Relaxing in Manuel Antonio: Surprised by the Tide

Discovering the Beauty of Manuel Antonio

Today was a lazy day. Our hotel is beach front but as it is the last of a run of hotels it is also next to the entrance to the National Park. Which means from the hotel restaurant we're able to see monkeys at th edge of the park as well as the waves on the beach. Although it's a pretty basic hotel, with everything we'd want except a pool, the location is excellent.

Is it fly, is it a dog..

We were happily sunbathing and I was in a world of my own with my headphones on, when Karen jumped up. I thought it was over some fly hassling her but I then felt warm liquid on me! Not sure what I thought then! But as I opened my eyes realised the tide had come in really quickly, a local who'd ran to help move us and our stuff said it was an effect of the nearby riptides. That ended our sunbathing earlier than planned and we sneaked the beach towels back in the bucket at the hotel without the staff noticing the very wet and sandy condition!

Getting back to the hotel did allow us to make plans for the next couple of days and we have bought tickets for the park on Wednesday and can sort a guide as we go in. We have also booked a canopy and waterfall tour for tomorrow but we think that isn't the park next to us as a bus is collecting us. Hopefully the canopy heights won't be too scary and we booked the one without ziplines.

Also with time on our hands I've read about and tried a free App called polarsteps which allows you to create maps of trips, I think similar to what Karen did at the start of the journey so I think we will both have goes at creating an updating plan when time allows.

Enjoying the food

We had tea at Baldi's which had decent reviews on tripadvisor, we were the only people there but the food was good and the owner very friendly. Throughout Central America beans and rice have been really popular and I couldn't count how many times we have eaten this. In Costa Rica their beans and rice dish is casado and I tonight I had chicken with them. A top meal and they have jars of sauces which give the food some extra flavour.