For our trip to the ocean we chose the route via Muelle, hoping to avoid the never ending ups and downs of green valleys.
For a while it worked. The road was mostly straight and lead through a series of little towns and adjacent crop fields.
For our trip to the ocean we chose the route via Muelle, hoping to
avoid the never ending ups and downs of green valleys.
For a while it worked. The road was mostly straight and lead
through a series of little towns and adjacent crop fields.
But soon we hit the green see-saw again...
...this time spiced up with slow moving sugar cane trucks which were quite difficult
to overtake.
Thus it took us nearly two hours to get back to San Ramon and
reconnect with the Panamerican Highway.
Once we were on it, our progress towards the Pacific picked up even though we missed
our exit and had to take a little detour.
Around noon we came to the bridge over Tarcoles river.
On the surface this looks like any other river in the world...
...but if you look carefully, you can spot a number of crocodiles
prowling along its shores.
A pool underneath the bridge was literally infested with them,
all wallowing in abundant mud
and waiting for some fat-free Czech tourists
to lean an inch too far with their cameras.
By early afternoon, we reached the Pacific...
...and from that point we drove on a pleasant road skirting the adjacent mountains...
...with an occasional view of the ocean.
The Pacific highway was very scenic...
...except when it passed through local towns.
Soon we noticed groves of African palms, which was a cue that we were close
to Manuel Antonio area.
The next two nights we were booked in Kayak Lodge in Damas...
...which was a small motel about 10 km from the park.
It was still pretty early so we decided to hit the road again and explore
some of the beaches south of Manuel Antonio.
Our first choice was Playa Matapalo. It was the one farthest from the highway,
so in order to get there we had to drive through some pretty
local neighborhoods.
When we got to the beach...
...we were not entirely impressed and decided to move on.
The next in line were beaches at Uvita (21 km down the road) and Dominical (3 km).
Since the sun was still pretty high we chose to go for Uvita.
At Uvita it took us a while to find the access to the beach.
Eventually we figured that this was it.
This was obviously a very abandoned beach as the trail to it devolved into
an overgrown jungle
and we were sorry that we did not pack some machetes
(I am sure airport security would have been thrilled).
This beach was very similar to the previous one and completely abandoned as well.
They say the third time is a charm and so we went back to the beach at Dominical,
although its parking lot was marked by this suspiciously looking insect condominium.
The beach was picturesque enough though. You had a nice choice of either
palms or a green forest as your background.
And you could also choose between the smooth sandy stretch...
...or a rugged rocky one.
The sun was going down pretty fast...
...so we waited for sunset and then called it a day.
