After breakfast, our transfer ride picked us up for the five-hour drive to our hotel next to Manuel Antonio National Park on the Pacific side of Costa Rica. The driver kindly stopped at a couple of places along the way. The first was a restaurant/plant nursery/butterfly garden. The garden was lush and bright and even had "Pura Vida" created with plants.
The butterflies proved to be allusive and mostly escaped our attempts to take their photograph.
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| Dan trying to photograph a Blue Morpho Butterfly |
Another chance to stretch our legs was a little farther on at the "Crocodile" bridge. I counted at least a dozen crocodiles sunning or swimming below the bridge.
The crocs stay because they are fed and the souvenir shops at the bridge survive because of the crocs. It is a croc-driven economy.
Just a little further up the river from the bridge are watermelon fields where the best melons in all of Costa Rica are found.
Finally, we arrived at Arenas Del Mar and our room. The hotel is the only property which has both beach and rainforest.
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| The pool at reception and the ocean view beyond |
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| The view from our balcony |
We had ceviche on the beach and watched a sloth in the tree above us. The temperature was perfect.
Back at the reception lobby, we watched the "mafia" half-heartedly try to infiltrate the restaurant. Hotel staff refers to the capuchin monkeys as the mafia.
The next morning we went on a walking tour of Manuel Antonio National Park.
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| Howler Monkey |
We saw both three-toed and two-toed sloths in the park. Mostly, just the back of each. They spend a lot of time just hanging when they aren't eating.
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| A Sloth |
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| Tent-making Bat |
Tent-making bats chew on the center leaf vein to cause the leaf to fold in half forming a tent that the bat can call home.
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| Common Spiny-Tailed Iguana |
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| The beach at Manuel Antonio National Park |
Back at our hotel, we planned to have lunch on the beach and swim, but first we stopped in at the hotel's front entrance to check on the sloth that has been hanging out in the trees. We got very lucky. She was there and so was her baby. They were both hanging out separately and then the baby got into her arms and they moved, slowly, slowly to a more distant tree. She was amazingly graceful and like a lithe gymnast as she transferred herself and baby from branch to branch. We watched her for about an hour until she moved beyond our vision.
Finally, at lunch on the beach, an iguana tried to invite himself to our luncheon. He was very persistent but once the food was gone, he confirmed and left.
After our swim, we went for a walk around the grounds on the hotel's short trail through the rainforest and down to the public beach. This is where the surfers hangout. The surfers pointed out two sloths but they were so deep into the trees that they were barely visible.
On the way back we met up with some capuchin monkeys running amok through the rainforest. The capuchin mafia is the reason why all the cupboards on the room balconies have locks. They really like the sugar packets.
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| Capuchin Monkey |
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| Agouti (2nd largest rodent in Costa Rica) |
Walking back toward our room after walking the hotel's grounds, one of the service employees found us and pointed out a huge bird perched deep in the trees. It was identified as a Double-toothed Kite.
The next day, Dan's birthday, we woke to rain--lots of it. There was so much rain that the tour operator that was supposed to take us snorkeling cancelled and rescheduled for the next day. So we had the entire day to ourselves but it was raining.
We got a ride to the nearby "big" town of Quepos. We strolled the walkway along the estuary, the marina, and the town while it wasn't raining too much, and took a taxi back to the hotel.
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| Estuary and Ocean beyond |
Back at the hotel, the restaurant and lobby were being invaded by squirrel monkeys. They are small, mighty, thoroughly brazen, and fun to watch.
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| At the sink in the bar |
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| "Give Me Food" |
Despite the all day wet weather, the sunset was glorious, and we enjoyed just being in Costa Rica.
We did snorkel the next day. Our driver/guide picked us up at 7 am. Biesanz Beach was less than a half mile away. Once outfitted with our snorkeling stuff, we walked into the water and swam out to some rocks where the fish were. The visibility was terrible but we could see them. The sun as hidden by threatening clouds so we both were cold after about 1.5 hours in the ocean.
Back at the hotel we finished packing and cleaned up. At noon our ride took us back to San Jose with a stop at a San Jose clinic for our pre-departue Covid test. We overnighted at the Grano Del Oro the same hotel we stayed at when we arrived. It is a beautiful Victorian built in the 1910s. It was beautifully decorated for Christmas.
The next morning, our last day, we walked to San Jose's Central Park to get a little exercise before sitting for hours on two planes.
We thoroughly enjoyed everything about this vacation. Having someone do all the planning relieved so much vacation stress. For the tours and when we were to move on to another location, our transfer ride was always there on time. Without the planning stress, I felt so relaxed.
Particulars:
Mandy at DPPTravel - Mandy was easy to work with and the agency has great contacts.
Local Tour Company:
We really enjoyed our tours with Rainforest Explorers in Fortuna. Both guides we had were extremely competent as guides and excellent naturalists. After spending the volcano walk with Minor at Rainforest Explorers, he was the person who suggested that we might like the Caño Negro boat tour even though it was not their tour. We contacted Costa Rican Trails (the local operator of our tour) and they made the Caño Negro boat tour happen for us.
Hotels: All the places we stayed were magnificent and beyond our expectations. They had a 100% vaccination rate. Pacuare Lodge accepted only vaccinated tourists. This month, businesses could begin requiring customers to show proof of vaccination status.
Costa Rica seems to be doing something right in preserving lands and protecting their top industry. In the 70s only about 12% of the country was protected lands. Now the figure is about 56%. The government pays landowners to not clear all their land. Tourism, including medical tourism, is the top industry followed by exports of fruits and flowers. Other significant industries are tech call centers and manufacturing of medical devices for export.
In 1948, Costa Rica abolished their military, and they spend more on education than the world average. Hunting is illegal and it is illegal to possess a wild creature-even a bird.
For Dan and me, this was our Disneyland. We love seeing and learning about all aspects of nature.
