The National Park is known for their beautiful beaches and wildlife. The Park was our main reason for visiting Manuel Antonio in the first place. We were ready to see some monkeys in action!

We caught the 8am complimentary shuttle (told you Si Como No was awesome) and on the way to the park, the driver pulled over to the side of the road to point out a sloth he had spotted in the trees. Our trip to see the animals was starting out well.

When we arrived at the park we paid our entrance fees and then we set up a tour with a guide. Originally we thought the guided tour would be a rip off but it actually proved to be a great decision because the guide was able to find a ton of animals that we never would have spotted. We were also able to get some outstanding pictures through the use of the guide’s spotting scope. Just take a look at some of the wildlife we saw:

Our first animal spotting at the National Park!

Frog

Crab

We spotted a bunch of sloths both inside and outside the park. We saw a few sloths on the move too, which is apparently really lucky since they are nocturnal!

We got within a foot of this snake!

We spotted a bat during the day, which is apparently a really tough thing to do!

We also saw a ton of white faced monkeys. They were everywhere! They were in the trees, on the beach, on the walkways, and on top of the trashcans. They would run right up to you! The guide told us we needed to make sure to keep an eye on our bags because the monkeys can undo zippers and they would steal our lunches. I wish I could have brought one home with me (and one for you too Teresa!), but unfortunately it wasn’t allowed. Thankfully I got some great pictures of them though!

When our tour ended we headed to the beaches (there were 4 inside the park). Our guide told us that Jacques Cousteau (the noted scuba diver) once said that the beaches of Manuel Antonio are the best in the world. I haven’t seen all the world’s beaches but the quote is very believable. The sand was white and the water was light blue; the beach looked like something out of the movie (think The Beach with Leo DiCaprio):

The beaches all also featured natural jetties that shielded us from the large waves the Pacific has to offer. It was incredibly relaxing to bob up and down in the 3-ft. surf.

After spending about 4 1/2 hours inside the park we packed up and headed to lunch in town.

It was the perfect day at the beach!

We left San Jose for Manuel Antonio early Saturday morning; we had booked a Gray Line shuttle to the resort. The shuttle was very nice, but the trip unfortunately took about 4 hours. Like Guatemala, Costa Rica does not have the best roadways (though theirs are much better in comparison).

We knew we had picked a great resort the moment we pulled up. Immediately someone came out to help us with our bags and they upgraded our room at check-in. The resort was well worth the drive.

We had booked a great deal at Si Como No that included 3 nights for the price of 2, free buffet breakfast for two daily, and 2 for 1 drinks throughout our stay. Since they upgraded our room at check-in, we ended up with this view on top of it all:

View at sunset

The room came with everything we had been missing our entire trip plus more. It was luxurious. We had a hot shower with no drainage problems, a big bed with extra(!) pillows, air conditioning, and a ceiling fan. We even had a fancy stained glass window in our shower.

We also had our own private balcony with seating for two and since our resort was surrounded by trees, monkeys, birds, iguanas, and lizards would come and visit us. We could animal watch from our balcony. It was awesome.

I caught these two birds talking/yelling at one another on our porch!

White faced monkey with her baby on her back outside our room

We were constantly seeing animals on the premises and while we were eating lunch on our first day there, this guy came walking up to us:

Jeff was a little bit freaked out...

We also spotted a lot of monkeys, a raccoon like animal, and tons of geckos. It was definitely a very animal friendly stay.

When we weren’t vising with the animals, most of our time at the resort we spent in either of the two pools (they had an adult pool and a family pool with a slide), at the hot tub, or at the swim-up bar(!).

Cool mushroom shaped hot tub

At the bar

The weather was great almost the entire time we were in Manuel Antonio and Jeff managed to leave the resort without getting burned!

I’d call that a successful trip.

We caught a taxi to our hotel, Hotel Santo Tomas, which was located about a ten minute walk from San Jose’s “downtown,” and about a 20 minute drive from the airport.

