The alarms went off at 5:30am, dressed, and went to breakfast. This was a really high class breakfast buffet with Bill declaring his waffle the best ever. I had some cereal and a banana and an egg Florentine on a polenta round. It was quite good. We had to sign a receipt even though it was included in the room. The charge was $55 for the two of us for breakfast!!!!!The buses took off for Manuel Antonio National Park at 7am - a one and a half hour drive. Cathy R and I talked cameras. We passed lots of hotels - some huge - that have never been completed due to the construction bust. We passed lots of African palm fields which replaced bananas after banana companies had labor problems in the 1950s and left the country. These palms are used for oil. We even saw truckloads of the basketball-sized spiny fruit that was in an Amazing Race challenge season 4.
We arrived at the entrance to Manuel Antonio at 8:40. The crowds were enormous. Everyone needed a potty break in the 2nd world bathrooms. Women had only 1 stall so it took a while. A local woman named Karen joined our group as our spotter and guide. She did an amazing job!!! As soon as we entered the park, a white-faced Capuchin monkey played in the trees down low right in front of us. Then we saw a neat tree iguana. Spotting animals in this dense forest is not easy. The trail was a .8 mil loop with the first half on a rock and dirt road about 15 feet wide. Most of the crowd went straight to the beach, so it didn't seem horribly crowded.
Karen found us a really cool zig-zag spider on his web and then a paper wasp nest high up in the canopy. We saw our first sloth which photographed as a dark blob high in the trees. The big sightings were some red-backed squirrel monkeys moving quickly from tree to tree. Just a bit farther we saw another sloth high up and I got a few better shots. Our next sighting was of 3 proboscis bats asleep high in a tree. I really loved seeing the green vine snake that was along the road. It was a really thin, solid bright green snake about 5' long. He almost came down on to the road towards us, but Karen herded him back into the woods where he moved quickly away.
Another really cool sight was a mama mantled howler monkey with a baby. I got a fairly decent photo of them since they were on a limb that was more open. We finally (after only a half mile of fantastic sightings) reached Manuel Antonio beach where many in our group were going to swim. However this beach was closed due to a croc sighting there that morning. So we continued to another close by beach, Espadilla Sur, where many in our group went for a swim.
I had brought my suit (Bill forgot his), but I just didn't want the hassle of changing from a wet suit back to dry clothes. The non-swimmers hunkered down on logs in the shade and tried to cool off. It really was bloody hot. When I went 10' to take a photo of our guides, a capuchin monkey unzipped my backpack, grabbed the plastic bag with my swimsuit and took off thinking there was food in the bag. Bill tried to stop it by swiping my hat at it but was unsuccessful. Luckily when the monkey discovered no food, he dropped the bag 5' away.
After a half hour at the beach, one of the guides, Jeff, led the non-swimmers back to meet the bus. There were a few vendors on the beach where the buses were, so I got a green coconut to drink, and Bill got a shave ice. The guy was hand-shaving the ice with an interesting tool. Bill and I both enjoyed our treats as a way to cool off.
A few more people arrived, and our bus took off for the Anaconda Restaurant a few miles down the road. Once again it was an open air restaurant high on a hill overlooking the Pacific. I got a watermelon smoothie recommended by Bernal. For lunch I got a warm fish wrap which was one of the best sandwiches I have ever had. The tortilla was fresh, the fish was fresh and tasty, and it also contained cream cheese, avocado, caramelized onions, and lettuce. The whole thing was grilled and then some wonderful sauce was drizzled over it. I ate the whole thing. The other two buses had arrived, so we were way ahead of them. After our plates were cleared, a waitress brought me (and only me!) a Tres Leche!!!! I had been bugging Bernal that I really, really wanted one, and so far no restaurant had it. I was ecstatic. It was soooooooooooooo good that I didn't care that I was the only one eating a dessert (and I didn't share!!!). In a few minutes the others got dessert menus, but no one in our first group ordered the Tres Leches. I did learn later that others down the table ordered it and loved it!!!!
We left for the hotel at 2pm. I was on the right side of the bus to get some pretty mountain photos. I also got a photo of dead palms. After about 25 years when the palms are no longer producing, the trees are injected with some kind of poison made from oranges, and the trees die. A whole section of dead trees/fronds made a neat photo.
We also saw a small pond with lots of wood storks and spoonbills. We got back to the hotel about 3:30. After going to the room, I went out to the unused massage huts to empty my shoes of sand. On the grass by the walkway was a cool looking ctenosaur.
We got cleaned up and went to dinner at 7. We sat with Cathy and Bill R, Judie and Stephen G, and Bernal. We had a lettuce corn salad. I had a small filet with ratatouille, and rice. For dessert we had some kind of crustless lemon meringue pie. Having dinner a little earlier was nice which gave us some time to relax.
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