Costa Rica Thurs 25 Nov 2010

Costa Rica Thurs 25 Nov 2010

Multicereal with raisens with milk plus filter coffee for diy breakfast on the balcony of our Quepos accomodation with some of the group. Then a 15 minute public bus ride to Manuel Antonio which turns out to be a delightful beach front community of restaurants, bars, shops and hotels. The beach itself is sandy and crescent shaped in a glorious setting of rocky outcrops and islands.

Also in Manuel Antonio is the entrance to the National Park of the same name. With some trepidation I enter the Park with Sally and Cheryl who got us all lost in Cahuita earlier in the tour. However, there are many other tourists on the main track so I feel quite safe. We see iguana of all sizes, often suddenly darting off from very near us as we disturb them sunning themselves on this beautiful day. Then a sloth high up in a tree. Butterflies and birds all around us. When we arrive at the first beach in the Park, we find it infested with capuchin monkeys and racoons whose sole objective is to steal anything edible from us gullible tourists. They are fun to watch but they are very naughty.

I ask Cheryl to take a photo of me on the beach, I have to go back, back, and back a bit more and she takes the picture just as the wave engulfs my boots and fills them with water. Ho Ho.

We pass several more glorious beaches which I plan to come back and enjoy later in the holiday. Then we follow a nature trail around a headland and sure enough the girls lead me into a quagmire of boggy ground. Much of the track and its steps have been washed away or damaged by the recent heavy rains so we have to be slow and careful as we negotiate our way around. But wow is it worth it. Not only is this forested headland an entrancing place of beauty, it is full of wildlife. We see several groups of howler monkeys, a woodpecker working its way up a tree pecking away only feet from us, an agouti which we watch and film for maybe 10 minutes, and more capuchins, birds and butterflies.

This time we do not get lost and eventually find ourselves back on a beach, after negotiating the final stretch of path which has totally disintegrated into a river that we have to jump accross. Here we watch a capuchin hop over to a towel left unattended by a couple who had walked down to the waters edge. The monkey flicks through the pages of the book as if he is assessing it for readability and whether it is worth stealing. I shoo him away. Back at the first beach I watch a racoon lift the lid if a rubbish bin with one hand and reach in with the other to retrieve a piece of bread that it runs off with in triumph.

We leave the Park very happy with our close encounter with nature today. This is such an entrancing place, I will definitely want to make a return visit next week.

Dinner is in a restaurant opposite the bus station in Quepos, portugese grilled chicken, I choose it to find out what it is. The squid and mushroom sauce turns out to be delicious if unusual and the chicken is perfectly cooked and tasty.

All the Best,
John