It’s a good thing we’re visiting in the dry season so that it’s only rained every single day so far.
We’ve moved from the mountainous region of La Fortuna and are now on the Pacific Coast in Manuel Antonio. It was a mere 5 hour drive but we were back with our Morpho Vans drivers and we were so happy to meet Tony when we pulled into the driveway of our La Fortuna hotel. We were fresh from the trauma from yesterday, which involved 11 people in this van:
And sure, it’s an 11 person van, but only in the same way that a Totino’s pizza serves three people. We did two hours each way, packed into that van in order to take part in a safari float down the Cano Negro river. I sat next to a woman from Denver who was traipsing around Central America, looking for a new place to settle down the way I mull over which kind of cracker to purchase. She was so blasé, 15 years my senior easily, belting out names in small Guatemalan villages and Nicaraguan colonial towns she was considering.
The river cruise was fantastic. We had a guide named Pierre, who looked normal but is in possession of some bizarre ability to spot wildlife. We saw white capuchin monkeys, howler monkeys and spider monkeys. Also a lot of birds. A lot. The rest of the people were way more interested in birds than I was but I was struggling with a new problem, which was that my purse…Melisa’s purse…was somehow soaking wet, which I truly do not understand. I know we were on a boat and all but it’s the kind of float trip that was filled with senior citizens and myself and I could have outpaced the boat, walking along the shore. The water did clear out the ants, though, Melisa! Here’s Pierre:
Here’s my best monkey shot. This guy crawled down from the trees to the river to get a drink of water. He sticks his tail in to get it wet and then drinks from his wet tail.
At any rate, safari float over, we packed up our stuff and were picked up by the Tony I mentioned above. He came right out of his van and announced that he was there for our private ride to Manuel Antonio. We had paid dearly for our very own van – Ron and I and a driver. But we needed to pick up someone he was driving to Manuel Antonio. But he assured us that, despite stopping for this woman, we were still having a private ride. And so we did – me, Ron and some local woman named Gina, who rode all 5 hours with us!
Ron, Gina and I were excited that we got to stop at a place I recall from last time – the Rio Tarcolos bridge. The Rio Tarcolos is inhabited, at that particular spot, by dozens of crocodiles that are fascinating to watch. Ron’s always seemed a bit obsessed/terrified by crocodiles, if you ask me, which is annoying as I have so few quirks. He must have asked me a dozen times if there were crocodiles on the route of our safari float and so I’m not sure what he thought of this pit stop, but Gina had a really nice time there. Here’s a few of the crocs:
We’re settled in at our Byblos resort. Here’s a view from our balcony into the jungle that surrounds the hotel. There are monkeys swinging from the trees just outside our room. It’s fantastic to watch. I’m sure that are fancier hotels in Manuel Antonio but, having come from spartan Arenal Country Inn, this place is just a gift.
We finished out all of our La Fortuna meals at the same Italian restaurant, where they knew us by sight by day 2 and were sad to see us go last night. I’ve just now finally branched out and eaten some chicken nuggets here in Manuel Antonio. I’ve got my Chiky Cookies in chocolate mint AND strawberry now, having hit the grocery store again after dinner last night. Ron has brazenly declared that he prefers the vastly inferior strawberry cookie I mistakenly bought two days ago and he’s just lucky I didn’t hoist him over the Rio Tarcolos bridge for making such a statement. I gave Gina some cookies but she did NOT get any Chikys, she got the crappy ones as well and, frankly, she and Ron deserve each other. At some point during the drive, she pulled out some jewelry and wanted to sell it to us. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions about Morpho Vans.
Tomorrow we face the ultimate challenge: the monkey-filled trees of Manuel Antonio National Park…the very trees that stopped me in my tracks last time, too paralyzed by the monkeys to walk. I’m better prepared, at least informationally, this time. I’m carrying no purse. I’m carrying no food. And I’m wearing all black. I’ll report back tomorrow.
Travels with Valerie 