The Quest for a Pacific Beach

October 1, 1989

By Phyllis Rose
The New York Times

UNDER SOME COCONUT PALMS NEAR THE entrance to Manuel Antonio Park, a woman sells juice. Little capital investment has gone into this business: a booth, a glass juice squeezer for oranges, a machete to cut coconuts constitute the operation. The woman twists and presses the oranges for me with wholehearted vigor. I hope her hands are clean, because I really want this juice.

It's hot, and I have to cross some open beach and wade a stream to reach the entrance to the park, where rocks and trees will give shade.

Read more about Costa Rica.

Phyllis Rose is the author of "Jazz Cleopatra" (Doubleday), a biography of Josephine Baker

Copyright 1989