Breakfast the next morning was at a small bakery in town, since nobody wanted to return to the soda near the hotel. After breakfast, we piled 13 people and all our bags into a small van for the trip down from Monteverde to Quepos, on the Pacific coast. The bags had to travel on the roof since the van was barely big enough for all of us, and none of us actually thought they’d make it, given the state of the roads, but amazingly they all did.
The van ride was fairly uneventful. There was one stop at a bridge on the highway that runs over a swamp, to see the crocodiles.
Tourists stop there all the time to take pictures of them and throw them food. Crocodiles are really ugly creatures, but they don’t have too bad a life; lying around in the sun all day, being lazy… At any rate, there were souvenir stops set up right there where you could buy all the gimmicky crocodile memorabilia you’ve ever wanted. Which in my case was none.
As we descended in altitude, the temperature had been steadily climbing. By the crocodile bridge, we were parched and sweating in the van. By the time we got to Quepos, the heat hit us like a ton of bricks. It was by far the hottest temperature we had encountered anywhere on the trip.
Our hotel was just outside the town of Quepos, along the road to Manuel Antonio National Park, and was called the Mono Azul (the Blue Monkey). It had a swimming pool, a souvenir shop with all sorts of monkey-related items, a restaurant and more. It also had the most unhelpful staff I’d ever encountered. Yes, we were in the thick of tourist-central, and it showed. We all settled in and then ate lunch at the restaurant in the hotel.
The main thing to do on the Pacific coast is to go to the beach, of course. A short bus ride took us to the public beach at Manuel Antonio, where we rented lounge chairs and an umbrella and proceeded to take a dip in the ocean and lounge around for the remainder of the afternoon. The weather was extraordinarily hot, but the cool water felt nice. The beach, however, was dotted with bars, restaurants, vendors, and very crowded with the sort of vacationers who were seeking wild parties on the beach and little else. A far cry from the peaceful, secluded beaches of the Caribbean coast.
Our late lunch meant that nobody was really hungry for dinner. Instead, we met up during the evening for some dessert. Unfortunately, the Blue Monkey’s restaurant had run out of all dessert except Vanilla ice cream. A tip to hotel staff: don’t tell a group of women craving chocolate that you’ve run out. Not smart. We made our way down the road to a nearby restaurant for some dessert. It was expensive but absolutely delicious.
The town of Quepos has abundant nightlife any night of the week, but none of us really felt like taking taxis into town. Instead, we spent a quiet evening back at the hotel, and even played a round of bean game.
We went to sleep to the sound of the waterfall by the swimming pool (both of which I questioned given that there was a severe water shortage in Manuel Antonio).
Next: Quepos, and sunset dolphin cruise.