Costa Rica Day 3

Date: February 26

We had a great plan to see as much of the area as possible without getting burnt out from having no relax time. We had an excursion planned every-other-day, so we got to do whatever we wanted every-other-day. On this day, we would visit the Manuel Antonio National Park. We came to Costa Rica for some warm weather and some unfamiliar animal sightings, and we got an abundance of both.

As I stepped out of the air conditioned bedroom into the living room of our rental casa, I was hit with the same heat and humidity that was present before entering the bedroom the night before (Only our bedrooms were air conditioned). It wasn’t terrible, but definitely something I wasn’t used to.

We didn’t have time for birds and coffee. We were supposed to be at the park entrance by 7:30 AM. We poured some cold coffee into an iced down cup, hit it with a little milk and sugar, and headed out the door with our backpack of gear for hiking and swimming. Since our trip from the airport to our rental casa took more time than we had anticipated, we wanted to give ourselves a little extra time.

Good thing we did. We parked our vehicle right at 7:30 and hustled to get in line to enter the park, again stepping out of the air-conditioned vehicle into the thick, warm air of the morning. We weren’t in line long before we were talking to a ranger who asked about our reservation and made sure we didn’t have any food or garbage (you can only take in reusable water bottles). I guess that included the foam football we brought for the beach because we had to throw it away instead of bringing it with.

As soon as we got through the gates and were officially in the park, there was a large crowd of probably two dozen people gathered looking up in the trees at a racoon. Most had guides with them that also had powerful scopes to point out the animals. We opted to not have a guide, despite the many suggestions by parking lot attendant and again when checking in. No regrets. I appreciated the freedom we had not having a guide because we could choose our own adventure. We simply stopped and looked at what other guides were looking at to see animals we might have missed. We didn’t always figure out what they were looking at, but I am still happy with our choice to go on our own.

The girls decided to use the bathroom before we started our hike while Mattix and I slathered up with some sunblock. As we were doing so, a couple of White-faced monkeys (Capuchin) climbed over the tent we were under and on to a nearby powerline. Our first monkey sighting!

As we started into the jungle, looking carefully into the vegetation for animals we wanted to see as well as any that we didn’t want to see (snakes), it didn’t take long before we started to sweat. We found shade where we could but some of us were nervous about the more secluded trails, so we steered clear of those, which meant we didn’t go down the trail to see the waterfall.

Along the boardwalk trail, we found MANY crabs in the dirt and even some deer along with tons of different birds. After a bit of a walk, we arrived at a hut that had snacks and souvenirs for purchase. We purchased some fruit, a sandwich, and some pizza to share. I filled up our water bottles at the nearby bathroom and we continued our walk, heading towards the beach.

Along our the path, there were hundreds of leaf-cutter ants hard at work. The massive number of these insects left me flabbergasted. There was a thick line of them running back and forth across the trail. At the bottom of the trail we were headed down, there was another set of bathrooms. We decided to get beach-ready in these and head down to the beach.

Once we changed, we noticed some people looking into the jungle and joined them to find what I believe to have been some Agouti. There were a few and the young ones were running around with a burst of energy every 10 or 15 seconds. We also saw a (another) sloth in this location. The one we saw the day before was a two toed sloth, but this one was a three toed sloth and had eye markings.

Once we turned our attention back to the beach, we found a shady spot to sit and relaxed a bit, enjoying the breeze and fact that we were wearing less clothing. We sat for a bit, taking turns swimming as we didn’t want to leave our stuff unattended. There were warnings of thievery at the park, by people and monkeys. At one point, while I was in the water, I looked up to find monkeys coming down from the trees to check out some tourists’ bags. Jill thought one may have snagged something before making it’s retreat back to the canopy.

Mattix and I grabbed our snorkels and headed out to sea to see what we could see. Initially we didn’t see much, but as we got closer to the outside edge of the bay-like cove, we started to see brightly colored fish. It was a pretty good snorkel experience. Sure, it wasn’t the great barrier reef, but we saw a lot of fish and it was a nice swim.

After we had enough fun in the sun, we gathered up our things and headed to the bathroom to change back into our hiking gear. We didn’t have a great way to get all the sand and salt off of us, so the walk back was less than pleasant. They had showers, but they were all outside, so you couldn’t really get your no-no zones cleaned up, if you know what I’m sayin’.

The sun was intense so we took the boardwalk trail back to stay in the shade a bit more than the wide foot path. On our trek back, we saw a Squirrel Monkey with a young adolescent in tow climbing around in the trees above. A near-by guide was beside himself with how rare the site was, so we felt pretty accomplished in seeing them.

Before we left, Jill took a look in the garbage can that we threw the football into when we arrived and lo-and-behold, it was still there. She snatched it up and we were on our way back to our vehicle.

Jill, being the amazing planner that she is, knew of a cool restaurant (El Avion) that we stopped at on the way back to our casa. We were still a bit sweaty and wet because the jungle doesn’t offer much in the way of drying you off, but we were in the shade with a nice breeze. The restaurant was partially made out of an old bomber plane placed high up on a cliff overlooking the ocean. The main part of the plane was a bar area, and you know Mattix couldn’t resist climbing up into the cockpit to check out the controls. We all got a cool drink (oddly enough I got a margarita, and Jill got a beer) and sat down to enjoy the view. There was a lush jungle that dropped off quickly to the ocean, with an island right off of the coast. We even saw some people parasailing out in the distance.

The kids each got burger and fries and Jill and I, always excited to get fresh seafood when we are near the ocean, got the Seafood Curry and Seafood Linguine. This was probably the best meal I had in Costa Rica. Jill had a bit of left over Curry, but I ate every last drop of my Linguine and soaked up the sauce with my garlic bread. The kids were also happy with their drinks and meals.

We made the drive back with full bellies. Once back at our casa, we took showers and spent a little time in the pool. It was another amazing sunset and we were even visited by a couple of toucans that night.