This morning, we woke up in Jaco, picked Cindy and Lina up from the Selena hostel, and continued driving an hour and a half south toward Manuel Antonio. Upon arriving at Manuel Antonio, Hek and I had lunch at El Avion, a restaurant right across the street from Selena with a beautiful view looking down on the ocean. I ordered a “Vegetable with Rice,” a rice dish stir fried with veggies. The food was great, but the main selling point of the restaurant was the unique atmosphere. The center of the restaurant is a full-sized airplane shell. The interior of the airplane is El Avion Pub, a casual bar where guests can actually take steps up to the cockpit of the airplane.
After lunch, Hek and I walked to Manuel Antonio Beach. The beach was crowded with tourists and local Costa Ricans alike. We walked along the beach for about an hour, enjoying the atmosphere of people Jet Skiing, people parasailing right above our heads, and people just enjoying the beach.
After the beach, Hek, Cindy, Lina, and I went out for dinner at the Woodfire Pizza Restaurant. I ordered a pineapple veggie pizza and we enjoyed a beautiful indoor/outdoor dinner in the restaurant. Towards the end of dinner, Hek surprised me with a tres leches birthday hike and a birthday song. It was a wonderful, fun birthday, one of many I’ve already celebrated within the last couple of days in one way or another.
After dinner, we all went to Selena, and started drinking by the pool with a fun crew including:
- Francis: Montreal solo traveler (A bit quiet, introvert, really nice guy)
- Rachel: 25-year old Doctor from Scotland solo traveling through South America on an organized trip
- Efee: 25-year old solo traveler from Holland, who will be meeting her boyfriend in Canada and traveling through that country in 1-2 months from now
- Auburn Medical School students w/ Canadian solo traveler
We drank, went swimming in the pool, chicken-fought, and had an overall great time.
