Blogs from Costa Rica, Manuel Antonio, Puntarenas, Costa Rica, Central America Caribbean

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 ... read more

Well we went to the restaurant Hicaco, in Jaco, to find that it was closed. So we headed to a restaurant in Herradura beach, called El Pelicano. Not only did I have the best seared yellow tail tuna I had every had, I also had a few of the best piña coladas ever made! Our dinner was delicious and we enjoyed the sunset right over the water. Yesterday could not have gotten any better! My dad and I rented a car and drove down to Manuel Antonio National Park. We went on a tour with a man named William, who was incredibly knowledgeable about all of the different animals in the park. He also had the unbelievable ability to spot insects and camouflaged animals that we would have never seen with our untrained eyes. After a ... read more

The blogging spirit has left me, I'm sad to say! :) We wore ourselves out yesterday and while it was awesome, recovery time was necessary. Here's our day, just a bit delayed. We got up in Quepos, had breakfast and caught the bus to Manuel Antonio National Park. It's $10 for foreigners (and like $3 for Costa Rican which I think is brilliant! A way to get locals to use the park (make it affordable) and have tourists take on some of the costs of conservation.) and you could follow a guide around if you wanted. Rachel and I opted to go it alone. What followed was a three hour nature hike on the muggiest day we've spent here. Not complaining, just saying. In the photos where I'm near water, it's safe to assume I was ... read more

So this weekend was a lot of fun. On Friday we went out to Bambu Jam to see live music and just get away from the school. It was a group of 5 teachers (all girls). We did dinner and drinks which was a ton of fun. I met a guy from Norway who was telling people we were twins becasause we were both blonde haired and blue eyed. He was funny. Saturday I slept in and did laundry and then went on a Mangrove tour. That was pretty cool. It was the group of girls again, and then 4 guys from the U.S who were just backpacking through. Karen and I met up with them later for drinks and between the guys (mostly from Colorado) and 2 Canadian girls, everyone decided that I had the ... read more

Costa Rica 2010 While in Annapolis for nephew John Water’s graduation from the Naval Academy in May 2009, we met several fantastic friends of the Waters family, from Nebraska, onboard our M/V Sea Echo which made the voyage from Ithaca New York for the occasion. Tom and Ann Schlosser, in casual conversation, invited us to Costa Rica and my bride, Patricia readily accepted. That cleared me to make the arrangements, no arm twisting required. In November I began getting itchy to get south, as in Central America, as in Costa Rica. 11/09/2009 - Arrange Flights - Time to burn up some frequent flier miles. I got us 4 first class round trip tickets from Philadelphia to San Jose, Costa Rica on Delta. Booked a house in Manuel Antonio http://www.manuelantoniovacationrentals.com/node/135 Arranged for a charter sail boat http://www.sailingcharterscostarica.com/ ... read more