The hotel certainly wasn’t beautiful, but we liked it fine, especially since they managed to fit a pool, hot tub, and water slide on the grounds of their inner city hotel:

Of course we used this!

After checking in to our hotel we decided to explore. San Jose was an OK city, much more like NYC or DC than any of the other cities we have seen while in Central America, but nothing great. There were a lot of restaurants, shops, and people. Very loud and very noisy. After walking around for a bit we stopped and got lunch at a very yummy Chinese restaurant called Tin Jo.

Jeff and I at lunch

After lunch there was some more exploring (just a couple parks),

Their Central Park

and then a little bit of shopping (Jeff bought me 2 pairs of sandals!). After that we spent some time in the hot tub and then we headed to dinner at an Italian restaurant called La Piazzetta. It came recommended by our guide book and was pretty good. We split an order of fried mozzarella and a Caesar salad and then for the main course Jeff got steak and I got ravioli.

Jeff's delish steak

And of course we got some wine.

Unfortunately for me, nowhere in Central America has Reisling! but Jeff enjoyed his red wine

Early the next day we caught a shuttle headed to Manuel Antonion (yay!).

One night in San Jose was definitely enough.

Last weekend Jeff and I spent one night at the Earth Lodge, a mountain lodge and avocado farm located about 20 minutes outside of Antigua in a little town called El Hato.

There is really no public transportation to and from the lodge, but Jeff and I were able to ride in the back of a pickup truck that was setup by the owners of the lodge. The pickup had to drop us off about a 10 minute downhill walk from the lodge (not so bad on the way down but extremely painful on the way up thanks to the super high altitude).

When we finally made it to the lodge the first thing we noticed was the view. It was definitely a “Wow!” moment. Check it out:

Us on the path to the lodge

The lodge has a ton of seating set up for enjoying the view and a ton of outside activities too. Jeff and I spent our time laying in hammocks,

playing corn hole, cards, board games (Risk!), and darts.

We met some really cool people while relaxing/playing games. There were about 20 people at the lodge for the night and since dinners are served family style, we got to know each other over dinner.

The food at the dinner was really good too. The lodge is known for their food (especially their vegetarian meals) and we feasted on pork chops, roasted chicken, salad with banana dressing, mashed potatoes, mixed veggies, and the most AMAZING beer bread with garlic butter. I ate about 6 pieces of the bread. For dessert they had homemade (of course) banana bread, not my thing, but Jeff said it was great.

Jeff's delicioso plate

After dinner, and some more Risk playing, Jeff and I retired for the night to our tree cabin!! It was so cool:

The tree cabin!

Meet our tree

The cabin had two floors, with a very comfortable bed on each floor.  It also had one wall that was entirely made of glass that looked out onto the three volcanoes and the valley.

View from our cabin

There was also a built in window seat to enjoy the view:

Jeff and I slept on the top floor and we fell asleep to the twinkling lights of the city below. It was perfect…

well almost.

There was only one thing missing from the cabin. A bathroom. We used these:

Yay for peeing in a hole in the ground!

As far as out-houses go though, these were beautiful. No complaints from me.

I was disappointed though when I found out that we had access to a real toilet all weekend and we just didn’t know it. It was located right next to the out-house too! We just completely missed it! Oh well. It was probably better that we didn’t know. It made our trip more wildernessy.

No real bathroom + no shower usage = surprisingly, the best time ever.

balaso (buh – lah – so)

Balaso literally means bullet but can also mean shot.

bomba (boam – buh)

bomba literally means bomb but can also mean firework.

The past few nights, Lauren and Jeff have been hearing bombas. At first they thought it sounded like balasos because it was so loud. It was pretty scary at first, however, since it is the festival of St. Simon (aka Maximon), the sounds are actually just celebratory bombas.

We took full advantage of our day off and booked a trip with a local tour company to hike an active(!!) volcano. The volcano we chose to hike is called Volcán Pacaya.

