I would have never come to Manuel Antonio wouldn't it be for people I have met on the road - or at hostels to be precise. The beauty of travel is that you never know what comes next. In fact you can get burned with planning too much. In the world full of travel restrictions and requirements, overpriced resorts and scams one has to find the right flow and be grateful for whatever comes.
This was my case in Manuel Antonio. What is effectively more of an extension of the town Quepos. A stretch of hotels and restaurants squeezed between steep hills and some amazing beaches. The most popular being Playa Espadilla.
My hostel is located about four kilometers from the beach. Very soon one gets to see some islands on the horizon and the walk down the hill becomes more of an attraction itself than an obstacle.
Street signs full of stickers are signaling playful and carefree atmosphere. It is in fact also a popular surfing destination. So there is no shortage of "dudes" offering you funny tobacco or white cafe. But let's not connect those two characters that much even though stereotypes are telling us to do so.
The road is in fact quite busy and jeeps and motorbikes are flying up and down as I am getting closer. Some of them are parking directly at the beach - for a certain fee I assume.
Heavy overnight rain created a little river I had to cross to get to the main part of the beach. Well it might have been a sewerage more than a river now when I am thinking about the smell... nevertheless after I have jumped over it a paradise opened in front of my eyes.
The beach was picture clean. In fact later I have seen an organized group of young people collecting bunch of rubbish around the area. What a great sign but also a hard realization that the generations to come will have to clean a lot of what is our own mess.
In Costa Rica every hour is a bikini hour I guess - well at least that is how I felt surrounded by all the happy and fortunate people that gathered on the beach. What a different scene after winter spent in cold Bulgaria.
Next stop was the surf point. The local surfer-businessman was immediately offering me some of his boards to rent. I have politely refused as I had zero money with me and the waves weren't that great to be honest. I am not a good surfer but even for me it looked a bit like waste of time and effort. Hopefully some other time.
My zoom camera came very handy and from knee deep I was able to take some cool pictures of surfers in action. All of them are locals.
The other half that didn't make it to the picture were hopeless tourists waiting waist deep for some waves. Their appearance looked more like bottle corks floating around a shipwreck than performing a sport activity. So I have decided not to join them this time...
All the best,
Global Local