Feliz Ano Nuevo! Woot 2006!

After bidding Duncan and Rich farewell early Friday morning, I met up with the Yukon girls and we went to the beach to laze about and swim in the Ocean for some of their first times. That Friday night, I hung out with four crazy awesome Swedish guys and two girls from Mexico. They are all quite worldly people--one of the Swedish dudes spoke english with an Italian accent, and one of the mexican chicas spoke with a British accent. We mostly lazed about Chucks Cabinas and drank cervezas (chelas in Mexico) and chatted before going to the Jungle bar and playing some foosball.
The following day, New Years Eve, was very very hot, and I rented a bicycle for one dollare per hour so I could bike to Playa Hermosa, which is a close beach with better surf. Four blocks of cruising and the chain fell off, so I walked the bike back to the shop and they gave me another. The seat was junk and the handle bars were loose, so by the time I had got to the end of the terribly bumpy street, I decided it wasn´t going to be worthwhile biking 5 km on a piece of junk...should´ve gone for the scooter I think. The Swedes and the Mexicans were off to San Jose for a big New years bash and invited me to join them, but I much preferred the idea of New years on a beach. Met some dudes from Norway, a group of surfers from Long Island California and camping next to me were two Mexican backpackers.
I started the night off in the loud, crowded Campground with the two Mexicans before heading off to Chucks Cabinas. There we hung out with the Long Island boys, Yukon chicks, Vancouver dudes, a couple from Texas, and then all made our way to the beach. The Norweigens were there also, and we were all there for the big count down...imagine this: a 3.5 km long beach with fireworks going off down the length of it from 11:30 til 12:30...AMAZING! It pretty much made the whole week long stay in Jaco worth it just for New years eve!
At 12:30, the Mexican guys and myself started the mad pub crawl and danced until our feet were sore and the sun was up. A few of the places had a $2 - 6 charge, but we managed to find entry wrist bands in the streets so used those to get in for free...Mexican style, as the two put it.
We got up afte 3 hours of sleep so we could start the New Year off with some surfing, but not only was the surf no good, all the shops to rent from were closed. At that point we decided we would check out Manuel, so caught the bus at 1pm.
Another hot day and Manuel Anotonio was crawling with people from all over the globe! Just a couple hundred meters up from the beach we set up camp, while whitefaced monkeys swung in the trees above and Iguanas scampered through the brush. When our tents were set up, we headed to the beach and me along with one of the Mexican guys got ourselves into a 2 on 2 beach volleyball match! We managed to get the score to 7 - 3, but i guess we choked, because we lost 11 - 7...a rematch is in order for today (Jan 2). First time i´ve done volleyball in a long time, but was good fun anyway. We bought some food to make sandwiches with then headed back to camp. As soon as we arrived, it began to rain...hard, and the power was out as well. The power came back on after 30 minutes, but the rain kept going on and off throughout the night. I still managed to have a wonderful sleep, after the lack of the previous night.
The park is closed on Mondays, so were kind of out of luck on that one. We got up early to take the bus down to Dominical to go surfing, but the bus ride is 3 or 4 hours both ways and we didn´t want to spend most of the day on a bus. Instead we came up to Quepos, because food and souvenirs etc are cheaper. The rain has stopped, and the sun has been trying to come out, and we´re praying it won´t be raining tomorrow morning when we go to see the famous Manue Antonio park. The onland portion of the park isn´t very big, but most of it goes out into the sea around a few islands. I might go check out an ocean kayak adventure around them.
Oh ya...and about Spanish lessons. The family I was meant to stay with decided to take off for the week and after browsing through my lonely planet some more, there is soo much to see and do in this country that I´d much rather just tough it out and start some real adventures rather then spend another week in Jaco.
That´s about all for now folks. Happy 2006!!!

-Mitchell-

Photo: Sunset volleyball on the First Beach in Manuel Antonio