Beach & Sun - Day 2 in Manuel Antonio (10.02.2022)

After being fixated on the hotel yesterday, we decided to explore the surroundings today. At breakfast, two iguanas kept us company again, which is funny in itself, except that one jumped onto the neighboring table yesterday, causing a scream from a US guest. Today, it only led to some warnings from the staff (who have a certain bond with the animals and have given them names), no action, just respectful glances at each other. A hawk or falcon - we're not quite sure - kept circling near us in search of breakfast, and we hoped until the end that it wouldn't turn into a monkey.

In the late morning, we took a shuttle to the (main) beach of Manuel Antonio. Just like in other parts of Costa Rica, the road goes up and down along the hills on the coast, and it's impressive how some buildings have been built into the slopes, even Tyroleans would be amazed ;-). Passing by restaurants where you can eat in an airplane and in the restaurant next door in a train car (whether they are operated by the same people..), we reach the main beach after 15 minutes, where there is already a bit more life than in the bay yesterday. Beach chairs, tents, umbrellas, jet skis, kayaks, everything is available for rent, but we are drawn along the beach to the quieter parts. As we walk along, we are amazed to see SUVs parked directly on the beach, with the trunk serving as an extended bar. It seems to be quite common here to drive a car directly onto the beach, exciting, maybe something for Kim Lee in the next few days...

We take photos of crabs crawling along stones, observe surfers dueling with the waves, and sit in the shade at the remote edge of the bay, listening to the wild rushing. The ocean has something meditative about it, if you allow it. However, the sun is still mercilessly beating down, and after our excursion, we decide to spend some time in the air-conditioned room.

We spend the rest of the afternoon at the pool (yes, with a reserved lounge chair), dramatic scenes and fights over loungers are avoided this time. During dinner at the restaurant "Cafe Emiglio," we make plans for tomorrow. We will drive to the Manuel Antonio National Park around noon to take a tour and then say goodbye to the place. No more luxury, back on the road. But as a nightcap, we treat ourselves to one last drink at the hotel bar and discuss some special topics for our blog. What would our fellow readers be interested in about the country? Please write it in the comments. Food & beer will definitely come separately, but we welcome input from our loyal readers ;-).

The Daily Duo:

Insight: After talking a lot about Americans in the past few days, I was curious to see how this translates into numbers (annual visitors). In 2018, there were nearly 3 million visitors to Costa Rica, of which 1.25 million were US citizens, accounting for 42%. Most visitors from Europe come from Germany with 75,000 (2.5%), and Austrians found their way into the country with 8,800 (0.3%). It will be interesting to see how this develops after Covid. In the first 10 months of 2021, there were nearly 1 million visitors (-66% compared to 2018), of which 650,000 (65%) came from the USA. The country is slowly recovering from a harsh blow, still struggling with an unemployment rate of 17.4%.

Moment of Happiness: The constant availability of fresh coconuts and coconut milk is great here. Just today, we enjoyed one at the beach for a relatively cheap 1,000 Colones (about €1.4).