasn’t really a sail since we were going on a motorboat and not a sailboat, but whatever.) We went to the dock and watched people unload massive fish, which would be shortly appearing on somebody’s dinner plate. Then we all climbed onto the boat and set out into the water.
The boat ride was lots of fun. I got to try snorkeling for the first time. It was a bit trickier than I’d expected, as I couldn’t exactly figure out how to use the tube properly and I kept getting salt water in my mouth. The visibility wasn’t fantastic but we did see some beautiful fish. And it was fun swimming with flippers.
The dolphins came right up to our boat; they weren’t shy. We saw a whole bunch of them circling and jumping; it was amazing. From the boat, we also had a great view of the beaches of Manuel Antonio National Park, where we were planning on spending the next day. Dinner was served on the boat, and then we floated around and watched the spectacular sunset.
Back to town for some desperately-needed showers – except that there wasn’t any water. They weren’t kidding about the shortage. We waited it out and showered with whatever trickles we could get.
All of us were still hungry after returning to town, so we decided to head to a restaurant we’d passed on the way to the beach the previous day. It was called El Avion and was built around – and in – an old airplane. Very cool.
The food was excellent and we all enjoyed dinner immensely. There were live musicians downstairs jamming Latin music. Although we sat upstairs, we still had a fabulous time. After dinner, we headed back to the hotel and went to sleep.
Next: Manuel Antonio National Park