We spent half the day soaking at the very high-end Tabacon Thermal Spa with a spendy but worthwhile $70 day pass.  The pass also included a very good lunch, but that took away some of the time from using the facilities so in total we soaked for just under 3 hours.  The place is incredible and we enjoyed trying out different pools and massaging our muscles with the numerous waterfalls.  The place was not crowded and we found ourselves alone most of the time, just thoroughly enjoying the naturally heated waters.  The best part is when it started raining monsoons and I would just stand up and enjoy the cold water beating against my back and then plunging back into the hot pool.  

Such a great time we had, but all things must come to an end and after four hours we left and continued our soak at a different place, the Volcano Lodge. It is a sister property to our hotel and we have privileges of using their mineral baths.  It is not in a natural setting like a Tabacon, but we enjoyed the simplicity of the calm pools and hotter temperatures.  And for the price of being free, you just can’t beat that!

Spent most of the day at the country’s most popular national park – Manuel Antonio, which is just down the road two miles away.  The park opens up at 7am, and the key is to get there before the tour buses arrive at 9am.  We managed to get breakfast and catch the public bus (60 cents each one-way) to arrive around 8:30am.  We stood in line to buy our park tickets and politely declined offers for guided tours.  We then walked over to the actual park entrance line where security guards inspect bags and confiscate food items that might be attractive to the park’s white-faced monkeys — bags of chips and crackers and cookies are the big no-no’s.  

The park isn’t necessarily big and we covered 80% of it during our six hours there — one of the trails was closed which accounted for the missing 20%.  Early on, there were hoards of visitors with their guides.  You could tell because they were clumped together and the guide had a huge tripod telescope for wild life viewing.  During our visit we were able to find (well, with the help of others pointing or looking up) a pair of sloths, white faced monkeys, birds, a tail-less rat thing, a squirrel, iguana and a marching colony of leaf cutter ants.  So cool!  But also so hot and humid.  The walking wasn’t hard, it was just tiring.  Going up a bunch of steps.  Then down.  Then up again.  And down.  We took many breaks.  And that was fine, since we were always on the lookout for wildlife.  A lot of the park was shaded so we didn’t need to wear our hats or slather a lot of sunscreen.  There also were not too many bugs (ie mosquitoes!), so we didn’t have to use our bug repellent, but we did anyways!  Upon the park’s exit, we were very popular as a throng of vendors offered us cold water, coconut water, snow cones and souvenirs.  We ended up buying a bag of freshly sliced mango — delicious and a perfect end to a great day.

Many of the beaches would have been hard to get to in a regular car, as they are very rocky with many huge holes and I can’t imagine my little sedan car handling it too well.  The beaches reminded us very much of the Oregon Coast — minus the tropical palm trees and hot humidity of course — but the rocks and the sand and driftwood and just how everything came together gave us the feeling of being at the Oregon Coast.  And that’s a good thing because we love our Oregon Coast!  

Chorreadas is like a pancake made out of corn and is usually eaten as a snack or as breakfast. It can be sweet and served with a little honey or syrup or it can be savory and served with a sour cream called natilla.  It is usually found at little roadside stands like this one next to a park.

Casados is the traditional lunch plate that you can order at little family-run informal restaurants called sodas. Very reasonable in price, it is a full meal that includes what you see here… Rice and beans, a small salad, fried plantains, a choice of grilled meat, and picadillos (potato and root vegetables).

Finally, sopa negra is a black bean soup that is served with this side of rice.