Everyday life in Manuel Antonio – right by the beach and national park

Living in Manuel Antonio can feel like an endless vacation, and even though we have to work on our studies, there's also a lot else we fill our days with.

At the student house, we have a large covered common area in the garden, where we prepare all our meals, but it's also used for reading, card games, movie nights, or karaoke.

The group has been good at initiating social activities, and since we usually prepare all our meals in the kitchen of the common area, it naturally becomes a place where everyone meets several times a day.

Speaking of cooking, a hot tip is to buy Lizano sauce, which is often served in restaurants here. The whole class is obsessed with it, and I use it on almost all the food I make!

Since I studied in Nepal last semester, I got spoiled with eating cheap meals out, and had a reality check when I saw the prices here in Costa Rica, which are pretty much like Norwegian prices.

There are still a lot of cool restaurants and bars in the area we live in, which are worth visiting.

For instance, we have visited El Avion, which is a bar, cafe, and restaurant built around an old plane crash, where the bar is inside the actual plane, and the restaurant and cafe are constructed around it. El Avion is located within walking distance or a short bus ride from where we live, and there is very good food and a very nice view there.

Across the road from El Avion, you'll find a bar where they offer salsa lessons on Wednesday evenings. Since we usually don't have classes on Thursdays, it's perfect to go out and dance salsa on Wednesdays. We certainly think it's
a lot of fun, and it's highly recommended to try it out when living in Costa Rica!

We have been very pleased with the location of the student house, as it is only a stone's throw away from Manuel Antonio National Park, and a three-minute walk to the beach!

The fact that we live so close to the national park means that we experience nature and wildlife up close, and within the first week we had already seen monkeys, parrots, raccoons, and deer in the garden.

Since the beach is so close to the student house, there's rarely a day that we don't take a trip there. To get to the beach the fastest way, we walk through a street with stalls, where a lot of nice things are sold.

Man finner alt fra krystaller, smykker, malerier, bamser, klær, instrumenter, skulpturer og mye mer, og mange i klassen har kjøpt seg nye smykker eller gaver til venner og familie derfra.

Since we're at the beach every day, it didn't take long for the vendors to start recognizing us, and it's always very pleasant to stop by to greet or talk with them.

A few days ago, we saw a baby crocodile in the river under a bridge on the same street!

Going to the beach has really been the highlight of the day, and it's especially nice to run straight into the sea to unwind after school.

Over the past few weeks, we've been doing a lot of swimming, surfing, body surfing, volleyball, soccer, and sunbathing, and not least, we've made it a daily routine to watch the beautiful sunsets, which really never disappoint.

My favorite activity during the stay has definitely been surfing, and I highly recommend trying it here in Manuel Antonio. It's not hard to find surfboards or someone offering surfing lessons along the beach, and the waves here are
suitable for beginners.

When you just want to relax and sunbathe, you should try the ice cream they sell down at the beach. It's a kind of shave-ice, with condensed milk on top – so good on a hot day!

It is not recommended to be on the beach alone in the evening, but when we have been a larger group, we have stayed for a little while some evenings to sit around one of the bonfires on the beach after sunset.

It has been hot, so for my part, I have prioritized the beach and surfing more than training in the past few weeks.

If one enjoys exercising, there's the option to go for a run on the beach or along the road (and of course finish with a swim in the sea before coming home), but this should be done before seven in the morning to avoid heatstroke.

Since it can get too hot to exercise outside in the middle of the day, several people in the class have therefore joined a gym nearby.

It can be a bit expensive with gym memberships here, but if a group of people sign up, it might be possible to get a group discount.

Of course, there is much more to do in the area, but that's all for now!