Homeward Bound

We left the hotel just before 4 am and drove through a busy farmers' market to arrive at San Jose airport. 2 hours to check in then 6 hour flight to Newark (New York). 6 hour wait, then 8 hour flight to Birmingham landing at 7 am UK time having missed the first 6 nations rugby match - Wales vs England. No doubt we will eat and drink to relieve the boredom and return to diet. It has been a great holiday.  Pura Vida!

Beginning of the End

To -day we headed back to San Jose, the beginning of the end of our holiday and the start of the return journey.  We had a leisurely breakfast and chatted to 2 sisters from Norfolk who were in a group of about 20 organised by Ramblers UK.

  We are back in the Don Carlos Hotel after a 3 hour journey from Manuel Antonio, and, since lunch, have shopped for coffee and souvenirs. Hard work walking the streets of the capital. We got our coffee in the Central Market, some souvenirs in the Artisan Market and the rest in the hotel shop as we ran out of cash. The hotel is as nice as we remembered although we have a smaller room. Still, we will only be in bed a few hours as we have a 4 am pickup. Here are a few pics taken inside the hotel as we sup our pre-dinner drinks.

The last picture is of a decorated ox cart wheel which is over 150 years old. Some of these wheels have been made into beautiful tables which are over 3 ft in diameter.  Nice hotel full of art and sculptures.

Topping up our tan on the catamaran!

For Our last day in Manuel Antonio we decided after a chat with Lewis (a tour man on the side of the road) that a boat trip would be fun. We elected to go on 'Top Cat' apparently the safest, funnest (!) boat in the region. We'd seen it from the beach. 

We were collected from our hotel after lunch and proceeded to pick up people from various hotels on our way to the marina at Quepos. We met a Dutch couple, Annetta and Cas, who were also on the boat and had lots to say!  Planet Dolphin are mentioned in our guide book and they were a very efficient team. 

Our boat had capacity for 110 people, but we were a group of just thirty which was nice. On arrival at the marina we were given wrist bands and then onto the boat for a full briefing of what was going to happen, health and safety and a reminder that wildlife isn't always easy to see! 

It was cool on the boat with lots of shade and a lovely breeze. The views of the coastline were lovely and we sailed past the beach we'd spent the day on as well as the beaches in the park. We did see a couple of dolphins too. 

After an hour or two of cruising we were issued with goggles and flippers for a spot of snorkelling. We  saw much more in the Maldives and Mombasa, but it was very refreshing to get into the water..

After our swim we were served with a delicious meal of curly wurly pasta salad and fish kebabs together with the ubiquitas water melon and pineapple. All washed down with choices of fruit cocktails...vodka and passion fruit and rum and hyacinth! 

Fun times! 

And so we finished our trip watching the sunset and everyone cheered when it dropped down behind the horizon! 

Next stop San Jose. 

Ticking off the wildlife checklist

The Manuel Antonio national park is a humid tropical forest. It isn't very big but it is rich with wildlife. We had planned to just take a walk through it paying just $16 each for the privilege but we were persuaded by a tout on the way in to pay an additional $20 each and walk with Felix, a guide with a telescope. He said we could pay at the end if we enjoyed it and he more or less guaranteed a sloth sighting. Having missed seeing any so far, we decided to go with him. And it was worth it. 

We saw two and three toed sloths... Two sightings of each. There are lots of differences between the 2 and 3 toed sloths.... The one in the picture is a two toed. Actually they all have three toes on their hind legs, but one has two fingers and the other three. The two toed one has blond fur, the other grey. The two toed are really hard to tell the difference between male and female, the three has an orange marking on the back of the males. The three toed are good swimmers, the two can't swim. The two is nocturnal, the three isn't and one eats insects and leaves and the other only leaves, but I can't remember which is which! Probably doesn't matter! The three toed has a happy face and t'other doesn't....

We finally saw howler monkeys and white faced monkeys. We saw bats, spiders, caterpillars and two katydids. We saw a hawk sitting on a branch. 

And we saw a fiery billed toucan. We saw two deer - Costa Rica's national mammal. 

Felix also showed us a spiders web that they make bullet proof vests out of (really?) and the leaves they make Panama hats from!! We smelled citronella from the sap of a tree and were warned about a poison ivy with prickles that will give you a rash. We watched an army of leaf cutter ants going about their business and we marvelled at the glorious beach we came to half way through the walk. Lots of white faced monkeys at the beach. 

