Two toed sloths actually move!

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Our initial bad impressions of Costa Rica´s capital, San Jose were confirmed on our way back through. We were almost mugged between the taxi and the hostal, a distance of only about 30 feet, in broad daylight! Scott saw it all coming when a man walking along suddenly ducked behind a parked van out almost of sight and started fiddling with his bulging sock, presumably getting ready to pull out a gun or knife! A passer-by across the street saw it all, too, and motioned to us to come back. We did, and the guy knew his cover was busted and so walked away, looking over his shoulder at us the whole time. Creepy! We got into the hostal and didn´t leave until we had to the next morning! The strange thing was that this was the only hostal I have ever stayed in (including South Africa!) which gives customers a wrist band to wear in order to be admitted to the hostal, eliminating the posibility of outsiders coming in and robbing the place!

The next morning we headed to the notorious Coca Cola bus terminal, keeping our belongings at very close quarters, and jumped on a bus to Quepos, the gateway town to Manual Antonio park. This turned out to be a really safe feeling town, which was great, and the park far exceeded our expectations, becoming one of our favourite parts of Central America. We started our day there with a hike in the forest. The price for a guide was pretty outrageous, so we just did what all of the other cheapskates were doing: guide hopped. In other words, we walked along following our map and every time we saw a tour group staring at a tree, we followed their gaze and pretty much got to see everything. The really good thing about it was that some of the groups had 15 or more people, and each wanted their digital camera placed against the telescope for a better photo. You can imagine how long that would take! At one point, we were looking at a green blob on a green leaf which was supposedly a frog. We took a look and moved on as you really couldn´t see much. One of the guys on the tour glumly looked at us and said, "I think we have a lot of froggers on this tour. I wish we could move on!"

Nevertheless, the groups were good for spotting sloths. We would never have spotted them on our own as they were so camouflaged. We sqw four in all, but the last one on our way out of the park was the best by far as it was actually moving, and moving at a rate that I didn´t know sloths were capable of! It itched itself rather a lot with its three toes and shifted position in the tree. Very cool! We even managed to spot some things for ourself. One was only what I can describe as a giant rat, rather like the quokkas in Australia. Another was a giant guinea-pig type thing, which I got a very grainy photo of.

The really nice thing about Manual Antonio park is that they have a really gorgeous beach for when you get tired of trekking through the hot humid forest. We tried to go to the supposedly gorgeous beach of Playa Escondido but found that it was just a pile of volcanic rocks at high tide. Since then, it became known to us as Playa Non Existo. Instead, we followed the crowds to Playa Manual Antonio. This was truly gorgeous. On the beach we continued to see animals. We saw a racoon trying to steal people´s lunches, and behind the beach in the trees were lots of active monkeys. Underneath a tree branch, rediculously camouflaged, were a group of about 20 sleeping bats. These we only spotted thanks to another tour group!

From there it was time to head back to Nicaragua to the coastal town of San Juan Del Sur. It felt nice to get back to Nicaragua as it seems more backward and less westernized (thus more interesting), and there are far less reports of crime. In fact, this was the only place so far in Central America where we found a beach, a few kilometers out of town, where we could actually go in the sea together and leave our stuff on the beach without worrying it would be stolen. It was a refreshing change! The beach itself was really nice, too, with soft sand and clear(ish) water. Although the town beach of San Juan Del Sur looks gorgeous in the photo, it was quite dirty and the fine sand whipped up and covered you constantly in grit, and made the sea super murky. Thank goodness for the gorgeous out of town beach.

Now we are back in the colourful colonial town of Granada, ready to catch a flight to our final destination of the trip together, the Corn Islands. After 16 months, it is hard to believe that the time has come for the final location...

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