First Day in Manuel Antonio

Monday was essentially a travel day. We woke up in Arenal, enjoyed the wonderful buffet breakfast at our hotel, and then spent the morning packing. We dodged heavy raindrops as we moved from our casita to the lobby of the hotel, where we met our driver who would take us on the 5 hour journey southwest through the country to the Manuel Antonio region.

The drive was somewhat rough again for anyone with a nervous stomach, with lots of narrow roads switching back and forth, climbing and descending the high hills frequently. Our driver was fantastic and did his best to entertain us (and converse with us in Spanish when we initiated it) during the journey across the country. The views were wonderful, but the only photo I have is of the crocodiles that lived under one of the last bridges we crossed before heading to the ocean coastline. We crossed a river that was infested with crocodiles, and like all good tourists in the area we stopped to view the crazy spectacle. Scott paid a solicitor some money to throw raw chicken down to the riverbanks below (I'll spare showing the video here, but it is quite crazy if you like this sort of thing). The crocodiles dove for that chicken like it was the last meal they would ever eat. I know the picture below is a little gross, but this helps to depict what the scene was like.

Finally we arrived in the Manuel Antonio section of Costa Rica just next to the town of Quepos (see the map here). Our driver was from Quepos and he eagerly pointed out landmarks and the agricultural features of the area on the drive into town. Crazy fact: we requested a 10:00 a.m. pick-up time in Arenal so that we would not arrive in Quepos too late in the day. Our driver drove over 5 hours from Quepos to Arenal that morning to pick us up by 10:00 a.m., and then turned around with us in the van and made it back home around 5:00 p.m. What a long day for him, and he transported us all that way with a smile on his face!

We stayed at the Buenavista Bungelows, where our room was amazing! We had a one bedroom unit perched on the steep hillside overlooking the ocean. Here is a photo of the kids (Amelia is in the hammock) chilling on the balcony after the long ride. The jungle was within our fingertips just off the balcony! The second photo is of the living room and kitchen area, and to the right are the bathroom and bedroom (not pictured). This was plenty of space for our family, and it was perfect for the next five nights that we would spend here. 

The next day, Tuesday, began slowly. The previous evening we had reserved an ATV tour excursion with a scheduled pick-up time of 10:30 a.m., so we got off to a lazy start in the room. The night before we trekked about a quarter mile down the local road to a small supermarket and picked up breakfast items, so our morning began with coffee, cereal (almost $7 for a box of Cheerios (!), but much cheaper than breakfast for two kids in the resort dining room), and fresh fruit, all enjoyed on our terrace with this view. I couldn't stop dazing out towards the ocean, it was just that stunning.

I taught Amelia and John how to play Solitaire (how did they not know how to play this game?) and they loved it.

As we began to get ready for our ATV excursion, I was feeling sad that we hadn't yet spotted any wildlife within the resort grounds. One of the reasons we selected the Buenavista was the claim by so many visitors that the resort was infested with all of the tropical animals native to this part of Costa Rica. For months leading up to our trip, I had imagined daily sightings of animals all across the property, and here we were on a lazy morning almost 18 hours into our stay and we hadn't spotted a single animal.

And then, all of a sudden, as I was applying sunscreen on the balcony I heard the leaves of a nearby tree shake. The noise sounded like someone was banging the leaves with a heavy garden tool, so I looked in that direction to see what was going on. Within a minute or so, I detected movement by dark shapes, and a few minutes later a group of howler monkeys emerged from the trees. How exciting!

One of the monkeys had a baby on its back, and for awhile the baby got off of his mother's back and walked across the branches on his own. Look at the baby below! I took these photos with my zoom lens, but you could clearly see the monkeys from the balcony with naked eyes, they were that close. It was so entertaining to watch the monkeys jump from one tree branch to another and work their way across the jungle. The howler monkey group had about 10 members traveling together. 

