Manuel Antonio National Park

This week we are at the beach!  We are in the coastal town of Quepos, beside Manuel Antonio National Park, on Costa Rica's Pacific coast (map of Costa Rica; click the map on the right).  This is an early birthday adventure for Caleb, because for so long he talked about wanting to see monkeys for his birthday.  There are plenty of monkeys here!  Our hotel is nestled into the forest, and every morning and late afternoon the squirrel monkeys move through.  They hop from tree to tree right above our heads!  They even have monkey "bridges"  made of thick rope going over the roads here to prevent them  from being hit by cars.

We've been busy, in a very good sort of way -- swimming at the beaches and in the hotel pools, hiking, and zip-cording through the jungle canopy! The kids were thrilled that they were old enough to do it.  They started off riding with a guide, and then could go on their own.  Caleb was very serious the whole time, until the very last ride, when he turned around as he was zipping away and flashed a smile and hollered with excitement.  Our guides surprised us with a couple of repels down from the canopy….they were apparently also mandatory, since there was no other way down! 

We did a hike to a beach at the national park yesterday.  Between that hike and our zip-cording trip, we've spotted 3-toed sloths in the forest, a poison-arrow dart frog, numerous tropical birds I can't name, owls, white-throated capuchin monkeys, agoutis, northern racoons, iguanas, geckos, and more.  Very cool. 

Today we are nursing our sunburns by sticking around our hotel. Right now, Vern's reading The Adventures of Huck Finn to the kids on our Kobo eReader, in the shade by one of the pools.  Our hotel is very kid-friendly (Hotel Mono Azul, Blue Monkey Hotel), so they also have games and books for us to borrow. 

And to make sure I don't leave you with the impression that everything is easy, I should mention that it was quite the bus ride to get here!  It's not that far from where we're living in San Gerardo to Quepos, but it took one van ride to get us up the mountainside, and then 2 buses, and ~ 6hrs to get here.  This was the affordable way to travel.  We were the only gringos on the first bus, and the 10-yr old boy in front of Vern and I literally sat backwards on his seat and stared at us for an hour!  And everything is very sensory (at least for me with my way-too-sensitive nose); think strong smells mixed with lots of heat and humidity. 

I've got tonnes of photos I want to share, but that'll have to wait until I can download them on my laptop back at our cabin.  In the meantime, here are a few shots of us going zip-cording through the jungle canopy.  Our guide took them and we were admittedly suckered into paying for them.  Enjoy!