Last Day in Manuel Antonio

Happy Bastille Day! Today is also National Mac & Cheese Day in the U.S., according to Sarah. She is sad that there aren't any restaurants that serve Mac & Cheese in Manuel Antonio (at least that she could find...and trust me, she looked hard) so we started the day with her second favorite treat of the moment: iced coffee. After our coffees, we headed down to Manuel Antonio National Park. 

We were sad to learn that the park is closed on Mondays. We hadn't thought to check the schedule beforehand, but you can be sure we'll check for every other park we visit from now on. Disappointed but not discouraged, we made the most of the situation and decided to spend the day on the beach right next to the park. Hardly a terrible outcome.

A Pelican greeted us from a nearby rock.

There were a bunch of rock formations on the beach and just off the coast.

There were lots of creatures around - especially crabs like this guy.

It cleared up even more as the day went on; really turned into a great day at the beach.

Sarah quenched her thirst with a coconut right from the beach.

We headed home when we were ready to get out of the sun (and to seek shelter from the thunderstorm that was about to roll through). Once the rain passed, we headed out to grab some dinner at Ngo, an Asian take-out restaurant in town. I know we've been saying this a lot, but the food was just amazing. Unlike any Asian food I've had before - the Vietnamese / Chinese owner borrowed styles from all over the continent to create a very unique flavor. The sweet and spicy chicken we got was the special stand-out through: the light dough that breaded the chicken made it taste like a General Tso's chicken donut. Might sound a little weird, but it was out of this world. 

We also loved the Singapore Noodles - the slightly sweet taste was a great balance to the spicy chicken.

Tomorrow we head back to San Jose to return the rental car, re-group and then head to Panama first thing on Wednesday morning. 

Iced Coffee At Last!

As we went to sleep last night in the jungle - again secluded from any city buzz - we really noticed all of the sounds surrounding us: not just birds, cicadas and monkeys but also the pouring rain, lightening and thunder accompanying a rainy season storm. We woke pretty rested around 7am and since it was still raining, we hung around our apartment for a bit, just reading and catching up on some news.

Around 10am it started to clear up so we headed into town. After a few days of relaxing by the pool we decided to hike the 45 minute uphill walk from our place to our lunch destination: Falafel Bar (the #1 rated restaurant in Manuel Antonio according to Tripadvisor, which has yet to steer us wrong). Unfortunately, the place was closed - maybe because it was Sunday? - so we walked across the street to the only open restaurant we had seen so far: Café Milagro. We stopped just to catch our breath and rehydrate, but then...

OMG ICED COFFEE!!!!!

Obviously Alex got a massive "espresso shake" - which is code for "espresso plus two scoops of chocolate chip ice cream" - and drank most of it in two sips. That said, I still want to mention my amazing iced coffee - the first I've seen on this trip - which I purchased for less than $2!

After sweating our way into town and wondering where the iced + caffeinated beverages were over the past two weeks, I was THRILLED to have an amazing ice coffee experience. In a move 100% expected by Alex, I have already demanded we stop here every day while in Manuel Antonio.

We decided to stay and grab a quick lunch before the World Cup Final aired at 1pm and lucked out with a delicious meal: while the chicken sandwich was definitely nothing to write home about, the quesadilla was incredible. Definitely enough to feed two people for lunch (and for only $9). We then quickly headed to a nearby bar where we could watch the game and came across El Avion - a bar that is built around a U.S. SPY PLANE.

Sketchy plane shot down in Nicaragua, then purchased for $3,000 and turned into a tourist spot.

I am convinced this is a CIA coverup but Alex swears on tomorrow's iced coffee that this is not the case.

A natural CIA pilot, obviously.

After Germany finally (sadly) beat Argentina, we made our way to a small spot perched above the hills to watch the sunset. (Even though I know we have posted a bunch of sunset pics and it is only 2 weeks in, I can't resist!)

Sunset in Manuel Antonio never gets old.

We hiked the remaining half hour home and after reheating our delicious pizza leftovers from Uvita we knew it was time for some laundry. Lucky for us, our apartment had a clearly marked washing machine. Unlucky for us, the directions were completely in Spanish and the design was 100% counterintuitive:

You have to remove the wet /soapy clothes from the right to the "spin" section on the right.

After an hour of doing laundry, drinking wine and figuring out how to microwave delicious leftover pizza it was time for sleep - hoping for less thunderbolts tonight!

Hello Manuel Antonio

Sarah and I started our day at the Oxygen Jungle Villas, mostly just checking emails over coffee and packing up before we took off. As great as the "honeymoon" has been for the last two days, I think I'm ready to explore some more of the country.

One more. Hard to say goodbye to this view...

Before making the drive to Manuel Antonio, we ate lunch at Pizzeria La Fogata, a very well reviewed place in Uvita. Despite all the touristy draws toward American comfort food we've seen along the way (and pizza is apparently the most American of touristy comfort foods), we haven't had pizza since leaving New York. We were the first ones at the restaurant and ordered two small pizzas to share: the Mexicana (shredded beef, sweet and hot peppers, mozzarella) and the Flamingo (chicken, ham, pepperoni, mushrooms, peppers, mozzarella). There is a reason this is the #3 ranked restaurant in Uvita - really delicious food! We only ate half and we're looking forward to having the leftovers tomorrow.

Lunch leftovers.

Full of delicious pizza, we set off on the hour-long drive to Manuel Antonio. We first arrived in Quepos, the "gateway" town before getting to the national park. We didn't spend much time in Quepos, but Lonely Planet's review - "...most visitors to the Manuel Antonio area prefer to stay outside Quepos..." - rang true to us on our short trip through the town. We were happy to move on to find our accommodations for the next three days: Villa Kristina. The apartment we are staying in gets its name from its owner, Kristina, a very nice European who lives on the ground floor. She rents out the upper three floors of her home to guests like us. She warmly welcomed us and gave us a tour. Her home is in an isolated section of dense jungle, so it's a little hard to get to...but not nearly as hard as the Oxygen Jungle Villas.

View from our balcony. Overcast skies but lush jungle.

After running some errands, taking a dip in the pool, unpacking our bags and relaxing for a bit, we were ready to take a drive to check out the rest of Manuel Antonio and scope out the beach. Fortunately for us, we timed the sunset perfectly and got some amazing shots along the way.

Welcome to Manuel Antonio.

Took this one a few minutes later. Pura vida.

Afterward, we were ready for some dinner. Sarah looked up the best budget-friendly restaurants in town (Tripadvisor has really steered us in the right direction so far) and gave me a few to choose from - I said I wanted to go to the fish tacos place because it sounded "lighter than the others." Well that was not the case, but it was so good I can't complain. We got the Sampler for 2 at El Gato, which included: fish tacos, fish filet, fish balls (basically a more doughey, spherical fish filets), fries and onion rings. And two beers each. For $25. I love Costa Rica.

Yum. The lettuce in the taco counts as my veggies for the day, right?

Tomorrow we'll explore the beach before finding some local place to watch the World Cup Final. Happy Saturday!