Manuel Antonio National Park

Wednesday morning, we had breakfast at the hotel. It was complimentary, but the continental breakfast consisted of some toast – not very filling. I learned my lesson and got the Costa Rican breakfast the following morning. After breakfast, we headed into town and met Ro at the entrance to Manuel Antonio National Park. It was incredibly crowded, but thanks to Ro, we were able to get in relatively quickly. Even early in the morning, it was very hot and humid so we picked up an extra water from one of the many vendors along the road heading into the park. Entering the park on the main road, almost immediately we saw some white-faced caphuchin monkeys frolicking about in the trees.

About half-way down the road, we took the Sendero Paralelo trail and saw a deer just off the boardwalk.

At the end of this trail, we came to the restrooms and the main beach in the park, Playa Manuel Antonio, and it was tremendously crowded.

Ro suggested we go to another beach, just a short ways away. There was almost no one here at Playa Espadilla Sur!

It was just great to have someone show us all the local tricks so we could concentrate on just enjoying our vacation. For an hour or so, we pretty much had the beach to ourselves. We dropped our stuff in the shade and headed out into the water to cool off. At least one person stayed on shore with our stuff while others were in the water. This was intended to ward of human thieves, but there was another type of thief at this beach.

A pair of raccoons came out of the woods and started going through unattended backpacks. They worked as a team and quickly got the bags opened and rummaged through them for food.

The raccoons were fairly aggressive, but would flee when sand was kicked at them. I walked around on the beach for a while getting pictures, taking a dip in the ocean when I got hot.

After a couple of hours on the beach, Sandy and I headed off on a hike around the park. We went to Playas Gemelas, a double beach separated by volcanic rocks.

While I was taking some pictures of the beach, Sandy found a huge black iguana.

We then continued on to the overlook for Playa Punta Escondido beach. The path leading down to water level was blocked off for safety, but we had lovely views of the small bay.

We then started making our way back. There's no food in the park and it was well past lunch time, so we were all getting hungry. I made a quick detour on the Sendero La Catarata, but this waterfall is seasonal and it was too dry to be flowing.

As we were almost out of the park, we saw some Costa Rican squirrel monkeys in the trees just overhead, picking fruit to eat.

They were really cute! We left the park and headed back to Gemelas for lunch again. They had good food and great service so we decided to eat here again, since it was conveniently close to the park entrance. After lunch, we got picked up to go kayaking in the mangrove forest. The driver took us out to the put in on Rio Paquito at Isla Damas.

There was a delay in transport, so we got started late and it was already nearing sunset. But the views along the river were absolutely gorgeous as the sunlight was fading.

Shortly after getting on the water, we spotted a beautiful white heron in the shallow water.

We paddled down a ways and headed into the mangrove forest. Our guide gave us some information about the different types of mangroves in Costa Rica.

We didn't get a lot of time in here before it got dark, so soon we started paddling back. As we were going, a large swarm of bats flew overhead. By the time we got back to the put-in, it was completely dark. We pulled our boats of the water and got back in the van and our guide took us to dinner at Rancho Leon. After dinner, we headed back to the hotel. Sandy got a massage while I swam in the pool. Then, we started getting our stuff packed up.