September 11, 12, 13 (Extended Weekend)
Today our group left early for Manuel Antonio State Park. It is a small park outside of Quepos, only an hour and a half away from the Ranch. We arrived early and hung out at the beach all day. It was beautiful and the water was warm and clear. We body surfed all day. We got a villa at a local hotel with 3 queen sized beds and 8 people. We saw sunset at a friend of a volunteer’s house Gavin. He was house sitting at a rental that overlooked the Pacific. Gorgious! We passed out right after our amazing dinner at a local Tico fish restaurant. In the middle of dinner a frog climbed up Joey´s leg then jumped on to Timo´s face it was one of the funniest things we have ever seen.
We went into the actual state park today and saw iguana’s, monkey’s, crazy rodent’s, and families of raccoons. Who knew raccoons could live everywhere. The park had a secluded beach were there were hardly any waves. It was like wading in a bath tub. Beautiful day perfect weather, no rain. After dinner Gavin had a cocktail party at his house but everyone didn’t really stay awake for the whole time. We later went to a club where Sinead got to go to her first bar with more than fifteen people in it.
Last day at Manuel Antonio! We got to go into Quepos today, where Joey got his first machete. Another amazing breakfast and chilling on the beach. On the way back to the ranch, though, there was a two hour wait to cross the only bridge out. They decided to work on it right in the middle of the day of course. Every one that got stopped got out of there cars to stay cool and chat with there neighbors (something you never would see in the States). Robin and Timo were 10 cars ahead of ours so everyone got out and played scrabble in the middle of the road. It was pretty late by the time we got back in and everyone just passed out.
