Day 20. 22.4.16. Costa Verde Hotel, Manuel Antonio National Park Tour. GT day # 7.

A’la carte breaky at Coste Verde, so we had to order a bit more carefully. 

Early morning view from the balcony across the bay.

Glenda is having the morning off, as she has also picked up the cold.  That leaves four of us heading off to catch our little bus to join  an Iguana Tours walk at Manuel Antonio National Park – our guide today is Andre, complete with telescope. There are 8 in our English speaking group – a couple from Israel, Some Brits we three (Margot is taking it easy and meeting us at snack at end of walk)  and a girl from NY – with the most amazing hair, all plaited and still wet in a towel.  Margot came in the bus and sat at the entrance to the National Park and watched the many people entering the park this morning.

We took two hours to walk a twenty minute walk, to the beach. Along the way we saw:

• Tiny lizard
• A Basilisk Lizard
• White Striped Bats
• A giant grasshopper pupae
• A two toed sloth
• A baby three toed sloth
• Dragon fly
• White breasted Black Wren
• Baby Iguanas
• Capuchin Monkeys eating Green iguanas
• Raccoons at the beach.
• Pretty nice white sandy beach and I got my feet wet in the Pacific.

The tiny lizard.

Sloth.

A basilisk lizard maybe.

Another sloth

Just hanging upside down,...as they do.

Monkey eating a Green Iguana.

You can see the bits of lizard more clearly here.

You can see lizard legs and tail. I think the monkey started by eating the head and sucking the guts out.

Looking, ready to make the jump.

Such wizened faces on these Capuchin Monkeys.

Hanging on the wire.

There are 3 dots on the tree trunk...that's the White Striped Bats.

 A brown lizard.

A green iguana...yup, just like the Monkey was eating.

Sloth hanging upside down.

Raccoons on a tree at the beach.

They were sort of fighting, sort of playing.

The beach at Manuel Antonio NP.

That's my feet, wet in the Pacific.

Looking the other way along the beach.

Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio.

We then walked back along a shady track and out of the National Park along the road to a café  where we met Margot and had a most welcome cool drink and some fruit.

A baby sloth on our return journey.

They have the absolutely cutest little faces. The eye markings make them look very cute.

Looking away.

Looking back at us.

Hanging around.

Maybe it is sleeping.

The walk was good, but man it was hot and humid – dripping sweat. There was an occasional breeze that saved the day. Most of the critters were small or well camouflaged and could only be seen through Andre’s telescope so photos will probably be not that great.

Back to the hotel and off to the Adult only pool near Jeannie, Glenda and Margot’s room. It was deliciously cooler than the outside but not cold with lovely views over the bay – Playa Espadilla – to paragliders.

Paragliders out over the bay.

Glenda was on her balcony and had noticed a sloth in her tree, not 2 metres away. Up we went, turns out it was a 3 toed sloth with a baby on board and so close to hand too. 

Looking down over the pool to the bay from Glenda's balcony.

Glenda's sloth and baby.

Again with that look.

You'd swear it was smiling at us. Check out those toes too.

Just hanging around with the baby sound asleep in its lap.

And again.

Hanging on, A three toed sloth this one.

The bottles were used for lights, here the bottoms of bottles are used in the wall, plus full bottles on their side at the top. Very effective it was.

Many colours, shapes and sizes.

Looking back from the pool to our rooms, that's our balconies on the top floor of the building on the left. Suzie top left, me top right. The other building to the right is the Anaconda Restaurant.

Lolled around the pool for a bit then back to room for a shower before lunch at Hotel Café Anaconda. I arrived at lunch at 1.59 only to learn that the kitchen closes at 2.00. Ordered 2 nachos to share.

This is evidently he most prized room in the place. A plane that is a hotel room.

Then back to the room for a couple of hours before heading out at 5.00. Spent the time blogging. Heard some thunder, but no evidence of a storm. Ran out of the room at 4.55 to find Spider Monkeys right at my balcony and door. Shot off a few frames and raced to the stairs to chase the buggers, they are small, quick and literally fly through the air from tree to tree. To complicate matters further, my camera fogged up due to being in the air con for a couple of hours.  Thanks to the monkeys Suzie and I were late to meet the other. Wish I had paid more attention earlier as I think the thunder I heard might have been monkeys on the roof.

Spider monkeys right outside my balcony.

They were running through my Palm berries.

That's the palm at the corner of my room.

Cute and active little buggers.

Spider Monkey.

Always aware.

They literally flew from tree to tree and moved as a troop very quickly.

Ready to launch.

Flying through the air.

Next frame.

It landed in the palm, safe as houses.

Into Quepos – our closest town watched sunset on the Malecon, had a little look around and found a local night market with lots of fruits and foods. Forgot to take pics. Bought some interesting red fruit (which Carlos told us was Water Apple.) 

Sunset from the Malecon in Quepos.

Birds in the sunset.

Colouring up as the sun drops lower.

Clouds and linings.

I was hanging out for this wader to move into the right place.

Thanks Mr Wader.

The birds in silhouette.

Pinking up after the sun has disappeared.

A bit later as we walked along the Malecon. The sun had long disappeared, but the colour kept building.

We wandered around Quepos which was a bit divey looking for Mr Lonely (planet) recommendation for dinner, turns out the Japanese chef from Tropical Sushi has moved to a restaurant not 100metres from our Hotel, so we cabbed it back and shared a lovely sushi meal and tropical sangria. 

This was the Caterpillar sushi.

While wandering Quepos we saw a couple of Quaker women eating in a café and then making a dash to catch the bus.