Costa Rica - Day Eight

The history of Manuel Antonio National Park is kind of interesting. It was originally slated for development into a beach resort, and was turned into a national park kind of at the last minute before they were about to start building. The park is very popular, and has been receiving all sorts of pressure from too many people and too much development nearby, so the park has started limiting the number of visitors to the park per day. As a result, it's important to get there early - get there too late and they may have reached their daily quota and you won't be able to go in. Sergio was well aware of this and therefore said that we had to leave early in the morning in order to ensure that we'd be able to enter. Breakfast was thus at 6am - an hour earlier than the restaurants usually open, so the hotel set out a "continental breakfast" for us which actually had a fair amount of food...after a while. They were still bringing out food as we arrived. We were on the road by 6:30AM, with a much diminished group of people on the tour bus. So diminished that we were able to spread out and put our bags on seats with no problems.

From a distance perspective, Manuel Antonio wasn't actually a 2 hour drive from the Doubletree's location on the Dona Ana beach in Puntarenas. However, there were two old bridges along the way that were one-way, rickety, weight-limited bridges, which severely gated the amount of traffic that could pass through. Both bridges were in the process of being replaced - we saw the construction on the neighboring bridges, but both were still the only bridge in use over their respective rivers at this time. Apparently these bridges were originally built for the railroad. Sergio said that, depending on traffic, you could get held up half an hour waiting to cross the bridges, which added considerable amount of time to the trip.

As we drove south, part of the time, we were driving right along the Pacific coast, giving us a beautiful view of the gorgeous blue ocean, starting first with the Golfo de Nicoya (which was where our hotel was located) with the Peninsula de Nicoya opposite. At times, we went inland where we could see the hilly countryside and the mountains in the distance, plantations with all sorts of fruits and plants, etc. Our drive took us by the Carara Biological Reserve, apparently, where there was supposed to be a huge variety of tropical birds, particularly the scarlet macaw. Apparently this is one of the few places in the world that the scarlet macaw nests. I'm not sure if we were by the reserve at the time, but we did get lucky enough to see (thanks to either Sergio or Marcos' eagle eyes) two scarlet macaws in a tree by the road. Marcos stopped the bus so we could gawk at the beautiful brilliant red birds for a while - really pretty, and really neat to see in the wild. We also crossed over the Rio Tarcoles, or the river of crocodiles, where you can often see crocodiles sunning themselves...and sure enough, as we crossed, we saw a group of 8 crocodiles, lying on the banks or partly submerged in the water. Then, as we kept staring, we noticed another crocodile closer in the water...and then another pair swimming practically under the bridge. That was neat.

We got lucky on the way there - the first bridge hardly detained us at all, and the second only a little longer, so we arrived in Manuel Antonio after only about an hour and a half. Sergio had to get our tickets, but he managed to get us all in. From the park entrance, we had to cross a short expanse of beach, and then climb up a path over a hill well-worn by people's feet, before emerging on a beautiful beach on the other side. We then had about a 15-20 minute hike over the first beach, through the forest a bit, and down a path to I *think* the second beach (possibly the third) where we staked out a picnic table on which we put our stuff, while Sergio kept an eye on it for us. Apparently the danger here wasn't human thieves so much as monkey thieves. Sergio emphasized we shouldn't bring food in because the monkeys would be bold enough to run by and steal bags up into the trees to get at the food. Before we could get to the picnic table, though, my family ended up lagging rather far behind as we took photos of the beach. My little sister got distracted when she noticed that each time the tide went out, there were distinctive little marks on the beach that would suddenly suck in and disappear, like something was pulling in. Remembering when we'd gone clam hunting on a beach elsewhere, where you could tell where the clams were by the air bubbles they let up as they burrowed into the sand, she started digging to try to find the clams. Feeling bad because Sergio was trying to get us to move while keeping an eye on the rest of the group, way ahead of us, I started moving before she found anything. Turns out the depressions in the sand weren't from clams, but from snails. My sister has pretty sharp eyes - she also spotted most of the wildlife in Tortuguero, seeing monkeys even before the guides did.

