11/12: Manuel Antonio
Category: General
Posted by: The Agnew Family
Our day started with a hike in Manuel Antonio National Park. From the park's website “Manuel Antonio National Park, on Costa Rica’s central Pacific coast, encompasses rugged rainforest, white-sand beaches and coral reefs. It’s renowned for its vast diversity of tropical plants and wildlife, from three-toed sloths and white-faced Capuchin monkeys to hundreds of bird species. The park’s roughly 680 hectares are crossed with hiking trails, which meander from the coast up into the mountains.” We of course only hiked a small portion of the park but we did manage to see a lot of different animals, birds and scenery.
It's fairly easy to spot these crabs.
A hummingbird but not sure which one and a Three-toed sloth hanging upside down eating leaves. He's got big claws that are used to attach him to a tree so he won't fall out when he is sleeping.
Yes, they have raccoons in Costa Rica and they act the same way as they do at home. We saw one raccoon walk up to a person's bag on the beach and try to get into it.
Another white-faced Capuchin photo. They were running around the beach area getting lots of attention.
A lot of people were sitting on the beach or in swimming. We just went in up to our knees.
Across from the hotel and belonging to the hotel is a Nature Preserve that contains a butterfly garden. Admission to the butterfly garden is free if you are staying in the hotel.
It's not a big butterfly garden but there are some nice butterflies in it.
Ed and I decided o eat a late lunch / early dinner at about 3pm. It was kind of nice to have the entire dining room to ourselves. From the Rico Tico dining room you have a beautiful view of the pacific ocean and a few times we were serenaded by howler monkeys.
We think this is an Agouti. He was hanging around outside the dining room.
Tonight we did a "night walk" thru the jungle in the Nature Preserve owned by the hotel. We set out at 5:30 pm ---- the sun sets around 5:15. The guide spoke very good English. Turned out he had lived in Toronto for 5 years starting in 2000. He was also very knowledgeable about the jungle, the frogs (could make lots of frog noises), the birds, the plants ---- well, you get the picture.
A red-eyed tree frog and an ignuana.
Another frog --- maybe a bull frog.
Not only did we see frogs and iguanas but we saw a two toed sloth with a baby, a couple of birds roosting, a possum, a tarantula, a snake with a fat tummy and much more. One of the functions of this nature preserve is to rescue animals. There were 2 boa constrictors in a cage that had been bothering people. After a month in captivity (enough time for the snakes to call the preserve home) they will be released and will hopefully stay in the the nature preserve. There were some turtles that had been pets and crocodiles and caymans that had been trouble.
It's fairly easy to spot these crabs.
A hummingbird but not sure which one and a Three-toed sloth hanging upside down eating leaves. He's got big claws that are used to attach him to a tree so he won't fall out when he is sleeping.
Yes, they have raccoons in Costa Rica and they act the same way as they do at home. We saw one raccoon walk up to a person's bag on the beach and try to get into it.
Another white-faced Capuchin photo. They were running around the beach area getting lots of attention.
A lot of people were sitting on the beach or in swimming. We just went in up to our knees.
Across from the hotel and belonging to the hotel is a Nature Preserve that contains a butterfly garden. Admission to the butterfly garden is free if you are staying in the hotel.
It's not a big butterfly garden but there are some nice butterflies in it.
Ed and I decided o eat a late lunch / early dinner at about 3pm. It was kind of nice to have the entire dining room to ourselves. From the Rico Tico dining room you have a beautiful view of the pacific ocean and a few times we were serenaded by howler monkeys.
We think this is an Agouti. He was hanging around outside the dining room.
Tonight we did a "night walk" thru the jungle in the Nature Preserve owned by the hotel. We set out at 5:30 pm ---- the sun sets around 5:15. The guide spoke very good English. Turned out he had lived in Toronto for 5 years starting in 2000. He was also very knowledgeable about the jungle, the frogs (could make lots of frog noises), the birds, the plants ---- well, you get the picture.
A red-eyed tree frog and an ignuana.
Another frog --- maybe a bull frog.
Not only did we see frogs and iguanas but we saw a two toed sloth with a baby, a couple of birds roosting, a possum, a tarantula, a snake with a fat tummy and much more. One of the functions of this nature preserve is to rescue animals. There were 2 boa constrictors in a cage that had been bothering people. After a month in captivity (enough time for the snakes to call the preserve home) they will be released and will hopefully stay in the the nature preserve. There were some turtles that had been pets and crocodiles and caymans that had been trouble.