March 18 - from the dry to the humid - to Quepos - long day!

Today, we left Playa Hermana after breakfast and a lovely chat with Canadians Tom and Carolyn who  seem like a young version of ourselves - travelers and she is a teacher.

Then, we drove southward to Quepos. It was less than 200 miles, but took us most of the day with the two-lane roads and waiting for trucks and busses. We stopped outside of Liberia for, yes, a McDonald's, probably Mark's first big mac in 20 years! The landscape changed as we moved south - ever greener and with steep mountains to our east. It was dry in the north, but it is humid here and the vegetation got ever thicker. It is a jungle.

Before we got to Quepos, we stopped on an overlook and saw a flock of scarlet macaws by the roadside - absolutely magnificent. In addition, there were several more frigatebirds which are also awesome. They made our day!

We are staying in a funny hotel down the side of the cliff on the approach to Manuel Antonio Park, the most visited park in Costa Rica. We are in 11 UP - a "suite" with a good view. The bedroom is spartan with a double bed which will feel rather small. The other room, an unairconditioned porch, really has a refrigerator, one chair and a hammock. So, we cannot cook, but we can keep water cold. It is not luxumrious by any stretch of the imagination, but funky and it will do us for three nights.

We were really tired from the drive and went for a quick dip in the pool before heading toward the park to eat at Raphael's Terrazos. It was excellent! We split a sushi roll and Mark had seared tuna with a mushroom sauce and I had mahi mahi in a lemon sauce. The vegetables were excellent, too.

We heard from Nick; he is visiting Jecca for a night before heading back to the island. They are still in the grip of winter. We plan to get up early to go toe Manuel Antonio tomorrow; we bought some nuts and water to take in there for the day as there are no concessions in the park.