A Way to Remember My Trips: Costa Rica Part 2

Day 4
While we were in Dominical the previous day we stopped by a Tourist Information office and asked about tours of Manuel Antonio National Park. We booked with Tico Tours for the next day and had to be there at Manuel Antonio 7:45am on Saturday. Given that the park was 45 minutes from Matapalo we had to get up and leave very early! Apparently only a limited number of people can get in at a time so if you arrive late you have to wait in line until people leave. Also, it was super hot by the time we left!

Getting up this early had a perk though since we finally heard and saw all the capuchin monkeys running around the groups. There were a few babies too! I saw one grab a bunch of bananas from a tree, throw them to the ground and then climb down to get them and run off. I'm sure the locals see this stuff everyday but it was really cool.

We talked to the owner Charlie the night before about having breakfast ready for us around 6:40. I thought we communicated that we needed to LEAVE by 7am but apparently not since breakfast was ready right at 7am. Brandon managed to eat his really quickly but I just took mine to go in the car. All of the rush to leave resulted in Brandon forgetting his hiking boots but luckily the park was mostly a gravel path so he was fine in his Tevas.

We got close to the park and a nice helpful person told us to park on the side of the road and the park was "only a few blocks away" and that when we came back to get the car we would have to pay 3000 colones (about $6) for parking. I had never read about this scam before but luckily a park ranger down the street told us to move our car and there is "official" parking right by the park entrance, which was certainly not a few blocks away.

So we got to the official parking lot and found our tour office. We were a bit later than 7:45am but I guess this didn't really matter since our group was just us 4 and then another couple from Washington state. There are tons of other small groups that walk through at the same time so it's kind of a huge cluster of people but there was tons of wildlife to see. The guide carries a scope and you can look through and see really well. I never would have seen all the animals on my own so a guide is pretty necessary. We didn't know the tour ended at two beautiful beaches so we didn't bring our suits but you should if you go! I guess the beaches are a hot spot for locals so lots of people walk through the park just to go to the beach.

Capuchin monkeys are all over the park and very easy to see.

The beautiful beach at the end!

We also saw a few sloths in the park. They rarely move so the guide said they're typically in the same spots.

A deer munching on plants a the side of the trail.

Driving up to the park there are tons of restaurants and hotels. One was in/near a huge plane stuck in the forest? How does a huge plane get up the mountain? Anyway were tried to go there but it was 11:30 and I guess that's too early for lunch in Costa Rica so it was closed. We ended up at the aptly named Black Cat across the street which was nothing like the Black Cat in DC.

Since we drove through Quepos on the way home we tried to go to the ATM again to get dollars but there was none available. We stopped at a bakery and I had a delicious cake pop type thing then we went to the market next door and I found this Trident Herbal gum which I was very curious about. It turns out it tastes exactly like Halls which I hated at first but now I really like it a lot so I bought some extra to bring home.

For dinner we went back to Dominical to go to a taco place that had grilled tofu tacos I was super excited about. They were almost worth the 45 minute wait. There was this super weird hippie night market there with a band playing. You could get henna tattoos or buy some crystals. The band was pretty annoying and sounded exactly like what you would imagine an ex-pat hippie night market band would sound like.

Day 5
We were tired of breakfast at our hotel/guesthouse so we tried a soda for breakfast. The communication (and welcoming from the cook) were a little questionable but eventually the food came out and it was not too bad. I got toast, scrambled eggs with black beans and I'm totally confident we paid tourist prices.

Afterwards we went to Reptilandia which is basically a zoo but just for reptiles. Also they have wifi which was awesome.

A monitor at Retilandia.

Aptly named snake-necked turtle.

We decided to drive a bit farther south for lunch in Uvita. This is the town where we would have left from to go whale watching but the tour guide I spoke to basically told me we wouldn't see whales so I decided not to pay $90 to go see dolphins (it's billed as a whale and dolphin watching tour!). I still really want to see whales but I guess I need to do research about when/where to go to see them.

In Uvita (which seemed like just a bunch of strip malls?) we tried another ATM but again there were no USD so we ended up just paying Charlie via Paypal. We went to a place for lunch and then headed back. Everyone else went to the beach but I was still pretty badly sunburned so I relaxed in the hammock, read and took a bunch of bird pictures. I determined we have no less than 3 iguanas living in the roof of our house. I think it was 2 small females and then one VERY LARGE (probably about 3 feet?) male.