The beach was about a quarter of a mile walk down the road, and then down a 200 yard trail to the sand. On the way, we saw a family of Capuchin monkeys cruising on the power lines and in the trees right by the trailhead; it's amazing how adapted they are to human presence! Some seemed completely indifferent to their audience, while others seemed to enjoy the attention and posed for pictures.
On the trail, we came across a cluster of butterflies, as well as a small farm complete with talkative rooster, turkey, dairy cow, several chickens, and even a family of ducks hanging around the perimeter. Just past that was a small stand with locals renting snorkel gear and kayaks, and selling water and soft drinks.
The beach itself was extremely tranquil and practically empty, by Southern California standards. The cove also kept the water extremely calm, so I was able to swim out a couple hundred yards to get a look around the corner; I saw a group of people snorkeling where we eventually would be doing the same later in the afternoon. There was also a group of rocks with tidepools on them near the beach, which of course, I had to take the opportunity to dive off.We had lunch back at the hotel's swim-up bar where we were again the only guests. We shot the breeze en Espanol with our bartenders Jesus and Martin, who were more than happy to have someone to talk to, and like everyone else, loved our response to where we learned our Spanish, "En escuela, y las calles de Los Angeles."
We also made quick friends with our shuttle-mates on our ride over to the catamaran in the harbor. We met a German couple up at the Hotel Mariposa who spoke German and English (no Spanish), and of course our driver only spoke Spanish. Their friends (the other people we needed to pick up) were outside the front gate, down the hill, and left off onto a side road. It was when I translated this to the driver for them that I realized seven days in Costa Rica had really helped me bring back my Spanish.
As it turned out, these folks knew one of the employees on the catamaran cruise, which made the experience that much more fun. Once we got on the boat, they opened up the tip-only bar, gave the quick safety speech, and away we went. There were even nets at the front of the boat, trying to bring quaintness to the two-story tour vessel, equipped with outboard water-slide.
The cruise took us across the Manuel Antonio Bay and between a few of the islands that are part of the National Park. The views were absolutely gorgeous! Unfortunately, we didn't see any dolphins or whales, and were surprised to hear about orca being off the coast of LA at the same time. However, we did get to see several species of birds, and still had yet to snorkel.
Upon reaching the point and rock cluster I saw people gathered around earlier, we anchored and disembarked. We were provided snorkel gear, complete with mask, fins, and of course a life vest. I was impressed with how different the types of fish were here than the ones that I had seen snorkeling in places like Catalina, Baja, or Hawaii. Definitely something I would recommend doing! But I couldn't spend all of our anchor time snorkeling; there was a water-slide to be conquered! Also something I highly recommend!
There was a sunset buffet as the cruise headed back toward the harbor, and they killed the engines and took the sail up. One of the Germans we had befriended, Martin, is a world-class sailboat racer in Germany, and was asked to man the helm during the sail. After the sun had set, we headed back for the harbor and disembarked.
Back at La Mansion, we were still a bit hungry by 8:30, having had eaten lightly at the 4:30 buffet, so we visited the Jacques Cousteau at the hotel. We found out that there was a reason for their reputation in Quepos, as this place had delicious food in a dining-room style environment. And again, there were only two other tables of people, leaving the place more than 70% empty, so the service was impeccable; we even got a visit from the manager, Diego, at the end.
It seemed that my wife and I both had the same idea as we walked back towards our room and peered our heads into the Bat Cave bar: it's right by our room, we're on vacation, it looks cool, we should go. Add to that the fact that the place looked packed, and we couldn't be kept out any longer.
Once we sat down, the 16 year old bartender did his best to serve the "overwhelmingly large" crowd of 10, but it did take him a while to get everyone there drinks. Before we knew it, Diego was on the scene. It began with some quick criticism of the boy in Spanish, and then a quick, exasperated sigh eye-roll, and hand-flail, followed by a blindingly rapid set-up for four-- no-- five shots. He turned around, grabbed a few bottles, poured a bit of each in it, and then I made the tiny gesture that would change the course of the evening.
As Diego poured the shots, he looked up to the family he was making them for, and asked, "shots?" to each of them to confirm how many he was making. Facetious me, I had to turn his question into a Li'l Jon lick. I barely finished my first, "Every-body!" when he slides the first concoction to me to demonstrate that he had made something worth imbibing, "Toma primero, y digame!" Aw crap, me and my big mouth.
My wife and I probably actually ordered 3 drinks each that evening, Diego kept making shots, while telling us the history of the hotel. He also snuck out for a few minutes early on to change out of his suit into his bar-tending transformers shirt. Diego has been working at La Mansion for 11 years, and helped with the construction of the Bat Cave Bar. In fact, most of the decor there are his personal artifacts, which makes it even more of a unique place. By the end of the night when we got the bill, we paid for one drink each. Needless to say, that friendly Tico got a hefty tip. If you're ever in Manuel Antonio, definitely head to La Mansion Inn one night and check out the Bat Cave Bar; there were several people that popped in and out while we were there that were not hotel guests.
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