January 19, 2016 - Manuel Antonio National Park, Costa Rica

Tobey is feeling under the weather today so I went to the park on my own.

Manuel Antonio National Park, on Costa Rica’s central Pacific coast, was created in November 1972. It encompasses rugged rainforest, white-sand beaches and coral reefs. It’s renowned for its vast diversity of tropical plants and wildlife, from three-toed sloths and endangered white-faced capuchin monkeys to hundreds of bird species. The park’s is about 1700 acres of land and there are hiking trails, which meander from the coast up into the mountains. It also includes 136,000 acres of ocean!
I opted to pay for a guide ($10,000Colones – $20 USD for a 2 hour tour) and then paid for my park admission which was $16 USD – $875 Colones). A young couple from New Zealand were the only others in my group which made it nice for viewing animals and birds through the viewing scope our guide, Nicolas, used.

While there are supposed to be 109 species of mammals and 184 species of birds, in the park, we saw very few. We did, however, see white-faced Capuchin and howler monkeys,  three toed sloths and iguanas. We spotted one toucan and a couple of nighthawks and hummingbirds, but not as many birds as I had hoped for.

I was amazed how the guides are able to spot things in the trees in order to set up their viewing scopes so we could find them.

These are tiny bats on the side of the tree. 
 Chameleon – the picture was taken through the scope!

This little guy is a Basilisk Lizard. also known as Jesus Christ lizard for their ability to run on the surface of water.

Nicolas also spotted a land crab in the leaves.

Not much further down the trail we saw this raccoon. He went after a woman who had juice in a bag. He grabbed the bag and broke open the plastic bag and the juice spilled all over.  They are quite aggressive and you are not supposed to bring any food into the park.One of the highlights was spotting a couple three-toed sloths.

The first picture was taken through the scope, the others just with the camera.

The sloth’s fur hosts two species of symbiotic algae which provide camouflage. Because of the algae, the fur is it’s own small ecosystem, hosting many species of non-parasitic insects! I was lucky enough to actually see one of the sloths MOVE so I took a short video.  https://youtu.be/Td2FupbTufc

We spotted some Howler monkeys but they were too far up in the trees to really get a good picture. Later in the day when I was on my own, I spotted three in an area where I could get some pictures. One was sleeping, all spread out in the branches, the other two were looking down on the tourists!

The white-faced monkeys were hanging out in the trees near the beach. They are not at all afraid of humans. They raced up and down the trees, chasing each other, and running across the walkway between the people.
This video shows some of the monkeys having fun chasing each other.  https://youtu.be/-pUh3ItyfWc
After 1-1/2 hours, Nicolas told us the tour was finished – so much for a 2 hour tour.

I decided to take the 3/4 mile loop hike from the beach up to the Punta Catedral trail. There were three overlooks out to the ocean.

It was beautiful! This big iguana was sitting on the steps going up and I was able to walk right past him without him scurrying off!

Along the trail I also saw the most unusual palm trees – with spikes all up and down their trunks.
Nature certainly does build in defense mechanism to protect their species!I spotted this spider as I was almost back to the entrance of the park. I asked one of the other guides if it was poisonous and he assured me it wasn’t. I don’t think I would want to touch it to find out for sure!

Tobey picked me up about noon and we went back to the hotel. I got some lunch and took a swim in the hotel pool while Tobey slept. Poor guy – he feels awful. Around 4pm I went to the pharmacy to get something for his stomach and I am hopeful it will start to work. Tomorrow we were planning to head to Puntarenas, but we will see.