Our final day in Quepos, we chose to visit the national park in nearby Manuel Antonio. We ended up visiting without our extended family because we had difficulty buying tickets. The quantity you can purchase per day on one card is limited.
The park is also called Manuel Antonio, like the town. This is one of the most, if not THE most, popular national park in Costa Rica. No wonder. In the first 3 days, we saw ALL the wildlife outside the park. We saw all the animals in ONE location versus a toucan at Rio Celeste, a sloth in Tortuguero, monkeys in Santa Teresa, ect. Our parents were THRILLED with their choice to only visit Quepos to check off their "bucket list" items. I think Michelle missed seeing a volcano and my parents missed seeing a waterfall. Otherwise, they had a fairly well-rounded trip. While we enjoyed the park and wildlife, we didn't appreciate all the tourists. We much preferred our excursions to San Lucas and Tortuguero because we were primarily among locals and could practice our Spanish.
We chose to go solo, without a guide. This worked out because there was guided groups every 10 feet. We could stand several feet to the side and pause a few moments to glimpse what they were sighting. By now, we had seen all of Costa Rica's most prominent animals, so we didn't need to rubber neck too long. Right away a sloth was spotted.
A little farther up, this troop of monkeys descended from the trees. We actually had to call out to guided group walking by who would have missed the passing.
This guy must have had a fight recently. We stuck around to watch the monkeys go through this area. More and more tourists gathered. One monkey decided to smack a girl's arm, and she screeched to get away. The same monkey smacked another kid further down the path.
Mom monkey carrying a lazy teenager monkey.
Interesting flower
A map of Manuel Antonio and its surrounding protected area.
This was the first time we noticed crabs in the forest! We always saw these holes along the trails but didn't realize they were crab holes. In the south, where we live in the USA, crawdads have similar behavior. Craig spotted this crab. It really wasn't close to the beach at all!
This is one of the "hidden beaches" in the MA park: Las Gamelas
Very pretty
Clark found this tiny hermit crab.
A seeded flower like a cat's tail
Large termite nest
Neat flower
Deer as we were headed out.
A colorful fly
Blue water!!
A very squished dead frog
Manuel Antonio beach
Manuel Antonio's beach was one of the best we had seen. This beach is accessed before going into the park.
We stopped for one more family meal before leaving Quepos. Everyone wanted to go the "airplane" restaurant.
The restaurant is built around this airplane that was used during the Iran Contra affair dating back to the Reagan administration.
Under the wing. People can access the body and cockpit too!
The view is fabulous!
There were interesting wood carvings.
Yummy food.
After lunch, we dropped in to Clark's family's apartment to try the yellow watermelon they found that Clark had been looking for. Unfortunately, it didn't have much flavor. Clark's family is bit snobby when it comes to watermelon flavor since his granddaddy specialized in growing them.
There was also a resident iguana and Clark successfully tempted the lizard to eat right out of his hand!
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