Manuel Antonio, whitewater rafting, and the Caribbean Coast

Since Lewis last wrote we have been doing some serious moving around the country! So, we started the trip in the central valley of Costa Rica, moved on to Northwestern Costa Rica to see the cloud forests, traveled west to the Nicoya Peninsula, and then farther south on the coast to Manuel Antonio. In Manuel Antonio we stayed at a great backpackers hostel in the town of Quepos. For my birthday we visited the Manuel Antonio National Park where we saw tons of wildlife including sloths (which are unbelievably cute) tucans, a variety of other birds, and of course--the white-faced monkey. The park includes the jungle as well as the coast so after hiking for several hours we were able to go down to white pristine beaches where I swam in the ocean to cool off. I can say it was a great way to spend my 31st (gasp) birthday!

We said good bye to the gorgeous Pacific coast on Wednesday. On Thursday we had what I can easily say was the funnest day of the trip for me as we went whitewater rafting down the Pacuare River. This was to be our big splurge of the trip and I can say it was worth every single penny. Although the river had come down significantly from its wet season highs--we still paddled through plenty of awesome rapids that provided great adrenaline rushes. We had an amazing guide who took our team (there were six of us on one raft) down river. Despite having one dysfunctional team member who couldn't listen to instructions (no it wasn't Lewis) we got down the river without flipping our raft. I even took the front of the boat after lunch and set the tone for the other paddlers in the boat. Just a total and complete blast!

After we got out of the water we headed to our final destination of this trip which is the very southern end of the Caribbean Coast. We are both really happy that we decided to get over to this coast because it is a completely different Costa Rica here. The weather is very different (a bit rainy and overcast), there is significantly more poverty as investors have yet to develop (i.e. sell land along the ocean to white people from affluent countries) much here, also, there is a heavy Afro-Caribbean influence in the food, culture, and music. We are really loving the change.

Hope all is well back in the states with our devoted readers. We are going to try and post a few pics so look around the site as we're not sure exactly how it works yet.