Playa Manuel Antonio

On the Saturday after Thanksgiving we packed up the family car (happily for now, one car is plenty, hooray pandemic working from home!) and backed out of our carport at around 10:30 in the morning to get on the Costa Rican highway to Quepos, a town near Playa Manuel Antonio.  Because it was a long weekend for Costa Rica too (December 1 is a Costa Rican holiday, a celebration of the day that they eliminated their National Army), much of Costa Rica was on the roads with us.  Waze's alternative route took us through some beautiful mountain regions, so the drive was long, but pleasant.  Upon arrival we hiked down to Playa Biesanz while we waited for our Air BnB to allow checkin. 

We stayed here - at this lovely little complex with a pool. 

The next morning, we had planned to spend at the Manuel Antonio National Park.  Mike had arranged for surfing lessons later in the day, and Charlie, who apparently does surf, invited us to park for free near him.  He escorted us on his motorcycle with two surfboards attached (you can't miss me, he said, when we asked how to recognize him in the supermarket parking lot) to the beach, stopping along the way to point out a toucan in a tree!  So cool.  We parked at the beach, pulling all the way in to the spot.  No no... the helpers said, you have to back out and take up more space so no one parks behind you... good to know.  

Charlie introduced us to Eduardo, a wildlife spotter guide - who walked with us into the National Park that is Manuel Antonio, stopping every so often to plop down his telescope and show us some new species.  Quite adept at thru-the-lens photography, he caught this sloth (which is actually a mom and baby - but you can't see baby in this photo) doing their morning scratching. 

At Manual Antonio - you hike about 30 minutes through... nature... is it jungle?  forest? mangroves?  I'm not totally sure.  It's a whole lot greener than Colorado, I can say that.  We saw two different types of sloths and howler monkeys (all asleep high up in the fig trees).  I loved this little guy... here's a fiddler crab...

Then, you come out to this lovely beach, which is a lot less populated (with people) than the public beach. 

But!  there was more wildlife to see!  Basilisks.... 

Iguanas... 

White face monkeys... oh, these guys were so clever and mischievous. We had to run them off from opening someone's backpack and rummaging through.  Note to selves:  don't leave items on the beach unattended! 

Then, we walked though a tiny bit more forest to this side, and hung out on this beach for a few hours, snorkeling (didn't see anything - it was pretty murky) and floating. 

Not at all crowded, which was nice:

Vivian and Mike coming back from a float. 

This little beauty amused me running around and eating leaves.  He does a little head bobbing which was super cute.  The iguanas all had completely different coloring - fascinating, I need to learn more about them. 

Some kind of ROUS.  

After our little stay at the National Park beach, we headed back out to the public beach where we all took surf lessons.  I was SO amazed at Mike and Vivian!  They both stood up on the boards and Vivian rode 3 or 4 waves in quite successfully.  Mike took to it so well, he rode in 30 or more waves until he was completely exhausted and had to stop.  He's officially a surfer dude!  The instructors were amazing, so encouraging and helpful.  What about me?  Uh... I was a complete wuss.  I got up on my knees and rode one in, but I must admit, I'll need to get more used to the ocean... 

That night we had an amazing dinner with gorgeous sunset views. 

This little V tree was a favorite landing spot for Scarlet Macaws and Toucans.  So cool.

The next day we drove to Playa Esterillos Oeste and walked along. 

Here's a statue of a siren that is usually surrounded by ocean.  We arrived at low tide, so we could walk out to it - the rocks were teeming with these tiny crabs scurrying about. 

Parts of the beach was covered with these little trails - which, if you find the end had a little snail with no shell randomly exploring for food.  Cool pattern. 

We thoroughly enjoyed our first weekend adventure and look forward to seeing more of Costa Rica!