We were very happy with the tour company we chose. We loved our guide, Welbur, and we enjoyed our hiking group as well:

Us with our hiking group minus our guide (he was taking the picture)

The first three quarters of the hike were pretty much just like any other hike you have been on. Great views. Trees. Trails. The usual.

View from the trail

Pacaya’s trails had the added bonus of being covered in horse crap though.

There are a ton of horses on Pacaya’s trails. If you couldn’t make the climb up the volcano yourself, you could pay a reasonable amount of money to have a horse take you up. One of the guys in our group chose to ride a horse. Wimp.

Horse making its way up the volcano

The last quarter of the hike was unlike any other hike we have been on though. It was a dance with Satan himself.

To reach the summit (or as far as you are allowed to go without falling in a hole or being killed by poisonous gases) you must use all four appendages and claw your way up volcanic rock. With every step you take upwards you have the possibility of sliding backwards.

Members of our group making their way up the volcanic rock

The volcanic rock feels something like a pumice stone cross-bred with an arrowhead. Many of the people in our group ended up bleeding.

Hiking a volcano is serious business, which is probably why they post this sign on the trail right before you reach the volcanic rock:

With that said, no day is a bad day that yields these pictures:

We made it!

Our first lava sighting!

Jeff with an insane lava river!

At the end of our hike we were rewarded with this awesome sight:

Adorable puppies and chicks living in harmony!

Overall, it was an awesome experience.

Our chicken view

Though the view wasn’t all we’d been hoping for, the room did not disappoint. It was great. It was clean, it had comforters, it had screens(!) on the windows so it was bug free, and the bathroom was by far the best bathroom we have had the privilege of using while in Guatemala.

Sooo nice to have comforters!

While in Pana, Jeff and I enjoyed our bug free room, Pana’s fairly large market, and some interesting restaurants.

Our first meal was at an interesting little Chinese restaurant called Chinitas.

Chinitas welcomes you

It was a nice change to get some Chinese food and the hippie atmosphere was a good laugh.

Notice the hippie beads behind us and the pillows we are sitting on

Other highlights of our Pana trip included dinner at an OK Italian restaurant,

Us at the Dos Mundos Italian restaurant

shopping the market for good deals,

A little girl in her machete shop

being cutely harassed during meals by small Mayan children selling goods, and by hungry dogs and cats,

A cat wanted some of Jeff's cheeseburger

and enjoying a delicious pizza meal accompanied by amaaazing, live musical entertainment at the Circus Bar (a restaurant recommended by Lauren’s Uncle Ian).

Heading out to Circus Bar

Such delicious pizza at the Circus Bar!

Though we enjoyed all of these activities, the best thing that we did in Pana (by far), was take a boat tour of the lake.

Jeff and I knew before we even arrived in Pana that we wanted to take a boat tour around the Lago de Atitlán. We had heard that the lake is one of the most beautiful places in the world and we found out first hand that the rumors are true:

Our first view of the lake

We decided we would take a public boat tour that leaves every morning at 8:30am from Pana and stops at 3 different lakeside villages before returning to Pana at 2:30pm. The cost is only about $8/person.

Jeff and I had no cell phones with us and no alarm clock in our hotel room though, so we asked the front desk of our hotel for a wake up call at 6:30am. We wanted to make sure we had more than enough to time to dress, eat breakfast, and walk down to the lake before the tour left.

Things unfortunately did not work out that way…

When we woke up it was already after 8am. We had gotten no wake up call!! We knew there was absolutely no chance we could catch the public boat. We were feeling a little discouraged and decided to head to breakfast and discuss our options there.

Over a delicious breakfast of banana pancakes, fruit, and coffee for Jeff and a bagel with cream cheese and a crazily large orange juice for Lauren, we came up with a plan.

Mmm Mmm banana pancakes

Told ya it was big!

