4
Location: Manuel Antonio
After a long ride away from The Central Valley and the usual sites we had visited, we took a bumpy, dirt road to Guacalillo. We met up with Gail and many children from the local school. Their summer break started yesterday, and they were kind enough to come into school just to meet and play with us. We introduced ourselves and then split up; each Go-Beyonder taking two kids. I read the book Corduroy, and we then painted our favorite scenes together. After painting, we got together with everyone else and played soccer, did gymnastics and monkey bars. While I cannot speak much Spanish and my kids couldn’t understand English, we were able to bond by laughing, running and just having a good time. After hugging goodbye, we sat down to a lunch that to my surprise, was NOT rice and beans. We had handmade tortillas, with pork and potatoes- so good! We then walked farther on the dirt road until reaching the beach. We walked up onto the cliff to see the waves crashing onto the beach as the water was unsafe to swim in. After many photo-ops (pictured below) we headed back (dripping in sweat under the sun). The AC on the bus was very welcome, and we made our way to Crocodile Bridge. Typical in Costa Rica, it was pouring rain as we reached this destination. But most of us made the trek out onto the pedestrian bridge to see the crocs. I don’t think I’d ever seen one before today so it was a memorable experience. Before reaching our final destination in Manuel Antonio, we stopped for supplies for our picnic tomorrow and snacks for ourselves. Everyone was pretty tired after reaching the hotel, so we settled into our rooms, had dinner and are now drifting off to sleep- we’re all excited for the beach day tomorrow!