After $5, 4 ½ hours, and two buses I arrived in Manuel Antonio. I checked into a small cabina on the beach and now I’m enjoying an Imperial beer and nachos with chicken (Nachos con pollo) at Juan Toucan’s Bar and Grill. The owners (Michelle and Mace) are from the Massachusetts but live here now. They are very friendly and offered information about upcoming events for the week, including Thanksgiving and Robby (a Blues musician from Austin, Texas) playing on Friday night. As I’m enjoying my food and music I hear conversations about being stoned and then there it was, the glass pipe, passed around for a quick puff of the funny weed. I laughed because they looked at me with this questionable look and then put it aside. I suppose there’s something about me that says, ‘no, he won’t do it.’ I’ve known people all of my life that have smoked pot and its no big deal to me.
Speaking of pot, there was a recent survey completed in the United States asking which would you prefer – a person smoking a joint driving next to you or a person who was drunk from too much alcohol. Most people responded that they would prefer the person doing the smoking.
The food is awesome here. I’m sitting on a balcony just about 50 yards from the beach (playa). There are surfers in the water enjoying the surf, sun bathers relaxing on the white sandy beach, vendors of all sorts lining the extremely narrow street, people walking up and down the way, and a blur of buses pass by. It’s much warmer here than in San Jose, and it was a nice change, although I’m sweating. I think I’ll buy one of the sarongs from the vendors (only $8 – I paid $30 for mine in the states.) and wear that, as I’m sure it will be much cooler.
I just found out about another Cabina that supposed to be nicer and a dollar less per night. One of the staff here is going to show me where it is in an hour. I’ve already paid for my cabina for tonight, so I will check out this other one and if I like it better, will move over to it tomorrow. The scenery is almost like that of northern California in that the beach is very small and then the mountains grow quickly inland. Most of the coast is cliff face, but every now and then you find a little beach area. This beach might be about 2 to 3 hundred yards long, butt it’s surprising at how much goes on here. Surf Camp; people watching, and so much more. Even with the number of people and businesses here the beach doesn’t seem that full.
Everyone said this was the hot spot for gay tourists; however, I have yet to find even one person that looks gay, most appear straight. Maybe it’s because all of the gay men are hanging out at the posh resorts around here and I’m in a little cabina on the beach. I guess I’ve never really fit the gay stereotype, but I’m sure I’ll meet some interesting people along the way. Besides, sex isn’t an interest these days, so meeting other gay people isn’t the objective. I suppose I had a preconceived idea of what this area would be like as described by other gay men. I wonder what they were smoking because what I see isn’t anything like they described.
Well, I’m off to enjoy the sites.