On my way to the picnic area, I saw a group of people staring up into the trees, and found out they were looking at a night heron of some kind up in the trees. I'm not sure I ever actually spotted that one. Moving on, I saw another group of people gathered (there were rangers carrying telescopes everywhere, and tours being conducted) and got a quick glimpse of what they were looking at as it ran by - I think it was an agouti or something like that. Further down the path, a family of raccoons were nosing their way down the path - in fact, they got to the picnic area not long after me, and spent some time poking around the area. There were two main choices for the Manuel Antonio area, as far as activities went - lounging on the beach/playing in the water, and hiking on the trails around the beaches. Since I'd heard there was a lot of wildlife in the area, and since I'm not huge on the beach lounging, I really wanted to try the hiking out. I should note, though, that we had been advised to wear hiking boots if we wanted to hike, but we'd only brought our sandals...definitely not the right shoes.

Sergio directed us to a trail that led from our beach which I think led to the next few beaches (there are five total in the Manuel Antonio area, though I think only three or four are actually in the park), but also led to an overlook where you could see the cliffsides that had sheared off along fault lines. As we started up the path, we were quickly distracted by a group of people looking up into the trees - a 3-toed (I think) sloth, just hanging out in a tree fairly near the path. This one was fairly well-hidden in the tree. After gawking at it (and snapping some photos) for a while, we decided to move along since there was quite a crowd gathering and we didn't have all that much time to do the hike and enjoy the beach. Moving on, we next saw an agouti (now I'm not sure the first one I saw was an agouti) - kind of a cross between a rat and a rabbit - peering at us from between the trees above the trail. The next big brown mass we saw in a tree was a termite nest, I think, bigger than any animal we'd seen.

As we climbed the trail, we came across some people stopped and looking at the side of the trail. When they told us there were monkeys, I assumed they were high up in the trees or far off into the forest, and was quite surprised when I saw a couple white-faced monkeys sitting quite close in the trees, staring back at us. Initially, the monkeys we saw were just lounging on tree branches and the forks of trees, but then one crossed over to the other side of the path, and then started climbing down a tree trunk right next to the path. It was literally only about 3 feet away from us. There were a few kids who had stopped as well who almost went up and touched it, but it moved along and stared at us from another tree right next to the path. I had never been that close to a monkey before, but the path was getting a little bit crowded as other people stopped to watch, and we still had a ways to go to the lookout, so I reluctantly moved on.

Along the way, my bf spotted a beautiful lizard (possibly a gecko) in the leaves along the path (I am no good at spotting wildlife, someone else always has to see it and point it out to me). The path grew steeper and slippery, and my sister (who was wearing slip-on sandals without straps) and my parents eventually turned back. We went on, though, and finally managed to reach the overlook. In some ways, the overlook's view was a little disappointing because Sergio had made it sound like we'd see these amazing sheer cliff faces that were very obviously split along fault lines, but what we saw looked a bit more normal cliffs. However, it was a nice point from which to observe another couple of beaches to the south beyond the peninsula the overlook looked at, as well as to get a nice panoramic view of the ocean. It was also really hot, since it was out in the sunlight and we'd just been climbing for a while.

After enjoying the view for a while, the overlook was getting a bit crowded and we still wanted to hit the beach, so we turned and went back. The path was quite narrow so there was quite a bit of maneuvering and standing aside to let people pass as we passed people coming the other way. It was also worse being slippery on the way back - always more of an issue when you're descending rather than ascending - so we made very slow progress. We did spot the same lizard on the way back as on the way up, though it'd moved to the other side of the path. As we reached the area where we'd seen the monkeys before, we discovered that the dynamics had quite changed. I don't know if some of the other people (maybe the kids who were there before) had pissed off the monkeys or what, but they were definitely on edge. As we approached the area, two monkeys ran out on the path ahead of us to assume a defensive or threat/attack stance - one on top of the other, both facing us with fangs bared. This gave us pause, we stopped to take photos, but also because we weren't quite sure how to react. The top monkey got distracted after a bit and took off running down the path away from us, and the other soon followed. Turns out there was another hiker ahead of us - a lone woman - who had stopped to take photos, I think, but soon found herself accosted by several monkeys. The more we looked, the more monkeys we saw in the trees around us, all alert and working in concert. One monkey climbed out on a tree branch over the hiker, unbeknownst to her until it started throwing branches and things at her, baring its fangs and chattering at her. Another monkey started stalking down the path behind her as she stared at the first monkey, on all fours with back arched. Other monkeys started closing in on her. She initially stood her ground, looking at them like she wasn't believing what was happening, before she finally quickly walked out of the area. The monkeys looked quite angry and aggressive, and we looked around us to see more staring at us and climbing up trees. We each picked up a branch, just in case, and then moved quickly through the area, trying not to pose too much of a threat to them. Freaky. I'd originally thought it was really cool we got to see monkeys so close up, but I wasn't so sure after that!

