Sunday, October 25 was a beautiful day here on the ridges of Grecia. We decided to embark on another road trip, this time heading south to Manuel Antonio-Quepos, where we wanted to spend a couple of days on holiday at the Parador Resort & Spa. It’s really refreshing to get away even for a couple of days to recharge and explore a different area of this beautiful country.
Our driver, Adrian of Adrian Tours, arrived at 8:30 am and drove us the 3 hours to our destination. The Parador Resort & Spa is incredibly beautiful, and our room was magnificently appointed with very nice furnishings and paintings as well as a great view of the nature outside our balcony. The resort is located on the Punta Quepos promontory in Costa Rica, surrounded by 12 acres of wildlife-rich tropical rainforest with panoramic views of the Pacific Ocean and Manuel Antonio. Of course, because of COVID-19, the staff took all the necessary precautions while checking us in. There weren’t many guests, which I assumed was because of the pandemic. I didn’t think that they were at full staff either, but the staff helping us were extremely friendly and welcoming.
Our first afternoon we hitched a ride with the hotel van driver, whose name is Johnny Be Good, to the very popular El Avion Restaurant for an early dinner. The restaurant was only 10 minutes away, and lots of tourists were eating out—all maintaining social distancing practices. The views of the ocean from the open-air restaurant were perfect for a cloudy but warm day. Of course, the elephant in the room is a huge C-123 Fairchild cargo plane that has been converted to a pub. This aircraft has a long and storied history going back to the Iran-Contra affairs during the 1980s.
The food and beer were delicious, and as we exited we spotted a couple of monkeys frolicking on the restaurant’s rooftop while we were waiting for our taxi.
We spent the rest of the evening chilling in our room, and then Monday morning I awoke early to the sounds of a soft rain, exotic birds chirping, and howling monkeys in the distance. I made myself a coffee and sat on the balcony to enjoy the tropical sounds. After breakfast, we headed to the Villa Vanilla Rainforest Spice Farm for a half-day tour, which we’ll tell you all about in a follow-up blog post next week.
After the tour, we returned to the hotel and then decided to head down to the beach, which is about a half-an-hour walk from the hotel, which is a bit of a jaunt down the road a couple hundred yards and then down a long hill toward Playa Biesanz. Had I known the beach was not right outside the hotel door, I might have booked another hotel.
There were not many people on the beach, which was clean with white sand. The weather was perfect after a light shower earlier in the day. Tezzy mistakenly set her flip-flops near some rocks on the ground while snapping some pictures and, when she turned around, the flip-flops had been washed out to sea by some huge waves. Unfortunately, she had to walk back to the hotel on bare feet. Luckily it wasn’t a really hot day.
