Manuel Antonia Park

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We drove to Manuel Antonia Park which is about a 40 minute drive. It's a relatively small park but one that I'd heard a lot about and a place we shouldn't miss. We hired a guide to help us see more animals and take us through the park. She brought along a telescope to see some of the things up close. We saw monkeys, sloths, a poisonous snake, some red eyed frogs (although the one I looked at through her scope just looked like a green blob on the underside of a leaf), and a type of racoon called a kudamonday. We don't have any good monkey photos from this trip...they're very fast and up in the trees. I got a lot of trees but hard to see the monkeys in the pictures I took.

We were actually a little 'under whelmed' with the tour. Very wide trails with LOTS of people with and without guides but the monkeys were fun and the beaches were pretty.

On the way back back, we had the most of fun. After passing over a small bridge that had been recently repaired, we noticed a strange sound. Took a minute or so to realize that our tire was going flat. After a harrowing experience on the side of a busy two lane (well sometimes two lanes forced into three by passing drivers), we changed the tire and proceeded into Parrita to have the bad tire repaired. $8 and 30 minutes or so later, we were back on the road to Bejuco. Jim and Ken were really impressed by the speed and ability of the tire repair guy. I think this was what he did all day long as tires are repaired more than replaced here until there is no tread left to repair. If this sounds familiar to you, then you may be ready for the Costa Rican road race.

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