As it turned out, my parents and sister saw even more interesting behavior from this same group of monkeys when they'd passed through the area earlier. One of the people on the path near them had a water bottle sticking out of his backpack, and one of the monkeys actually swung down and stole the water bottle, running away with it until everyone yelled and it dropped it. It sounded like the monkeys, when they saw them, weren't being quite so aggressive with their body language, but they were certainly being bold!

On the way back, my bf and I kept hearing a howler monkey that sounded really close, but could never spot it. We finally saw a group of people off the trail, on a side path that actually had a barrier across it, staring up into a tree. We joined them and finally spotted the howler monkey lounging on a tree above. As we watched, the monkey sat up and let out a big howl, maintaining that position for a while, before finally shifting back down until it once more lay along the branch. We kept watching it, hoping it'd sit up again and howl again, but a couple rangers came along and shooed us all out of the area. As we returned to the picnic area, we saw more people staring at the sloth so we stopped to look up at it, just to make sure nothing had changed, and finally got back to the picnic table. Here, we reapplied some sunscreen, stripped off our outside clothes, put away the camera, and went to the beach for the last 1/2 hour or so before we had to return to the bus.

The sand was white but not entirely clean and nice - lots of seaweed bits, coral bits, etc, that made it less pleasant to walk/sit on. The beach that we were on also wasn't particularly deep in terms of the amount of sandy area. Rather than trying to find a clear spot to sunbathe (it was too hot anyway), we plunged right into the water. I found it a nice temperature and quickly took to it, with the water helping to wash off the sweat and heat from our hike. It wasn't as salty as the water had been by Zihuatenejo in Mexico, where we'd gone the year before - not as buoyant by far - but it was mostly kind of nice to bounce up and down in the water, except when the salt overcame my contacts and I wasn't able to open my eyes for a while for the stinging. Our friend swam out further and ended up getting stung (mildly) by a small jellyfish. That guy got bitten by *everything* - he had more bug bites than anyone, and got bitten everywhere he went, even the ocean! My bf and I stayed further inland, where we could stand up if we needed to, and ended up chatting with one of the women from our tour group, a teacher who travelled a lot. This was a pleasant way to spend some time, but the 1/2 hour went by quite quickly, and we soon had to go back, dry off, and make our way back to the bus.

Before we could leave the area, we spotted another animal - this one a brown basilisk (I think) lizard. Quite a pretty specimen, sitting right on a wood pile next to the picnic area. We snapped a few photos of that one, and then started down the path back to the entrance. We were quickly distracted, however, by the discovery that a whole bunch of white-faced monkeys had come to the area, very likely to try to scavenge food from all the tourists. They were climbing the trees on the beach, walking down the paths, and going all over the place. One bold monkey jumped right onto a garbage can right on the path. The garbage can, which hung from a frame, was tied shut with a piece of string. The monkey was clever - it jumped straight up and down a couple times, and boom, the lid was open. It balanced on the swinging can, and obviously wanted to dig in and grab food, but everytime anyone came near (and it was right on the path so people were very close), it'd stand its ground and stare at the person, ready to defend its rights to the food in the can. In the meantime, other monkeys were overhead, dropping stuff out of the trees on people, helping to defend the monkey and his can. We didn't have time to stay and watch this play out, and continued on our way, though my bf did stop a ranger to let him know a monkey had broken into one of the garbage cans.

