I have come up with sort of a weekend routine, Saturdays I go to the farmers’ market and explore the town and Sundays I explore the forest and go to the beach. I took the pictures below on my beach trip last Sunday. There was not a lot of sun that day; however, it didn’t take away from the beauty of the rainforest and the beach intersecting… though that is difficult to represent in pictures.
When I first arrived at the beach I was surprised that the beach wasn’t “longer,” as I am used to the beaches of New Jersey and Hawaii (quite a variation I know) where you literally can’t see the end of the beach in either direction. In Manuel Antonio you can see the “end” of the beach as it transforms into rainforest. The entrance for the National Park is actually at one “end” of the public beach.
I decided to walk along the beach from one end to the other, enjoy a nice stroll and really take in my surroundings. There were many families enjoying the day and it just brought happiness to my heart. You would not believe how beautiful the little Costa Rican children are, and these families, many of whom have very little, still find such joy in spending the day with each other. I love this place.
At one point I came across an older man who stopped me to show me the tiniest snail you have ever seen. He works in the National Park, had a laminated page of all of the indigenous animals and gave me a mini Spanish lesson. He was very, very kind and we spent about 45 minutes together talking… though truth be told there was only about 10 minutes of conversation and 35 minutes of charades. This man, Papo, has been working in the National Park for 49 years. Amazing. At one point we sat down towards the “top” of the sand away from the water and closer to the forest, and he pulled a leaf off of the tree and did a sort of fortune telling. Papo is a very wise man, and some of the things he said were very eerily accurate. As I found out 3 days ago, Papo lives across the street from me, and I plan to spend more time with him during my trip. I can't think of a better way to learn about my surroundings than spening time with an old, kind hearted Tico.
One thing that won’t surprise you is that as Papo and I were sitting close to the rainforest, we turned around and saw monkeys. I don’t think I will ever loose the excitement I feel when seeing them.
After Papo and I finished talking, I headed back down the beach to catch the bus home. Along my way I was stopped by a couple of native Tico surfing instructors who asked me if I was interested in lessons. I told them that I was not interested that day; however I would be back once I mustered up the courage. They asked what I was afraid of, and I told them the sharks. They tried to assure me sharks wouldn’t be a problem, though I was not particularly convinced of their answer as they were trying to get money from me. I then asked if there were a lot of sharks in the water, to which one instructor responded “There are more sharks on the beach than in the water.” While that is not very comforting, it is probably very accurate.
Beautiful beach pictures below…
One way to prevent your things from being stolen while you are in the water is to tie them to a tree. Genius... and only in Costa Rica. I have never seen a tree on a beach in New Jersey.
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