Hola!!

Just to let you know, I've stolen some pictures from Hol's website, so now there a few pictures of Manuel Antonio up!! And I'll get back to the trip away...

Monday morning we woke up nice and snuggled under blankets, thanks to the A/C. The sunlight was beaming in from our massive balcony, and the jungle was very loud and active so early in the morning. I had another nice warm-water shower, and then Hol and I headed up to the Rico Tico Restaurant for the complimentary buffet breakfast. I was probably the happiest I've been since I arrived in Costa Rica (I think I say that a lot). The breakfast was DELICIOUS, it pretty much put my breakfast from the other morning to shame. It was a massive buffet, which Hol and I took full advantage of. Warm banana bread, pineapple, bacon, hashbrowns, french toast, ham and cheese pastries, orange juice.... it was immensely satisfying. After breakie, Holly and I somehow made our way down to the Spa and were convinced into booking manicures for later that day. Okay, so maybe it didn't take too much to persuade us, and maybe we spent a good part of the night before planning on booking something, but you can't blame a girl for wanting to indulge a little bit! Speaking of indulging... once our manicure appointments were in place Hol and I caught a bus into Quepos, because I was on a mission for a bikini. There is a great little shop called Ummara, where they make you custom fitted and designed bikinis. I got there, and the ad said that everyone spoke English, so I launched immediately into conversation with the salesgirl. After I finished speaking we shared and awkward moment of confused looks and silence, until I finally said, "Hablas ingles?" To which she replied "No." So needless to say, bikini fitting was a little difficult, however I was pretty impressed with my Spanish-speaking skills, as I was able to communicate with her pretty flawlessly (Pat on the back implied here). So pretty much, you choose from about 40 different tops and bottoms of bikinis, and then decide on the ones you like. Then they take your measurements, so when they make it it fits you exactly, using the same design. And then you choose from about 50 different patterns or colours to design the whole bikini. I was very excited about the whole process, but when she told me it would be finished Wednesday I was really disapointed, because Holly & I would be in La Fortuna by then. But she said that I could have it shipped to Canada, and so I figured it would be worth the money. I was extremely happy to see that whole ordeal, including shipping to Canada was only $53! Sweeet. And it'll be there waiting for me when I get home. So I left Ummara in a great mood, and then stopped to get ice cream which put me in a better mood. I met Holly, who was getting fitted for her PADI course, and we jumped back on the bus to Manuel Antonio. I think it was past it's legal passenger number by about 4 times, so I was wedged inbetween more bodies than I ever think is necessary. Luckily for us, there was a massive traffic jam, so we were stopped for a good 10 mintues. I was literally dripping, and needless to say a bit uncomfortable. So I did what anyone would do in the situation, and started to whine. I told Hol that we should just get off and walk, but she convinced me not too. When the bus started up again, I realized that the little 5 minute walk back to the Hotel would probably have taken a good 25 minutes, and I'm sure I would still be passed out on that road about 4 minutes after we started to walk. Good thing no one takes me seriously.

Anyway we reached back to Si Como No just in time for my manicure, which was heavenly. Who doesn't enjoy a nice hand/arm massage and a paint job? After that was done, I took a lovely nap in our room with the A/C on full blast. It was heavenly. Holly woke me up after her manicure was done, and we headed back to our favourite place- the pool bar! The weather wasn't great, as it had started to cloud over, but we really didn't let that ruin our swim-up bar opportunities. Good thing it's sheltered! We ordered a delicious lunch, and some drinks, and enjoyed a lazy afternoon around the pool. Jeff and Ashleigh met up with us for a bit as well. The clouds started to look really dark, so Holly and I made plans to be up with the others later on for dinner, and headed back to our room. I had a warm shower and nap number 2 of the day. Sleeping with A/C and the sounds of tropical rain in the background is ridiculously relaxing. After napping, Holly and I took our time getting ready and then went to meet Jeff and Ashleigh for dinner. The seafood restaurant, 'Claro Que Si' (translates to Yes, of course!) was full, so we managed to get the waiters to bring us our food up onto the terrace by the pool. It was nice and quiet, underneath the stars in the Costa Rican sky, and we ordered Seafood Alfredo and really enjoyed a nice meal and good conversation. Everyone was pretty tired, so we exchanged emails with our new friends, and Hol and I made our way back down to our rooms. We sat up for a while chatting while I raided the minibar, and then eventually I fell asleep. Apparently I have a tendency to fall asleep while people are talking to me. Holly has photographic proof of this on more than one occasion during our trip. Who knew??

