Buy Billabong Shares and Don´t Feed The Monkeys

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  Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica
Monday, December 3, 2007

Yesterday we walked about 20 metres onto the sand and onto the speed boat that would take us out into the Pacific Ocean, to Jaco Beach then on to Quepos and Manuel Antonio by bus. The journey took some time and we got stuck at Jaco Beach without a taxi because we stalled for a bathroom break. The boat was fast and professional though and we pulled in right to the beach. The bus journey included travelling over some dodgy arse bridges with water drops below. There was a man on the bus with a brightly painted, tacky, wooden statue that he would pat every now and then. At this moment i realized how silly i must look, a foreigner talking to and kissing stuffed pet monkeys and giving them a bath in waterfalls. Why this is the first time this has occurred to me i do not know. Another observation over this entire Nicoya beach area and of others similar is that the ONLY brands of clothing fashionably acceptable are Puma, Quiksilver, Rip Curl and loads of Billabong. The threads look the real deal too. We should have bought shares in Billabong, i knew it. Buy in now if you can, most of Central America are craving the t shirts

Manuel Antonio is a village at the entrance to a national park, packed with international tourists and a popular gay destination....

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. for the boys. The place has beautiful forest backed tropical beaches, rocky headlands with ocean and island views and prolific wildlife. We are hoping to see a sloth here and of course more monkeys, maybe an armadillo. The park is closed tomorrow, bugger it so we will do our laundry and sit on our arses on the beach all day, i think i might buy an esky.

Nadine bought some of the resin clay souvenirs from an especially unique artist who allowed us up into his work studio to view pieces and we cruised along the beach while Europeans on holidays sat on deckchairs with umbrellas, para glided and bounced around shrieking while      riding those tacky resort style water hot dog banana rides. There was a little spring break type action going on however the beach was beautiful and palm fringed. We ventured up to the top of the hill to see the bar that is inside an old airplane on top of the hill and then on the way down had the very special surprise of a large tribe of squirrel monkeys cross our path. These guys were very active and fast doing large jumps from tree to tree. You wanted to hold them in your palm and carry them around. We made it down just in time to catch another glorious Pacific Ocean sunset.

We had dinner at the slightly expensive restaurants along the beach then had a little ipod party in our room whilst it rained outside.



Today we went to the National Park which was a little too marked with trails and cleared. We did a few kilometres walk and near the end we were lucky enough to catch the larger white faced monkeys who came very close to us, a little bit tamed due to people feeding them

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. These cute monkeys are black and white and very furry. If caught feeding the monkeys the rangers print your photo in the local paper and you are forced out of town. We were able to get some great shots of the monkeys. At one point my day pack was open on the ground and a rogue monkeys made a bee line straight for my pet monkey, Baby Monk who was hanging out there. I also had a banana in my bag that i think attracted it. Nadine saved Baby Monk who is not too happy because we think he is in love.

After missing the tickets on the earlier bus to San Jose, Costa Ricaīs capital we had to wait three hours with a new friend Nina from Sweden and scored a direct bus to the famous īdangerousī Coca Cola bus terminal, the site of many thefts and bag grabs. The three of us ganged together and immediately took a taxi to Pangea Hostel which had all the facilities we could want including pool and rooftop bar with city lights views and 24 hour armed guard on the door. The guard even watched us as we went to the ATM. Even though we had got in late , the friendly staff lined up a rafting trip on The Pacaure River for us, leaving at 6:00am tomorrow. I am officially a morning person now after ten years of hospitality and bar shift work.

We met our room mate Emily from  the US and also a nice pixie boy named Blake from Canada. Blake was a little like Johnny Depp wearing pixie socks and had a pointy at the ends moustache. I thought we was delightful. Blake had all his travel money stolen and was now working with a film crew who are making a global warming documentary in Mexico. We shared loads of info about music festivals and gatherings.

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