Escape to the beach

Well, as the Monteverde bank hold up has made the UK press, its safe to write about it here now (parents-was trying to save you the worry!). Spent Wednesday in limbo waiting on the streets, watching the bank/police/red cross/tv reporters, and hoping it would all end soon and with the minimum amount of bloodshed. At about midday the police tried to storm the bank and the ended up killing one robber and releasing some hostages but by the afternoon, there was still one robber and a hostage left. But thankfully, finally at about 9pm one of our new friends/guardians came and told us that he had just given himself up and it was all over. The relief we felt was just amazing and after about half an hour Daniel (one of our Tica guardians!) was able to convince the police to let us back to our hostel so we could get our stuff, and i could finally take my contact lenses out!

All seems a bit surreal now (well, felt surreal at the time too, but at least then I only had to open my eyes to see all the police to know it was very real) but was actually quite sad to leave Monteverde. After spending the best part of 30 hours waiting on the streets, alongside all the locals, I really felt very attached to the place. In the end 9 people have been killed as a result of the raid, 5 of whom were locals and i can only imagine the saddness in such a small community. I ended up getting to know a couple of the locals quite well (lots of people really looked after Stephanie and me) and it was quite horrible knowing that I was going to leave as soon as I got my stuff and the only real effect on me was a great addition to my travel story catalogue whereas they lost friends and have to carry on living in the same place.

But enough of such sad things.....unfortunately I couldn't make my Tortuguero tour as I was stuck in Monteverde, but by the end of that I was so tired and drained, that I just wanted to hit the beach. So on Thursday spent the morning in Monteverde (really beautiful and great for the soul after the hell of Tues and Wed!) before catching an afternoon bus to Manuel Antonio. Was planning on using this just as a over night stop before heading to Dominical as had heard it was over developed and full of americans (it is!) but decided while i was here i might as well spend a day in the park and whilst much of the day was spent dodging irritating yanks, the park was really quite beautiful...rainforest backing on to tropical beaches.....plus i saw loads of monkeys (howlers and spider) and a sloth. Everyone had kept going on about wanting to see a sloth and I didn't really understand why until I saw one. They really are quite lovely creatures. So all in all a good day. Am now off to try to find some non-irritating yanks to hang out with on this lovely firday eve before heading off to Domincal and more surfing tommorrow.