October 9, 2025

Dateline – Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica

Today was a bit of a travel day. Up early to catch the bus in lovely sunshiney weather and then off to the Pacific Coast. The first hour or so were the descent from the mountain heights of Monteverde to the coastal plain near the ocean. The road was the usual wriggly two lane mountain track but they seem to have been paved a bit more recently on this side of the range and it wasn’t quite the strap in and hang on that we’d been experiencing for the last few days. We eventually emerged onto the Pan American highway – really only a two lane route at this point in its course through Latin America. We turned left, and headed south and, when the Pan American turned inland toward San Jose, we headed off on smaller roads following the coastline, eventually reaching the port of Quepos.

Quepos was founded in the early 20th century by the United Fruit Company as the port for shipping bananas from its plantations to Pacific destinations such as the west coast of the USA. The history of UFC (later rebranded as Chiquita Banana in an attempt to ditch some of its more unsavory past) is highly unpleasant and full of exploitation of the Costa Rican people and land. It’s worth looking up if you don’t know about it as it’s full of the very worst of American capitalistic excess, something we seem to be trying to get back to. Most of the rest of the world has left it behind for better ways of being. The banana plantations are long gone, replaced by palm oil which is run in a much more environmentally friendly manner. Just outside of Quepos is Manuel Antonio National Park and we are staying in the town of the same name up on the bluff overlooking the ocean at a very nice hotel.

On your own lunch was at a Costa Rican food court across the street as the rooms weren’t ready yet. The view was nice. The temperature was perfect and the ocean breeze chased the humidity away. I crossed back to the hotel, got my room key, unpacked, and the rains began, pouring the rest of the afternoon. This is not unexpected. It is the tail end of the rainy seaon on the Pacific coast. Being a good Seattle boy, I didn’t let it bother me. I took a walk, had a swim in the pool, and tried not to kill myself by slipping on the hotel walkways which are a very nice tile but the mix with rainwater is a bit tricky.

For the evening, the group headed back down into Quepos and a bit beyond for night tour of the river and the mangrove swamps. I’ve been in mangroves before, but never after dark, and floating through them when you can’t see is a bit unnerving. The guide and boat captain seemed to know what they were doing and we didn’t lose anyone. Lots of nocturnal or sleeping bird sightings. A few bats. A sloth at the top of a very tall tree. A four eyed possum (which is much smaller than the North American variety) scurrying along the branches looking for nectar. The monkeys were all asleep. I spotted a number of monkeys in the trees around the hotel but they were all curled up and sheltering from the rain so no pictures. A very good home cooked dinner and then back to the hotel for relax time before bed.

I’m still mulling over some health politics pieces in response to the idiocies coming out of the federal government but I probably won’t get around to writing them until this next week when I go from phase 1 to phase 2 of Costa Rican vacation. We return to San Jose on Saturday and the tour officially ends with Sunday departures. I, however, am not returning yet. I am off to Guanacaste for an additional four nights at a fancy all inclusive with no agenda other than to decompress and return next Thursday. I’ve felt an absolute need to have some time to do nothing if I so choose. Maybe things will start flowing there.