Day 19. 21.4.16. Santa Elena/Monteverde to Manuel Antonio. GT day # 6.

Awake at 5.00. Up to check internet connection. Did a bit on blog yesterday, but unable to save as internet dropped out – no luck this morning either – work lost – grrrr!

Got organised and went over to foyer for breaky and learnt that there is no internet in the area at the moment.

A lovely young waiter at breaky who was eager to please. Fruit, eggs and biccies this am. I wandered around taking some flora/garden shots, also a shot of the Treehouse Restaurant and tree.

View of Santa Elena from the Restaurant of Ficus Sunset Suites.

A large bug I found in the grass on my morning wander. It was about 5cms long.

Lantana flowers.

Bouganvillea seeds.

Lantana.

Bouganvillea flowers.

Not sure what it is a Lily of some sort.

The Hotel sign.

The main building.

Looking into Santa Elena and The Treehouse restaurant we ate at last night. We were in under that tree.

Met by our old friend Carlos and new guide Ricardo. We drove towards Monteverde to Selvatura Hanging Bridges for a 2 hour hike through the cloud forest. Didn’t see a lot of critters, but did see Resplendent Questral – both a male and female and a Wattled Bell Bird. The forest was pretty good too.

Carlos heading across one of the many hanging bridges.

Statistics of one of the bridges.

Up above the canopy of the Monteverde Cloud Forest.

Resplendent Quetzal. 

and again.

The pair of Quetzals - Female on the left I think, Male with the tail.

The male about to fly off.

another of the signs.

Odd fruit of a tree in the canopy tops.

Looking over the canopy from one of the bridges.

Our crew on one of the bridges.

New growth.

Strange 'flower' hanging off the vines. The guide at our night walk called this "Monkey's ladder vine," but I don't think it is.

Three Wattled Bellbird.

You can clearly see two of the wattles in this shot.

Some berries.

A little Oriole I think.

Weird khaki coloured berries on orange stems.

A  yellow flower.

Blue dragon fly.

Then we returned to Santa Elena to collect Margot and check out. Into the van and back through Monteverde again – through several towns. Lunch at Playa (beach) Doňa Ana  with the White Faced Capuchin monkeys and a black sand beach. This is place where locals come to hang out at beach and feed the monkeys.

White Faced Capuchin Monkey.

Mother and baby.

Climbing.

Such wizened old faces.

Looks like an old man.

A young one with a handful of food.

Young one.

Mmm, now maybe I will just jump up there.

Not one to let an opportunity go by. Ready to raid unattended picnic gear.

Lazing around.

Mother carrying baby.

They were the most captivating subjects.

Hold on tight.

Grumpy. NO I will not smile at the camera.

This one was cracking some nut.

The beach was called Dona Ana. We ate lunch at the restaurant.

Black sand beach. Very popular spot for locals.

The Restaurant from the beach.

It was refreshing to be cool last night, the temperature up here in the hills is decidedly cooler at night, to the point there is no air con in the rooms and there was no need.

The walk in the cloud forest was warm, but not uncomfortably so. No clouds today though.

A day on the road today, after lunch we passed through Port Caldera – a major export port for Costa Rica. We also passed Sardinera – a large tuna and salmon processing factory.

The country here is super dry – drought like and suddenly we had rain on the windscreen, just as we arrived at the  Rio Tarcoles to view the crocodiles. 

I think Ricardo was keen for us to decline viewing the crocs, but we all donned our coats and stepped out into the sauna – phew!!! It soon cooled as the rain continued. We had to walk across the bridge spanning the river to look down upon the crocodiles. They were pretty damn huuuge. They gather here due  to the sardine factory upstream, they feed on the residue pumped into the river.

Two of the many large crocs. The one on the left has lost half of its top jaw.

Just hanging around.

Hard to show how big they were without anything to compare.

By the time we were on the other side, the sun popped out to shine on the water.

Crossing the river in the rain...all coated up. Suzie, Jeannie, Margot and Ricardo (on the road)

We met Carlos in the van on the other side and jumped back in to continue – a bit of an adventure, poor Ricardo was soaked, he was the only one without a coat.

Today we have been travelling through the province of Punta Arenas, through towns: Jaco – sport surfing location fishing and, Parrita and Quepos.

We travelled through Palm Oil Plantations and past a refinery and finally into Manuel Antonio and our hotel – Coste Verde around 6 – 6.30.

The bigger of the two beds, complete with Swan towel sculpture.

Bathroom, note the green light. Most of the lights around this resort are made from bottles. They look great.

The other end of the room. The light fitting made for an ideal clothes drying rack.

The balcony, complete with four rocking chairs.

Looking from the balcony back into the room.

Carlos and Ricardo have to return to San Jose tonight, which makes for almost a 20 hour day for them.

The hotel room is amazing, with views out across the bay, there is a huge balcony, self-contained room with a queen and a double bed.  Suzie is next door, we sort of share a balcony. The others are in another section, with less stairs for Margot – though I’m not sure this was really the case.