Manuel Antonio

Today we visited Manuel Antonio National Park. The park is very rich in flora and fauna but unfortunately also attracts a vast number of visitors. In order to preserve the habitat the public is only allowed access to a small area – just 1-2% of the park. Before entry your bags are searched to ensure you have no drugs, alcohol or small snacks that could be fed to the monkeys. We followed our guide into the park. The initial path was well made with wide areas for viewing. The guide had a scope which he set up when he spotted something. If you looked through the scope it made it much easier to then view the creature through your own binoculars as you knew what you were looking for and where it was hiding. We mainly saw reptiles and their camouflage was incredible.

We were also lucky enough to see several more three-toed sloths though they were high up and hard to photograph.

The tour took a couple of hours and we were then free to walk along more trails or spend time on the reserves two beautiful beaches. It was very hot so the beach and sea were much more appealing. As we approached the beach we encountered some very cheeky and cute capuchin monkeys

There are two beaches in the nature reserve. Both were beautiful but the first one was smaller and a little busy.

The second beach we came to was gorgeous. The sea was calm but large waves broke along the shoreline. They were extremely good fun to body surf in but it has taken days to remove all the fine sand from nails and clothing!! The undertow is extremely strong and you are warned not to swim out too far due to rip tides.

We stayed on the beach for a couple of hours then headed into town for lunch. We found a bar opposite the public beach where we sat and watched the world go by. I had some excellent bruschetta and two really good G&Ts.

We caught the local bus back to the hotel, which is high on the cliff top above the town. The buses run every 20 minutes and are very cheap at about 70p!

It was then time for another rum punch party. Duncan kindly went to the supermarket and bought more rum and juice, Deinor brought down a huge bowl of homemade guacamole and tacos and a good time was had by all.