Good Times with Gemelo and the Wide Mouth Frog

Oh goodness.  I never thought our home base would seem so luxurious and home-like after just one weekend away.  I guess I'll start at the beginning of our weekend in Manuel Antonio..

We made reservations for 10 of us to stay in a dorm-style room at a hostel called The Wide Mouth Frog.  When we got there, surprise surprise, they had lost our reservation.  Well..actually, they had just reserved one bed for us, and that obviously wasn't going to happen, so after a good long time of translation and negotiation, we ended up with 4 separate rooms for us to stay in.  Now I've never been to a hostel before, so I don't know what most are like, but our room reminded me of a monastery.  It was spacious enough, but mostly barren with musty maroon sheets and a white tile floor.  One bed came with a sheet cover nicely folded like a giant decorative bow and wrapped with a trash bag at its foot.  My bed came with no cover, so I used my rain jacket to keep warm at night instead.  The walls were empty minus one piece of neon green laminated construction paper type artwork that appeared to have some brightly colored geometric shapes pasted on it by a 6-year-old.

The place actually had a cool environment, with nice, tropical vegetation, a communal kitchen and dining area, and a pool that we took advantage of during a thunderstorm on our first night (until the lightning started sounding a little too close).  It also offered continental breakfast in the form of a communal pot of oatmeal/watery mush and some bread loaves.  I'm not complaining though because I actually liked the watery mush, but I think I was the only one..

Anyway, on Saturday 6 of us signed up for a horseback trip that came with breakfast, a ride to a waterfall and back, swimming, and lunch.  I've always been a little nervous on horses, but I have to say, after this trip, I feel like I could be Indiana Jones and be okay with it.  We had a guide, but by guide I mean that an 18-year-old boy named Jimmy was kind enough to place each of us on a horse and follow from the way back of the pack as each of our horses (who all knew the way to the waterfall) set their own pace for the journey through the jungle.  The ride to the waterfall, which was about an hour and a half away, was nice and relaxing.  My horse, Gemelo, and another horse ended up at the front for a good portion of the way because they liked to walk fast, but we all made it there in one piece and not too far apart from each other.  By the time we swam and hiked to the waterfall though, those horses were ready to get back.  Jesus Christ.  

The calm Gemelo I thought I had been riding turned into a freaking racehorse.  He must have spent about 20 minutes total of the ride back walking.  Whenever we crossed water, whenever we reached the bottom of an incline, or just whenever Gemelo decided, we broke out into anything from a trot to a full-on sprint.  At one point, another girl and I were half-screaming half-laughing hysterically as our horses sprinted around a curve with Jimmy probably a good 1/2 mile behind us.  It was like a good ole Western plus a tropical backdrop and incompetent cowgirls.  Eventually, I lost the bag that was tied to my saddle, the towel I was sitting on (we were all wearing shorts--hence, all our legs got bruised and burned), AND my hat.  Good thing Jimmy was nice enough to pick them up when he passed by.  And good thing my body never fell off too.  It was definitely the funniest horse ride I've ever been on, but thank God it ended when it did because I don't know if I could have handled anymore jostling up and down or yelling "Woah, Gemelo, woahhh.  Let's walk for just one minute POR FAVOR!"

I'm going to put up a picture of the waterfall we saw eventually....it was absolutely gorgeous.  But, right now my camera is bathing in a container of rice because it got washed under a wave the next day.  Eeek.  I'll get there in a minute..

On Sunday we had to check out of the hostel by 11, but we didn't want to lug our stuff on our hike through the national park, so they let us store it in the office.   We packed some bags and prepared ourselves for a day at the beach (i.e. swimsuits and flip flops) and boarded the bus for Manuel Antonio, which was about 5 minutes by taxi from our hotel.  This bus was HOT.  And packed.  And moving at a turtle's pace around every curve.  But it's nice to be reminded every once in a while that things can still be enjoyable even if they don't live up to our personal definitions of what's comfortable.  I can't imagine getting around like most of the Costa Ricans do every day, but it's only because I have something else to compare it to.  I guess that goes to show you the power that pushing aside preset standards can have.

Once we got our sweaty selves to the national park, we set off to find some monkeys.  We opted to not pay for a tour guide, but shortly after our self-led trek through the rainforest began, we realized just how unprepared we were.  Word to the wise: if you're planning on hiking through the rainforest, do NOT wear flip flops! Bad idea.  Between the ups and downs, the water-crossings, and the bugs, I have no idea how we made it to this waterfall in the jungle and back without anyone getting injured. 

Once we got out, we took the only path there was to find the beach.  I should mention that we saw some of the worst sides of animals this weekend, namely the reptiles. First—Saturday night at a restaurant we saw two lizards having sex! I’m not kidding.  One was chasing another upside down around the ceiling (a ledge that hung out over the street) and we saw it lunge at the other lizard and grab its tail.  This lizard preceded to dangle to other poor lizard over the sidewalk from the second-story ledge and let it squirm for a good long while, and then he pulled him back up onto the ceiling and they had sex! It was grossly disturbing.  Then—on Sunday, as we were walking to the beach, we saw a big frog on the side of the path and stopped to take its picture…little did we know that we would be the last people to speak to the poor frog before its death.  Just after our camera flashes, it turned around and hopped about a foot, at which point a snake struck out from beneath some leaves and captured the squealing little frog in its mouth!  It was SO sad!  I felt partially responsible for the little thing’s death :(

Anyway, we made it to the beach at the end of this path finally, sweaty and very hungry.  We were a little upset to find no food there, but it was okay because this was one of the most beautiful beaches I’ve ever seen…and the water was perfect.  It was like swimming in a wave pool.  The only problem we had after a while was that a big wave came and washed all of our stuff under it.  Soo, so much for putting on dry clothes or having clean towels.  And so much for my camera L  I’ve just accepted that everything I own is going to smell slightly of mildew, sandiness, and horses until I get home.

After the beach we made it back into town for lunch (we had to ford a river on some random boat with a Costa Rican boat driver who I think was drunk and tried to argue with us first).  And then we eventually got ourselves back to the Wide Mouth Frog where the man was nice enough to let us use the communal showers (even though we were towel-less).   I learned that bodies don’t really drip-dry quickly after a shower.  

AH I think this post has gotten way too long.  By the end of the weekend, we got to a point where we couldn’t do anything without something bad happening.  It was hilarious…although I would like to actually feel clean at some point soon..

All of our hygiene has kinda gone out the window.  I guess it’s just part of the experience!

Now it’s back to the kids for the week!  I’ll update more later…hopefully with pictures!

Agh. One more thing!  Trevor got kicked out of the program this morning because he missed his 2 am curfew last night!  He stayed with Holly at her hotel until 5.  AND they got matching tattoos on their feet yesterday that say "pura vida".  How cute.

:)