Crocs, Carara and Manuel Antonio

March 25

CR Croc

Carlos picked us up at 6:30 this morning and off we went to Carara National Park near the Pacific side of Costa Rica. Along the way we stopped at the Tarcoles River where crocodiles hang out. They looked at if they had just eaten a large meal and were resting in order to digest it.

White Ibis

Next we went to the park and hiked for about two hours. Throughout the hike we heard the macaws as they are quite loud with their squawking. We never saw them in the trees as the canopy is quite dense. However Carlos and I did see four fly by swiftly with their magnificent coloration and long tail feathers flying in the wind. There are about 450 scarlet macaws living in and around the park. They are truly spectacular birds. We didn’t see much in the way of wildlife. Ron got some pix of iguanas, some birds and saw a raccoon but again the jungle was too dense to get a photo.

Iguana

Bee's nest

Great Tinamou

typical jungle growth

Whiptail Lizard

White Tipped Dove

Rufus Naped Wren

Blue Crowned Mot Mot

Back in the car and we headed to a place for zip lining and I opted out again as my vertigo is still with me although much milder than initially. I am not sure I would zip line even without vertigo. We spent a little over two hours in this facility. I rode a gondola through the jungle with a guide pointing out various plants, leaf cutter ants, etc. I took one bad photo of a monkey brush plant. The monkeys use this fruit(?) to comb their hair and rid themselves of parasites. I never cease to be amazed at the intelligence of monkeys and apes. While I was waiting on Ron I took some pix of birds, more iguanas and the common basilisk aka the Jesus lizard because of its ability to walk on water. HA!!

Common Basilisa Lizard

 

Carlos took us to a wonderful restaurant on the Jaco beach where we sat outside in the shade with a lovely ocean breeze cooling us. Ron and I ordered fish tacos and could barely finish them as the servings were large and delicious. The small cove had lots of boats and a few people swimming in the beautiful turquoise waters and lying on the white sand beach.

Great Kiskadee

Because we had a lot of time left in the day we decided to go further south to Manuel Antonio Beach. The coastal drive was gorgeous. Costa Rica has white, brown and black sand beaches and we got to see them all. Carlos first drove us through the town of Jaco then it took another 90 minutes to get to M Antonio. It was a very cute town with lots of eateries and hotels and guesthouses. There is a national park here but it was closed for the day as we didn’t arrive until after 4:00. We did see a sloth on a fence as we were driving through town. If you have never seen one they are amazingly slow moving creatures. They look as through their movements are in slow motion.

This is a popular town for tourists. I wish we had planned ahead and stayed overnight but alas we didn’t. One of the drawbacks of being ‘tourists on speed’ is you can’t do it all in a day but by golly we sure like to pack it in in terms seeing what we can in a day!  We walked on the beach briefly and headed home. We arrived at 6:30 making it a 12 hour day. Needless to say we were tired but I am sure Carlos was all the more exhausted. We scrambled some eggs and made toast and headed to bed at 9:45 and were asleep within minutes.

March 26

I told Ron I wanted a down day after our marathon yesterday. We stayed home other than a trip to an art gallery to see the work of a painter Victoria had told us about. The doors were locked so no culture for us today. We continued on to the grocery store and picked up some items for another house dinner. Victoria is making a lentil spinach soup and it is Anca and Michael’s last night before heading back to PA. We have made a great connection with them and enjoy learning a bit about Romania. Neither of us has traveled there.

Ron and I spent the afternoon watching a DVD on Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt that was based on a biography of them. Although the acting was rough in places the overall story was intriguing. I didn’t know that much about them and enjoyed it with all the splendor and costumes of the era.

Our house dinner was delicious and the interaction delightful. I really appreciate Victoria’s ability to brings guests together and have meaningful interaction. Ron and I retired to our room after 10:00 and watched the second disc of the Roosevelt’s then went to bed at 1:45 AM!!