After the hurricane had passed through the entire East Cost and the northern part of Costa Rica are still mostly not accessible and in many parts either the infrastructure is down, the water is still to high (and therefore also crocodiles are everywhere), it is definitely not a place for tourists to go since the locals have severe problems themselves or all at the same problem. Nevertheless we wanted to leave the city this weekend and therefore decided to go to the West or Pacific Coast which was not affected by the hurricane. The choice was Parque National Manuel Antonio which combined the requirements of the entire travel group: nature and beach at the same time.
The park is “only” a three hour bus drive away from San Jose. Anthea, one of my fellow students, was so kind to take care of most part of the organisation – hostel, bus connections, activities, etc. So we met Saturday morning in Santo Domingo and Alexia, Anthea, Valeria, Willy and I headed for San Jose to catch the bus which was the first challenge.
>> One has to know that in Costa Rica there are no street names! Directions are usually given like “It’s 500m downhill from the church to the yellow house, then left for three streets and behind the kindergarden right again and left at the gas station. And then its on the other side of the bakery”. As a German it looks like quite a weird system… 😂
After ending up on the wrong side of town we just made it to the bus station 2 minutes before the bus left and got the last five seats on it.
The first day was dedicated to getting organised, checking in to an amazing hostel. They bought about 15 individual houses in a big garden and converted them in to a hostel with dorms which are located in the houses. Amazing setup – and for 12$ including breakfast!
The rest of the day was devoted to the nearby beach. Great times with some bodysurfing and the sunset of the day.
We just made it home before the big downpour began! It rained all night so we enjoyed the bar and a few drinks in our amazing hostel. Next morning the weather was still quite unstable – a mix of a lot of rain, a medium rain or little rain. The view to the adjacent rainforest so was great with the clouds.
And then we finally (😊) went to the park and the – for me really exiting part. The national park host a great biodiversity and Willy and I opted for a tour guide to hopefully spot a few animals that you would miss out on as an unexperienced tourist. The weather though was shitty! There were a few moments without rain but most of the time the weather from the morning continued. It also made it incredibly difficult to take good pictures. The white sky was a horrible background, the fog and little light made it difficult to focus and get decent shutter speed times in and on top you usually had either rain drops on the lens or it fogged up. So these are the best shots out of about 600!!!
Nice escape from the city!
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