Manual Antonio National Park

On Tuesday, we made a last minute decision to book a tour to Manual Antonio National Park. One of the things we wanted to do while we were in Costa Rica was see a sloth. We asked around where we could see them and we were told that if we wanted a good chance of seeing them to go on this tour, so we decided to go. We loaded the bus at 8 in the morning and drove for about 1.5 hours to get there. We unloaded and walked over to the gates of the park and waited and waited and waited for them to let us in. After about 30 minutes, we asked what was going on. Our tour guide (who a really good guide) informed us that the park only holds so many people and it was full so we had to wait to until enough people came out of the park for our entire group (of 50) could go in. We ended up waiting well over an hour in order to get in! We were all ready to give up and head back to the beach somewhere instead when a large group came out and we were able to get in. At one point, the police were called because one tour group was getting a little out of hand and were eventually asked to leave! (We discovered that the Costa Rican tours weren't always very forthcoming about the tours: like you might not get into the park that day if it's full or you probably won't be able to see the volcano you drove for 4 hours one way to see). After all the wait, it was actually a really cool thing. We got to see lots of neat animals that we don't get to ever see.

Loaded on our bus and ready to go the Manual Antonio National Park.



Waiting, waiting, and waiting some more to get into the park. The line was all the way back about a block plus about 50 people in front of us.
 

 

There was some pretty good razor wire on top of the gate to the park.



Just inside the gates of the park, we found this little green frog hiding on the leaves.



Right after the frog, our guide spotted a sloth up in a tree. It was hard to find at first with the naked eye, but once we saw it through the telescope, it was easier to find.


One of the coolest things was to hear Howler Monkeys howling back and forth to each other. The one in this picture was sleeping, but his buddies sure had a lot to say!

Our tour guide telling us about the jungle.



Our group (my dad, mom, Christian, me, Jabin and Megan) right before we went "into" the jungle on a path. It was super hot under all the trees! There was NO air movement at all making us all really sweaty (like run down your back sweaty) and hot.
 

Ready to enter the jungle selfie!



A look at the sloth through the telescope. You could actually see it's face this way.

We loved these monkeys, but they come with a warning. Our tour group had to pile all their gear together and the tour guides guarded it while we went down to the beach because the monkeys will come and steal things out of the bags if they are left unattended! They are sneaky little guys!



A group of monkeys grooming each other.

The beach at the end of the walk was beautiful! We were happy to have some water to cool off in for a bit before we had to head back out of the park and have lunch.

These little grey crabs were all over the black rocks at the beach.

Megan, Jabin, my dad and Christian bobbing in the waves of the ocean.

Hermit crabs were all over the beach and rocks.

 

 

 

Christian and I went for a walk down the beach and discovered this really long snake. He wasn't very fat but sure was long.

These two were trying to redirect water that was bubbling out of the sand.

A big old iguana chilling on a rock.

This monkey had been eyeing this half eaten mango for a while and finally decided to make a run for it and steal it.

Enjoying his mango.

 

Monkey selfie! The dang monkey decided to run down the tree directly above our heads scaring us both!

 

 

 

We got to spend about an hour at the beach before we had to head back out on the trail.  We saw a few more cool things on our way back:

butterfly cocoons.

 A stick bug.

This was one big nasty spider with a huge web!

After we made our way out of the park, we had lunch at a little restaurant. They served tradition Costa Rican dishes to us. Christian and I both signed up for the fish with rice and beans and it was DELICIOUS! We had a traditional drink made from cas fruit (like a sour pear) and for dessert, we had vanilla ice cream served over chopped bananas, pineapple and mango in a sweet syrup! YUM!

Jabin, my dad, my mom, me, Megan, Christian, Mindy and Eric at lunch.

Our traditional Coast Rican meal!

 

This was a funny statue outside the little restaurant we ate at.

That night, we had dinner at a really good steak house down at the marina.