By Bob Corbett
Things they are a changing.... and the beach may be doing it. Just yesterday, I think, I wrote that I wanted nothing to do with beaches. We'll after today I'm changing my mind.
The earliest place to open in town is Cafe Malegro, which has a marvelous fruit platter and bottomless coffee. I was there at 6 AM as they opened up, and had to wait on my first coffee while they brewed it.
Then I hopped the bus to Manuel Antonio and the gigantic free beach there, just outside the national park. I walked the sand, at the edge of the surf for over two miles one way, and only saw two other people, and no iguanas today.
However I simply LOVE IT, but since I only have two pair of shoes with me, my walking tennis shoes and my Birkenstock sandals with the cork lining, I really don't want either getting too wet.
When I got hack in Quepos mid-morning, I found a marvelous sturdy pair of "sand shoes," tight fitting so water can’t get it, soles like solid tennis shoes, these are simply ideal for walking in the water.
Now, I can't wait for 6 AM tomorrow to get my fruit and coffee and head to that same beach to test out the shoes, and then, if they work as expected, to return to the rain forest the next day and walk those more remote beach trails there.
Things they are a changing in more ways than that. Let's back up. I originally scheduled this trip a long time ago, last winter, when I was utterly fed up with the cold and what it was doing to my exercise, and I wanted to come here and hunt for a place where I could spend 2-3 even 4 months each year during our winter.
However, in the summer two of my sons really fixed up my kitchen with a neat new 42 inch granite top cutting table and more kitchen cabinets and I so utterly love cooking at home, and was exercising every day since the weather was warm. I put those ideas aside and just decided to enjoy this as a vacation, not as a long-term haunt.
Now I am already rethinking things. Oh my goodness, now I know the ropes and such. If I can find a cheap place -- like I have now at off-season prices -- then this would be a paradise for spending January and February, at LEAST, to avoid those winters I so hate.
And, just what I wanted I may have found -- a place to settle and stay where I don't need to move about. I'm so happy in Quepos / Manuel Antonio I don't feel the need to go anywhere.
Still, I am likely to go elsewhere. Several people have told me I should at least LOOK at La Fortuna, north of here about 5 hours by vehicle, and I think in a week or two when I've done lots more here, I may head up there and check it out too. But, I'm not anxious to leave here, just to explore more and more of it; I haven't touched the surface yet.
Yep, if I could negotiate this $13.00 a day room for two months.... hmmm, I think I'd start looking for a cheap flight....
Bob Corbett
Bob Corbett corbetre@webster.edu