After the howler monkeys made their way through the trees down towards the beach, we all regrouped to get ready for our excursion. But within just a few minutes we heard the trees rustling on the other side of the balcony, and we spotted a group of white-faced capuchin monkeys moving within the area on the other side of our room. Below is a photo of John taking a photo of a monkey that was eating a banana (that the monkey had taken from a palm tree somewhere outside of our room) on a ledge just below our bedroom window.

A momma capuchin monkey with a baby in her back, both eating a banana, on a leaf next to our balcony.

I would say that there were about 10 capuchin monkeys in this group. The monkeys made their way through the trees on the side of our balcony, but then a few of them came onto the balcony! We were stunned by this behavior, though we later learned that it is relatively "normal" in this area of Costa Rica. The table in the photo below is the same table where John and Amelia were playing Solitaire in the photo above.

On our balcony!

By the time we had multiple capuchins on the balcony, and they were swinging in the hammock and crawling more aggressively across the floor, we decided it was probably a good idea to retreat to our room. The monkeys were not aggressive per se, but they seemed to be too comfortable around humans for our comfort.

We really needed to get dressed for our excursion, but we were laughing too hard not to continue to look at the monkeys!

Finally, our ATV excursion tour group picked us up and we went off to the main road that bordered town.

This was the view from the ATV office where we stopped to sign paperwork. Gorgeous!

The ATVs departed from a ranch located about 30 minutes outside of Quepos. Along the way to the ranch we passed through large palm tree fields, which we learned are important to the agricultural development in in the region. The palm trees are planted on huge plantations, where workers harvest fruit from the trees that are used for palm oil, which is an ingredient in food as well as cosmetics and other items. The gentleman below is working to harvest fruit from the tree by way of a long pole with a machete on the end. We learned that the fruit weighs about 125 pounds each, and that in order to earn a living wage each worker much pull down about 200 fruits each day. Amazing!

Once we arrived to the ranch we reviewed a safety briefing from our guides. The tips they gave us about crossing water would come in handy later.

This photo gives you an idea of the landscape we crossed on our trek through the area on the ATVs. The photo is somewhat deceiving though since it is not raining in this picture, which is contrary to our experience on the tour. About 15 minutes after leaving the ranch, the skies opened up with rain and it POURED (!) on us all across our ATV excursion. We had rain pelting us on our backs all across the jungle, as we wove in and out amongst the palm fields, going across dirt paths cluttered with small rivers of rainwash covering the earth. Scott and I each drove one ATV with one of our kids on the back.

Finally we arrived at the Rainmaker Forest, where we took a short hike through the jungle to enjoy the topography. By this time, the rain had slowed to a (welcome!) drizzle.

The river was raging fast, fueled in part by the recent rain but more than that fueled by the continuous rainfall that comes during the rainy season.

See the hanging bridge in the photo below towards the top? We had walked across this path earlier in the walk, and were now perched above on our trek onwards through the forest.

WET (!), on the path through the Rainmaker Forest!

Our turn-around point was a raging waterfall deep in the jungle. Scott and John braved putting their feet in the pool where the waterfall landed. I was worried sick about my camera throughout this entire hike, as it was left exposed (in our bag, but still drenched) during the rainfall while I was driving the ATV. I pulled the camera out to snap a few photos here and there, but was definitely trying to remain cautious during our walk through the Rainmaker Forest.

I was finally able to take a photo of the kids with the ATVs once we arrived back at the ranch. I never took my camera out during the ride because driving was too intense and I was worried about the rain. 

Once we arrived back at the ranch, the guides served us a delicious traditional Costa Rican lunch called a casada plate. A casada plate consists of white rice, seasoned black beans, chicken in a tomato/herb sauce, and salad. The lunch was delicious and tasted extra special since we were soaked to the bone form our ride.

The ranch was outfitted with picnic tables for eating, sofas for relaxing, and foosball and ping-pong tables for playing. The kids enjoyed playing games once we were finished with lunch.

After our excursion ended, the tour guides took us back to our hotel at the end of the day. What a great first full day in Manuel Antonio! Still more excitement to come!