Saturday, December 28

We had a full day!  We had to get up early and out on the van by 7:30 to beat the heat and the holiday crowds to Manuel Antonio Park, a true gem.  We had a naturalist join us who was absolutely incredible; he was able to spot things which no one in our group could see!  Once he saw things, he could point us to them, but it took us all a long while to see what he saw in an instant.

The park has a very long path through it, and the variety of plants, birds and animals is astonishing.  Here are sample of some of the things I was able to capture in photos:

Here’s a video of leaf cutter ants who carry enormous pieces of leaves back to their den where the leaves grow a fungus which is what the ants live on.  It’s a cooperative venture with long lines of ants going to and fro:

Sorry, the video won't upload.  Later!

There’s an amazing variety of lizards; this one changes color like a chameleon, but is not a chameleon (I forget its name):

Groups of Howler monkeys are in the trees; we saw a number of families:

The spiders are phenomenal.  Here’s one about five inches long in its web:

We saw both two-toed and three-toed sloths; guess which one this is:

Our hike ended at the Manuel Antonio beach one of the most beautiful beaches we’ve ever seen.  The water is warm and very clear and the swimming is great.  We spent about 1 ½ hours at the beach:

There is a population of thieves at the beach: White-faced or Capuchin Monkeys.  They’re everywhere and they steal anything that’s not tied down looking for food.  If what they steal has no food, they simply toss it away.  This applies to cameras, fanny packs, etc.  We had to be careful!:

Finally we had a lovely lunch and came back to the hotel for R&R at the pool:

That's Josh making a big splash off of the slide.

We arrived at our room to shower and get ready for dinner and found a group of whiteface monkeys on the roof of the room below us, just in front of our balcony.  They were picking unripe coconuts (easy to open) and eating the fruit as well as drinking the coconut milk just a few feet from us:

From 4-6 PM is happy hour; Pina Colladas are 2 for 1.  (Josh’s are “virgin” Pina Colladas) and we enjoyed them as we watched the sun set over the Pacific. Dinner was fresh mahi-mahi, truly yummy.

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