Muddy Runner Countdown: No. 6

2009 was a year of travel for me. I got to visit two countries that I hadn't visited prior in Costa Rica and Canada and got in a trip to Mexico City as well. Three international trips for LB! Woo hoo! And that's not even counting Seattle, Phoenix and Las Vegas...

Anyway, Costa Rica was a treat and one I hope I can repeat sometime soon. Why?

Well, this post didn't make it on the list for nothing.

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Originally published June 8

Luscious Beaches

Costa Rica translates to rich coast in English, and we were first-hand witnesses to how rich this coast was. Nature can be amazing and beautiful, and nature sure didn’t disappoint down there.

The beaches here are in Manuel Antonio, and these first ones are inside the park itself. The water was quite warm. In fact, Mrs. LB said that Yvie prefers her bathwater less warm than how warm the water was.

What was amazing me to was that there was the water and the beach and then all of the sudden, vegetation. Lots of it. And that’s just the spots where the was actual beach. A lot of times, it’s just vegetation.

Now, in all the pictures above – the ones with beach anyway – do you notice anything? Or, more appropriately, do you notice anything that’s not there? People.

When we first got to this particular beach, it was about 10 a.m. on Friday morning, and that was near the end of our tour through Manuel Antonio. Inside the park, there are two beaches that are only accessible to park patrons. The general public can’t get in. The park closes at 4 pm (early, because it gets dark early and there are no lights) so if you get there early enough, you can have the entire beach to yourself.

We left the park and came back later to go swimming and by that time more people were there, but it wasn’t packed or anything. Not even close.

The first day we were in Quepos/Manuel Antonio, we visited the beach and the public beach was just as awesome, albeit a bit more crowded.

Okay, that’s about as crowded as it got while we were there, but that’s not exactly crowded. Over on the side closest to the park, there were some rock formations.

The part with the rocks really wasn’t a great place to go swimming (because of the rocks) but that didn’t detract from its beauty.

At all.