March 14, 2000 - Monday

Waking up to the sounds of the birds chirping echoing in the shadowy forest is a lot better than waking up to lawn mowers or sounds of the traffic. We went to Barbara Roja for the best banana pancakes I've ever had. I highly recommend it and it has a lovely view to boot too! We left Manuel Antonio after that and headed back toward Jaco. An hour later, after passing Jaco, we turned into the path that led into Punta Leona, surrounded by hibiscus hedges and bamboo forest tunnels. Punta Leona is a private reserve with a hotel and several condos at the shore.

We finally reached the condo at top of the hill and I finally returned to the place where I fell in love with Costa Rica. We met up with John and Fabio and headed down to the beach for a few hours of lunch and fun in the sun and sand. I went snorkeling a little bit but the water was a bit on the cloudy side so I couldn't see much there. A flock of pelicans circled slowly over the beach and looked magnificent with the condos in the background.

We went back to the condo to pack up and I finally met Ruth, or the Bird Nazi as I called her. A few months before the actual trip, I was originally planning on staying here at the condo. She was the one who objected me staying over at the condo. I'm glad I didn't because I was later told that she was such a control freak and had a high-pitched voice that it was driving both John and Fabio crazy.

The condos are showing signs of wear from the weather though. The walls no longer gleemed brightly int he sun and the roof tiles lost it's fiery orange colours.

We left Punta Leona after that and went back to San Jose. We went to Rosti Pollo for dinner. It's a chain restaurant that's similar to Boston Market, except they have Costa Rican side dishes instead of the American side dishes. That's all for today.