Heading north (slowly!)

It seems I'm in Jaco till tomorrow! Rich and I left Manuel Antonio early this morning with the aim of taking a bus up here to Jaco and then catching a water taxi across the Gulf of Nicoya to Montezuma. But it seems the schedules have changed and there is now only a 7.30am boat and we missed that by miles. The 62km bus trip this morning took 3 hours! Anyway, this place looks like a pretty cool surfer town so I'll have to go check out the beach shortly.

We left Bahia Drake early Friday morning by boat back to Sierpe with the intention of getting a bus up to Manuel Antonio (though we weren't quite sure if that was even possible). As it turned out, a family from Quebec was also headed in that direction so we shared a taxi for the hour up the Pacific coast to Dominical instead of fighting with buses. From there we got a seriously dusty bus up to Quepos, 7km from Manuel Antonio.

We had some fortune in checking into lodging in Manuel Antonio. On arriving at our chosen spot it seemed they had a room for us only to find a double booking for a bunch of U.S. students meant they had to take the last room instead. It was pouring with rain so we persuaded the manageress to put a spare mattress in a single room (meaning we got half price) which was great as MA is very expensive! The added bonus is that the students were part of a large group and through meeting them we had two huge nights of partying. I'm now licking the wounds of my hangover and feeling thoroughly broke!

MA is a beach town situated at the gates to the National Park. The park I felt was very overrated, with hundreds of American tourists in socks and slops, but I did enjoy the beaches in town, they are very picturesque.

I can't seem to get any pictures to upload in the usual size so please excuse the small ones (click to enlarge). Now it seems I can't load any more at all so its just the one this time!

I'll write again from sunny Montezuma if we ever get there!