On our way from the entrance of the park to the bus, we passed by a bunch of stands selling all sorts of stuff - beach towels, dyed cloths, t-shirts, souvenirs, etc. One stand in particular drew our attention, selling meat skewers grilling on a bbq, but before we could decide whether or not to buy one, Marcos honked the horn and Sergio gestured for us to come back to the bus. Not quite sure why, since we were actually still a bit early. Instead of our freshly grilled meat skewers, then, we ended up with rather lame box lunches that they had brought from the hotel to the bus that morning - small ham and cheese sandwiches on crustless white bread, and a collection of fruit - half-green strawberries, a banana, an apple (whose sticker proudly proclaimed it to be from Washington state), and a kind of sour greenish orange. We were hungry enough to devour it, but the prospect of unlimited snacks from the snack bar sounded more and more appealing after we ate it.

The trip back was fairly subdued - almost everyone was sleeping, worn out from the sun and the early start. I tried to stay awake and look out the window, at one point spotting a cone-shaped mountain that looked like it had smoke coming out of it (though from a different angle, it appeared to be more of a cloud that had drifted near the peak). I was really tired, though, and finally gave in and slept as well. On the way back, we saw how lucky we were - we were held up a bit at one of the bridges but the traffic coming the other way stretched way back - just stopped cars and trucks in a long single-file line, waiting for their turn on the bridge. The line entering Manuel Antonio Park was also really long, so we very much thanked Sergio for getting us there so early so we didn't have to wait in line and risk being turned away (he said it'd happened only once before to a group he'd led). This time, we didn't see any macaws, but did spot another group of crocodiles (or maybe the same ones, moved further down the river) on the Rio Tarcoles. Eventually, we arrived back at the Doubletree hotel.

Since we were all rather hungry, after putting our stuff down, we quickly met up at the snack bar to feed ourselves. The food ended up being just ok - burgers and hot dogs of indifferent quality, as well as a big bin of arroz con beef ;) - looked like arroz con pollo, except with beef instead of chicken. It was good enough for us hungry people though. We also grabbed drinks from the outdoor bar. This drink was the reason I can no longer say I've never had a drink - I got a Coco Amore, like the one my sister had gotten the other day, except without the vodka. What I hadn't anticipated was that when you ask them to leave out an ingredient, they double up on another one to make up for it, and my bartender chose to double up on the amaretto. The alcohol taste was almost too overwhelming and unpleasant for me, but just on the border...for the most part the coconut and almond taste were enough to make it taste good to me. I was jealous though, when my sister came by later and saw what I got, she asked for a Coco Amore without vodka as well but *her* bartender made her one with double the coconut. I would have liked that better. After the beach and the eating, none of us really wanted to get in the pool (which also wasn't that clean looking), so instead we found some lounge chairs by the pool (inadvertently sitting near some tour group members). We ended up chatting with the two women, finding that they were both quite interesting, and one really funny. This was a nice relaxing time - we occasionally ventured across the way to get stuff from the bar (I got a virgin pina colada for my second drink), but otherwise just chatted or read, or relaxed.

As it got dark, we stopped to look at the sunset (not nearly as spectacular because the sky was completely clear), and then wandered into the lobby, which was well lit and had a number of comfortable chairs and low tables. We ended up whiling away the next couple hours playing cards in this relaxing setting. None of us were particularly hungry due to our late snacks, so we didn't end up getting dinner until quite late, where we joined the same two women we'd chatted with by the pool. Dinner that night was supposed to be French-themed, but I failed to see the French - they had the same pasta bar again, though this time they also had "crepes", though not crepes like I'd ever seen before - I guess you got filling for the shells and then they would heat it up in sauce. What was good was that they had fresh grilled steaks cut into strips, so we were finally able to eat a lot of beef (there was almost no beef on this trip - always chicken, pork, and fish). That's what we ended up primarily eating that night. The beef was definitely not the best I'd ever had - kind of tough - but it was a nice change. After dinner, we decided to skip out on the cultural show, since it was the same as the previous night's, and headed back to our rooms to rest and go to bed.