If there were a sand restaurant, this would be steak.

Happy 4th of July! I celebrated by spending around 30 hours in Manuel Antonio with my new friends from Maximo Nivel. Unfortunately, I did not get to see my father and brother on Friday, but hopefully we'll be able to meet up this weekend before they go. Saturday morning I took a bus with Sarah, Phil, and Lilly at 6 am. I slept most of the 4 hour journey. As soon as we got there, we checked into Costa Linda, a wonderfully cheap hostel, where we met up with Jeremy and eventually Kim, Heather, Lindsay, and Kelly.

Phil, Sarah, Jeremy, and I went to the beach in Manuel Antonio National Park for the rest of the afternoon, and it was gorgeous! I hate that my camera battery is dead. We saw monkeys, large rodents, iguanas, and raccoon like creatures that stole people's belongings on the beach. At the end of the afternoon, we discovered a beach that was practically deserted where the waves were insane. We all got knocked down and pulled under multiple times.

After we left the park, I had my first meal of the day at a restaurant near our hotel. Due to my hunger, they were the best chicken fingers with ranch dressing ever. Then we finally got back with the rest of our group for some cool card games and a fun night out in Quepos. Our group of friends was definitely the life of the party.

This morning we went zip lining in the forest near our hotel. It was so much fun! We got all sweaty and gross just in time to get on a bus to San José during which most of us did not have a seat. From all of the walking and standing my legs ache, but I could not have had a better weekend. ¡Pura Vida!