Inn on the Park Manuel Antonio National Park

... incredibly low and believe this was coastguards also. It was quitte exciting and far enough away not to be dangerous as the Columbian drug runners often carry weapons &#8211; Ross Kemp eat your heart out!<br><br>Late afternoon we took another walk in the hotel gardens and saw a troupe of Howler Monkeys with their babies. They were incredibly close and it seemed ironic that we had seen more sloths and monkeys here than in any of the parks.

Saturday was a relaxing day here at the Discovery Beach House, we swim some and relax and read some and drink Martini's (me) and Rum &amp; Coke (Peter) all day. Now that's Pura Vida! Another friend stopped by in the evening and a friendly game of pool volleyball started, but Peter &amp; David didn't have a chance against Evelyn &amp; Bob. we had some great laughs though LOL. Sunday started as usual with our Coffee and Fruit bowl and ...

... we wanted to relax and do nothing once during our trip and this was the day. We bought a couple of magazines, a Suduko book, cards, and our mp3 players for the day (as we plan to be there til sunset). During the whole day, we were approached by people who offered menus for drinks and food, sold vases and trinkets, etc. We saw the same people over and over again the whole day. It must be so hot and hard for them to do ...

... the complete opposite scenario of what I had anticipated. A sea of people in line and zero organization. I was already starting out my trip with a bad attitude since all original plans were basically out of the window. We would now have to wait four hours upstairs in Terminal 6 along with the rest of the passengers. Oh joy. Missing our connection out of Houston meant that we would have to overnight in Houston Texas care of Continental Airlines. They ...

... bona fide almost *HOT* -- water. The hottest water I've found in Costa Rica (their so-called "hot springs" certainly are warmer than the showers, but they are by no means "hot" as I would define it). This was a welcome start to what turned out to be the coldest day yet (long-sleeve shirt and sweatshirt weren't enough to protect me from the wind early this afternoon -- not that I'm complaining; I'm just reporting information.) Here's to hot showers....

... steep, long hike and that it would be hard. Nevertheless, when the time came to meet Dayana at the supermarket to start off on our journey, Jahaira, the 12-year-old daughter in my family, expressed a keen interest in my journey. Not really believing she would accept, I asked if she wanted to go. To my surprise, she said yes. This would have been fine. Except then, knowing his older sister was going, Dylan, the 5-year-old, wanted to go ...

... smaller, cheaper looking restaurant (called a soda) run by a younger guy named Ronnie. Going here was a very smart decision...and I´ll come back to that. After lunch, I met some people at the hostel and we hiked to a hot springs along the river. I guess that´s it, it was a hot pool of water. It was nice...but no story. While coming back, we walked past Ronnie´s soda. He yelled ¡Adam! and invited us out to the bars and a party ...

... back to Jaco to report everything to the police and finally we got into Tamarindo around 10 or so that night. The other guys didn´t get to Tamarindo from the airport until 3 the next morning. Burls and I said hi to everyone that morning and then hopped in the car to head to San Jose to get a new passport and to get Burls´s plane tickets squared away.. The traffic was terrible and we discovered that they close the embassy for passports at 11:30. Then ...

... the sun light (which as I am sure I have mentioned before is a rare occurance since it is the rainy season) but it was beautiful none the less. We didn't actually go to the beach this day as by the time we decided to leave the hotel pool it was quite late in the afternoon. We did however, go into the town of Manuel Antonio and sit on a couple terrasses and enjoy the scenary and my Strawberry Daquiri.... I find it quite interesting to see how different ...

... or the guests. after breakfast, we headed down towards the beach and waited under the bus stop shelter for the rain to stop. we spent the day lounging, swimming a little, and daniela and amanda got some real nice sunburns. we watched a bunch of locals (including the lunch guy, who everyone called "lunch") play a game of soccer on the beach. we packed up and headed back to quepos around 5, but when we got there we almost didn't get on the bus--the only one ...