As with all the guides, Felix was keen to tell us stuff about the wildlife in his country and there is only so much I can retain but I do remember there are umpteen species of bats that can be divided into five types.... By what they eat.... Fruit, insects, fish, leaves and blood! The ones we saw today were fruit bats. Apparently bats always sleep with their eyes open - why? Because they have no eyelids! One of the species of bat we saw creates a tent out of a leaf to sit under! 

Boy, was it hot though walking through the park. According to the weather app, today it is 31 degrees, but feels like 33! According me it is more like 36 degrees with high humidity! Its no wonder the sloths don't move very far or very fast, I know just how they feel. 

This afternoon we are heading out on the ocean......now where is the sun block!! 

Beach Bums

Today we are beach bums. Busy doing nothing other than sitting under our yellow sunshade on our two loungers - all for $10 for the day. The pacific is blue and warm and we are debating hiring a belly board to ride with the waves. 

There are all manner of hawkers on the beach but thankfully they are not too pushy. We have been offered bird whistles, necklaces, cigars, pottery, coconuts, massages, meals and other drinks and various activities. For $120, for example, we could be taken up on a parachute towed by a speedboat for about 20 minutes before being dumped in the sea and rescued by a jet ski. The kids would love it! We have opted for a more gentile catamaran trip tomorrow.

Our hotel is comfortable and air conditioned; there is a pool and restaurant where we dined last night and where Amanda had her best meal of the holiday. We sat by the pool in the the moonlight. She had a huge and delicious tuna steak in coconut and wasabi sauce. We were woken up at 3 this morning by 2 troops of howler monkeys. Howler by noise and howler by name. Such a din. They carried on until 6. It was as if they were on our balcony but when we went out they were obscured fom sight by the forest trees which are almost touching distance away from us. The joys of the tropics.

The beach is about 150 yds from the hotel - well we do need some exercise. Talking of exercise, Amanda has just gone for her first dip of the day - blond locks bobbing in the blue waters. When the tide comes in a bit more I will do some surfing. can you spot her?

No?

Yes!

We have been warned not to leave anything unattended so we are swimming in shifts. My turn next. 

The body boarding was great fun as some of the waves are quite big.

Amanda surfing.

We have now abandoned the beach. It's 4 o clock. Even though we stayed under the brolly and kept lots of factor 30 on we are looking a little pink.  Still it's happy hour at the pool at 5.  Pink gins all round I reckon! 

X marks the spot

What a spot this is....... After a four hour drive from Monteverde to Manuel Antonio we arrived to a very friendly receptionist in a lovely hotel amongst a whole raft of hotels from the so called Backpackers Paradise through to a Best Western, we are at a tourist hot spot!  And the weather is perfect...hot and sunny and the sand whilst not white isn't black either. David generously described it as golden, I would say it's sort of beige! 

Our room is big again... We have got used to large rooms, has great air conditioning and a balcony with a view of the forest. We unpacked for our three night stay to the sound of howler monkeys...they make a very aggressive barking sound. Lunch in the poolside restaurant was very nice (nachos) and then we hit the beach. Apparently there is a rip tide here but the advice is to only go waist high and the sea was warm and the surf was fun. We stayed on the beach to watch the sunset, which was beautiful. 

After a couple of beers from the poolside bar we are now showering and changing for some dinner. 

The views this morning when we left Monteverde were gorgeous...very reminiscent of the Rift Valley. 

There are various excursions offered by the hotel, but tomorrow we are tempted to just stay on the beach and contemplate a local story. Apparently the locals believe that a treasure worth billions and billions of dollars lies somewhere in the Quelos and Manuel Antonio area waiting to be discovered. The legend was populariized by English pirate John Clipperton who befriended the locals during his years of sailing to and from the South Pacific. Clipperton's belief stemmed from a rumour that in 1670 a number of Spanish ships laden with treasure escaped from Panama City moments before it was burnt to the ground by captain Henry Morgan. They reckon the treasure was never found and it is around here somewhere just waiting to be unearthed! I reckon the place is treasure enough, without worrying about digging up any gold. 

Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon

......But not before we had taken a trip up to the hotel's own stretch of cloud forest. We took the shuttle bus up and ask him to collect us at 4. We had a nice walk through the trails in the forest spotting a huge butterfly, a wood pecker and lots of wild orchids but the most common animal was of the two-legged primate variety - a whole bunch of kids doing the zip-wire canopy tour to much screaming and shouting.

After watching the humming birds at a feeder station, we walked back down the hil as our lift never arrived. Then we lazed for a few hours reading and siesta ing before dinner at a local restaurant. spare ribs for me, king prawns for she.  Yumm!

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