7:30am and we’re scrambling to pack in a ½ hour. We pile in with fruit to go and take a 6 hour bus trip to Manuel Antonio, a giant national park that features the rain forest butted right up next to beaches, pretty damn beautiful. Our hotel (Hotel California, ironically enough) is literally right in the rain forest. You know what? The rain forest is hot, no joke. Did you know sloths move so slowly that mold grows on them?
In fact, their ridiculously slow movements actually are a built-in defense mechanism: b/c they are so crazy slothy, predators can’t even find them in the trees. To boot, btw, they even have these crazy long claws that mean if something disturbs them in their tree (say, a shot from a poacher), they don’t even drop…b/c their claws hold them in place (thanks Ritu!!). I mention these crazy lazy animals (which do in fact live in Manuel Antonio) b/c that is what the heat does to you: it makes you a sloth. I laid down on our bed in our 98 degree room and I didn’t want to move.
But don’t worry, I did. We headed into Quepos (town…) for a Mexican dinner before heading to bed. For the record, the boys spent the evening post-dinner studying their diving books which I must say, was super cute.
Although, for the record, I got a 29/30 on my chap 1-3 quizzes without ever reading the book. Genius.
Day Eight. Wouldn’t It Be Great If…
Got my diving legs today. Do they say that? I guess people talk about sea legs but not really diving legs. Oh well who cares. I said it. So I went w/ the boys and did a couple hours in the pool and then headed out to sea for two dives. There is something I just can’t describe about how incredible it is to be under the ocean’s surface, 40 feet down, for like 25 minutes without needing to come up for air. The fishies are adorable, and there is this “surge” (underwater current) down there that washes you back and forth and the fish just sway right with you. Very cool. I did have one massive and very creepy fish come up right beneath me face to face at one point. It was a Doempke. I also had a very dumb moment when I asked how deep we were. Geoff responded, “wouldn’t it be great if we all had an instrument that actually tells you how deep you are?” In fact, the gauge above your air gauge is a depth gauge. Who knew. Not me apparently. So anyway, I got my ½ cert and am only two book chapters and 2 dives away from being full!
Neat.
We headed back for dinner
(delicious tuna!!) and then picked up a bottle of wine and headed home. Since we’re nearing 30 and highly mature, we played never have I ever. Btw in the
Day Nine. Monkeys monkeys monkeys
I was sleeping peacefully around 7am on this fine morning when Doempke started tugging on my leg. I was two seconds away from trying to kick him in the face when he shouted something about “monkeys” at which point I leaped up super fast and ran outside. It was literally a barrel of monkeys (titi monkeys, “monos” in Spanish) right outside our jungle-rific door.
Every single movement in the trees was a mono. They were flying through the trees, muching mangos on the logs, rolling down this one small hill (no joke), wrestling, etc. Hands down one of the top 10 coolest things I’ve ever seen. I couldn’t tear my eyes away. Naturally I took a video which was awesome, and then naturally I accidentally deleted it. I took another one, but by then the monkey population had dwindled significantly as they had climbed off through the trees, and it pretty much sucked.
When the monkey excitement died down we headed into the park
to see some more animals (as the non-divers had seen a sloth, ant eater, and monkeys galore the day before). Sadly for us, they weren’t out in full force as much this day. Or maybe we were just too lazy in the heat to walk far enough into the park to see them. Either way, we ended up lazing around on the beach and swimming.
Our swim sessions were devoted to reviewing all the questions we’d come up with across the course of the trip (seven wonders; what are sloths’ enemies; spf scenarios; why do implants make your nipples hard; etc. etc.). For the record, we did indeed research these fantastic queries upon our return… Yes, we’re incredibly dorky.
When we got home that evening, we went to play in the pool and hot tub. At some point it started to sprinkle. Then it was raining. Then it was absolutely pouring down to the point where you could hardly keep your eyes open.
So we weren’t getting out anytime soon, and instead hung out playing “would you rather” (eat a cup full of bat guano or a cup full of sloth sperm; live in the Zullymar for a year or eat only rice and beans for a year; etc. etc. And yes, I am leaving the good ones out.)
At some point we couldn’t take it anymore and we sprinted back to our room to shower. It was then that the lights flickered. Then they went off. Came on. Went off. Came right back on. Went off. Wait for it…wait for it… Nothing. Lights off. We kind of stood there in the pitch black, rain pelting the tin roofs, huddled in uncertainly. We found our way to some candles and lit up the room. Since uncontrollable singing was somewhat a theme on the trip, I soon broke out into an appropriate song of “that’s the night that the lights went out in
Dinner…nap…11:30pm arrives along with our bus (1/2 hour early) to take us to
Day Ten. Sure Do Love the SJO AP.
Aside from being ½ early to pick us up, the bust driver also drove so f’in fast that we got to l’aeropuerto in 2.5 hours v. the 4 that we had predicted. Which put us in at 2:30am. Do you know what’s up at the
we slept inside the airport by the check-in, we slept at the gate.
The plane was delayed for 2 hours on the tarmac, so I also slept in the plane but on the ground…but at the airport. So that was a long trip.
All in all, I suppose a small price to pay for such an excellent vaca.
So on that note, I’m done. I’m happy to be done, you’re happy I’m done, we’re all happy. If anyone has thoroughly enjoyed, please let me know. Maybe you’d like to sponsor my next trip so that I can post another travel series. Anyone? We can work out a good deal. I’ll throw in a free…hat. Or something. Well, then, on that note, I’m out. Lates!
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