Today was a transfer day and we set off at 8.15 in a small tourist bus, for the four hour transfer to Manuel Antonio. The first hour, as promised!, was along rough roads full of potholes. The bus was quite full and I sat next to a canarian biochemistry postgrad currently studying at the Complutense in Madrid, and his parents, so had another good fix of Spanish! Ben was lucky to be sat next to the driver, so had plenty of leg room and a great view – the advantage of being tall! We drove through palm oil plantations, rice fields and crocodile country on the Tarcoles river, and were lucky enough to spot several basking crocodiles from one of the bridges.

 

We finally arrived at Hotel Karahe and within minutes saw several lizards. We had a ‘beach front’ room, which had a lovely view onto the gardens and was about fifty metres from a beautiful beach. We had lunch right away as we were all starving, and the restaurant had a direct view onto the beach, with lizards crawling up tree trunks near our table. 

 

I tried hearts of palm salad with avocado and the boys went for the first chicken nuggets of the trip!! These had real chicken in them! While we were eating we saw a kingfisher and another bird by the water catching fish in its’ long beak right in front of us.

 

We had a lazy afternoon then we all went for a dip – the waves had really picked up and were quite good, so we all had a nice swim and then Dave strolled along to the main Manuel Antonio beach, about 200 yards along the beach. The stretch of beach was very quiet, so there was loads of space. We then had a ‘family conference’ to plan out the next days’ activities and opted for paddle boarding in the mangroves for tomorrow, which I booked with an extremely helpful lady in reception, who also recommended us a great restaurant nearby.