The next morning we got a really early start. We had to leave the hotel at 2, when our Interbus was scheduled to arrive, so we had to take opportunity of the last few tanning hours. We headed up once again to Rico Tico for breakfast buffet, and enjoyed ourselves just as much as the morning previous. Except for a little juice incident...so I we getting another glass of orange juice from the juice dispenser, just minding my own business and enjoying breakfast. I walked away from the dispenser after my glass was full, but heard an odd pouring noise. I turned around to see that the juice was still pouring, even though I had stopped holding down the little metal-pouring device thinger. So I quickly tried pushing it, then pulling it, but it didn't help. I looked around frantically and helpfully managed a few.. "Uhh...umm..uh.."s, and looked to make eye-contact with some staff. A few saw me, and rushed over to help. At this time I was trying to fill up as many glasses of juice as possible, as to not waste the free pouring juice. One of the waiters put his hands under the machine and I backed off, but really, I'm sure my method was much more helpful as now the juice was pouring all over him, his hands, the table and the floor. I think it's probably unnecessary to mention that by this time the entire outdoor restaurant was staring. Eventually another staff member came by and brought a bucket, which he placed under the juice untill the container emptied. Once empty, he fixed it, then refilled it with juice. I spent a bit of time pretending to be really interested in something in the far distance until people stopped staring at me. One guy at the table next to me made a funny comment about, "Bet you've had enough orange juice for today!". Funny people. I rushed off as soon as I could without looking pathetic (okay, more pathetic) and managed a few "Lo sientos" to the staff. (I'm sorry). Luckily most of the wait-staff this morning were male, and they all seemed to find the whole thing quite hilarious. I'm such a lucky girl.

Anyway, once I recovered from the juice incident Hol and I went up and grabbed two choice lawn chairs and stayed there for the next few hours. It was nice, ordering some food and a few drinks and just relaxing by and in the pool. At one time, there was a hilarious lizard lounging outside of the pool. Lizards are ridiculously common here in Costa Rica, usually you can spot a few in any room that you are in, but this one was a bit larger, and ran out of a bush to come see us. I was killing myself laughing at it, because it's especially hilarious when it runs, since it rears up onto it's legs and just looks really silly. It kept looking like it was going to jump into the water, which amused me and scared Holly. Holly got out her digital camera and started videotaping it running along side the pool. All of a sudden, the lizard leaped into the pool, but instead of sinking or swimming, he actually RAN across the water! It was the most amazing thing I've ever seen. His legs were spinning like in a cartoon, and the freakin' lizard literally walked on water. We named him Jesus, and spent the next hour trying to find him and coax him back onto the water, since Holly managed to miss the Jesus-phenomenon on her camera. Later we discovered that it's actually a type of lizard called the "Jesus Christ lizard". Who knew? Apparently it runs on water to escape predators. I guess maybe the digital camera and my laughing was a bit more intimidating than we suspected.

Anyway, the rest of the afternoon was fairly uneventuful, and then a little bit before 2 we went up to the main lobby, got changed and waited for our Interbus to arrive at the scheduled 2:25 to take us on the 4 hour bus ride to La Fortuna. Remember this sentence. I'll be referencing it later...

This is the time where the trip changes from 'Holiday' to 'Adventure', so I'll have to save that for another day... I'll update soon! Happy Easter everyone!

Love Lots,

Natalie xoxoxo