Our second day in Manuel Antonio included an early morning guided tour of the National Park, the most visited park in Costa Rica. Having a guide was definitely worth our while. He spotted things like tropical crabs, rainbow grasshoppers, and cicadas (sorry no pics of those ones - our camera didn't quite have enough zoom!).
Here are some of the views from within the Park, including first of all a picture of the crocodile estuary. No crocs when we went through though, luckily.
This is a view of the beaches within the Park. There are two swimming beaches, one of which we stayed at for the afternoon following our guided tour.
Here's a few pics of us while we're on the actual tour. The bonus of having a guide was that they all carried great telescopes...hence we were able to see that grasshopper and cicadas!
Here's a picture of bamboo, not a local plant; it was imported from China, but it's found in a few places within the park.
And of course, we saw many creatures! Including:
Lizards - those things are just all over the place!
White-faced Monkeys - which were one of Kyle's favorite, he waited all tour to see them.
And of course, we saw many creatures! Including:Lizards - those things are just all over the place!
White-faced Monkeys - which were one of Kyle's favorite, he waited all tour to see them.
His other favorite, and mine too, was the sloths. We saw two-toed and three-toed sloths.
Spider - eww, very gross - but we saw a few of them throughout our trip.
Hermit Crabs - you can find them on all the beaches. But this guy was one of the biggest that we saw.
Leaf-cutter Ants - they were pretty cool.
And a racoon. The little bugger tried going through our bag! Sure wasn't scared of us.
We spent the afternoon at one of the beaches - swimming, taking pictures and just hanging out in the sun. It was such a beautiful place!
Hermit Crabs - you can find them on all the beaches. But this guy was one of the biggest that we saw.
Leaf-cutter Ants - they were pretty cool.
And a racoon. The little bugger tried going through our bag! Sure wasn't scared of us.
We spent the afternoon at one of the beaches - swimming, taking pictures and just hanging out in the sun. It was such a beautiful place!After hanging out on the beach, we headed back to the main beach in town. On our way back, we stopped at one of the lcoal tents for some lunch. We each had "casado con pollo", which is one of the local meals. It consists meat, rice, beans, some sort of salad - whether potato, lettuce, cabbage, etc, and fried plantains. We ate them quite regularly throughout our stay in Costa Rica; they're pretty good!
The following picture was the first piece of architecture that I saw. I had to get a picture. Plus it was kinda neat looking...it was just stairs leading from the sidewalk on the main highway to the sidewalk of the lower road. But it gave me something structural to admire since I see beach all day...ya, poor me, right!?
The following picture was the first piece of architecture that I saw. I had to get a picture. Plus it was kinda neat looking...it was just stairs leading from the sidewalk on the main highway to the sidewalk of the lower road. But it gave me something structural to admire since I see beach all day...ya, poor me, right!?
