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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Photos

Ken and Marsha at the park sign
Ken and Marsha spent the first week with us--they're the ones that braved the blizzard in Denver.

Our tour guide with telescope
She was very good about finding things in the jungle we would never have seen.

Poisonous snake
We were told that this is the most poisonous snake in Costa Rica. It was laying still just off the trail. It was a venomous pit viper known as a Fer-de-Lance. Looked a little like an AVIS rep to me.

Sloth
Look hard and you should be able to see the sloth sort of handing onto the tree.

Sloth through the telescope
This may have been another sloth but you can see it's face through the scope.

Kudamonday
It's about the size of a 50 pound dog. He was walking along a branch very near the trail.

Beach at Manuel Antonia
It is a pretty beach but we all decided that our beach at Bejuco is much better (and we don't have lots of people around).

Restaurant Mural
We had some excellent calamari and cervechi at a restaurant outside of Manuel Antonia. This was part of a mural on the wall.

One of many iguanas we saw
There are lots of iguanas in the park (and all over Costa Rica). Our favorite, of course, is Iggy--our friend that comes out of the drain pipe next to our pool.

Brown Pelican
This was perched on an island near the beach.

Uppps...a flat
A got a flat tire coming home. Jim and Ken managed to change it after we finally figured out where the jack was located and how to get the spare down from the back of the Nisson Pathfinder. The car info book was in Spanish but fortunately it had pictures.

Waiting for the sunset
We brought our Palomas (tequila and Fresca) to watch the sunset but it clouded up and didn't see it this night.

The boys in the pool at night
Jim and Ken in the pool

Comments

[Joy Carlet]

Looks like a wonderful time so far !!
Thanks for the update and pictures. Looks like you are really enjoying yourselves. I know you are enjoying the nice warm weather !!! Take care and will look forward to more updates and pictures when you send them. Don't get toooo spoiled :o)

[kcinkansas]

Thanks Joy
We really are enjoying everything....especially the weather and having friends here to share it with.

[Gloria]

keep pictures coming
fun to see the pictures of your trip....very interesting...slough maybe...poisonious snake not so much!!!!

[Britton]

Fun!
All looks like fun and great adventure. Not having the best of luck with tires this trip are you?! See you soon.