We decided that we would just head down to the lake and see if we could find a water taxi to take us and drop us off at one of the ports across the lake. We were hoping we could just build our own tour through the use of water taxis.

We didn’t even get that far though, because as soon as we left the restaurant we were approached by a man offering us a private tour of the lake by boat. The tour would take us to three different lake towns and would leave right away! Without a moment of hesitation we said yes! and soon enough we were seeing our boat and meeting our Captain.

Say hello to our Captain!

Our lancha left Pana at just about 9:30am. The views of the volcanoes and the river were even more amazing from the boat than they were from the ground:

Even the clouds are spectacular!

The ride across the river in the lancha was amazing. Great, spectacular, wonderful, (etc.) views, great weather (we couldn’t have asked for better weather), great ride. It felt awesome to be out on the water. It was our first time on a boat together too, which was fun.

In the lancha

We were almost upset when we pulled in to our first stop, San Juan La Laguna, 20 minutes later.

Almost.

Our welcoming to San Juan La Laguna

San Juan was a very quiet lake town. Not a lot of people around. One Mayan here, another Mayan over there. That’s about it.

There was a ton of greenery and a lot of beautiful artwork though. We spent about an hour there just walking around enjoying the relaxed atmosphere (an unusual trait for a Guatemalan town).

Our second stop of the day was San Pedro La Laguna. Just a short boat trip away from San Juan (maybe 10 minutes).

The view from their dock was amazing:

San Pedro was a much more bumpin’ town than San Juan.

It had a beautiful church at the center of town,

some neat wall art,

and a good sized market, but nothing to get us overly excited.

We only spent 30 minutes in San Pedro and it was more than enough. Nothing we hadn’t seen going on here.

Though we did spot a pink church:

Our third and final stop of the day was Santiago Atitlán.

Santiago was by far the biggest of the three lake towns we visited. When we pulled in we were greeted by a huge fountain, a singer, and a bunch of boys wanting to be our guide for the afternoon. We heartlessly turned the boys down.

But we did take a moment to enjoy the fountain (or at least Jeff did):

Jeff is super tall in Guatemala. Almost giant status.

After fountaining we hired a tuc tuc(yay!)

Us in the back of the tuc tuc with our new friend, Lonnie, the elephant.

and went in search of Maximón, a Mayan folk saint…and a huge waste of time.

We found out that Maximón equals the biggest tourist trap ever after a 30 minute tuc tuc ride, the purchasing of a cigar (to give to Maximón), and the purchasing of our entrance in to see him. We would have a picture to show you, but Maximón’s attendants charged $1.25 a picture so we opted out. But it’s not that hard to get a mental picture – just imagine a shack with a small wooden man inside, filled with lots of smoke, flowers, and chanting. That was the house of Maximón.

Thankfully, the whole trip to Santiago wasn’t a waste, as we made it out with some interesting, beautiful, and overall great pictures:

We had to pull the tuc tuc over for this view!

Mayan women washing their clothes in the lake

Wowing view from the town

If you ever get the chance to visit this lake, you absolutely, positively, should.

It was an experience beyond breathtaking.

Our pictures don’t even come close to doing the lake justice. You just have to see it with your own eyes.

We have a lot of posts that are almost ready. Some of the best moments of our trip have happened in the last few days so we have a lot to tell you. The posts will be up soon. We promise.

In the meantime, let’s do some SWOTDing!

Today’s word(s):

pato (pah-toe)

chicle bomba (chee – klay bawm – buh)

loco ( low – ko)

In Spanish, these words mean duck(the animal not the verb), gumball, and crazy, respectively.

They can be used to form the sentence:

Lauren and Jeff are loco because they bought a giant plastic pato filled with 300 chicle bombas!

A Gumball Duck

We eat about twenty gumballs a day. Not kidding.

And now, for no reason here is a picture of a duck we saw on Lago de Atitlán:

Does anyone know what kind of duck this is? Cordell? Is it a loon?