Off to Manuel Antonio National Park this morning. It rained all night again and so we are lucky to see blue skies for our day at the beach. We park at the entrance and there is a long walk in, down a gravel road. It’s easy to think "oh no, a 20 minute walk!” but within moments we are all captivated by sloths hanging in the trees, bright red and purple crabs crawling alongside the road, turtles and butterflies, monkeys, birds – you almost can’t count all of the cool things to see. In no time we are by the beach.
We claim a picnic table for all of our food etc, and jump into the deliciously warm ocean. There is a nice strip of beach with forest right behind – monkeys, sloths, and raccoons rule here and food and back packs must be carefully guarded! There is a great hour’s walk around Cathedral Point for the more adventurous, and tuna salad, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, chips and fruit for lunch – followed by MORE time in the ocean with higher tide and bigger waves. The rain does not begin until we are all back on the bus - A perfect day. Then on our way back to the hotel we find a family of spider monkeys traveling in the trees along side the road – this is the only species of monkey we had not seen so it’s pretty exciting.
Dinner tonight is out in a local restaurant; it is Alex’s 14th birthday so we have cake for dessert and present him with a jar of the same blue hair gel his pen pal used to groom his hair after swimming. It’s also my last night with the group as I head out in the morning. Sorry to be sating goodbye...
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