Dec. 10-11, Manuel Antonio National Park, sloths, deer and monkeys

Three-toed sloth in Manuel Antonio National Park, Quepos, Costa Rica

BRUTAL!
Our suitcases need to be outside our door at 5:30 a.m.! And we need to be ready to leave the Crown Plaza Coribici at 6:20 a.m. It will take us about 3 hours to get to Manuel Antonio Park. 

It's a beautiful day and many people will be headed to the beach, Manuel Antonio and Quepos have lots of beaches so traffic down there should be fun.

We head to the Pacific Coast once again and stop in the town of Jacó to stretch our legs and take a few photos. Jacó has beautiful black sand beaches and is loved by surfers. It's about five minutes away from Hermosa Beach which has pipes and beach breaks for experienced surfers only.

We travel another hour and a half and reach Quepos. Passing through the town we see the public beach and end up at our hotel, the Hotel San Bada. It's located right next to the Manuel Antonio Park entrance.

Our rooms won't be ready until later in the afternoon and we have a timed park visit so we hop off the bus and head to the park gates. 

The rangers check out backpacks for food, cigarettes and anything that could harm the animals that live wild in the park. No single use water bottles either-they don't want the trash.

Oh, we're following the Tsunami Evacuation Route, comforting.

We're greeted by some very curious and fairly aggressive Capuchin Monkeys.

The boardwalk we're on does get tidal water under it during high tide but it's low tide now so we get to see the resident red land crabs.

We make it to the end of the boardwalk and check the map.

Dave, Darlene, Katja, Jay and I want to check out the lookouts (unfortunately the trail to Cathedral is washed out and is closed). We can still visit Punta Serrucho, so the five of us head out and the others go to the beach with Edgar.

It's a long, hot, steamy, hike up and neither Jay nor I wore hikers, just sandals-we thought we were just hitting the beach. But it was worth the sore feet for the views.

On our way down from Punta Serrucho, we can hear the howler monkeys "barking". We take the cut though marked in orange on the map above to head to the beach. We're hoping to see the blow hole, but we think the tide may have come in too much.

We think we've found the howler monkeys that were making all that noise a few minutes ago.

We make it to the beach but no blow hole but we do see a couple of black iguanas.

It's back to the beach and a swim in the warm water. It's getting on lunchtime and the Capuchin monkeys start to descend from the trees looking for food.

Dave and Darlene enjoy a few more minutes in the Pacific before it's time to head back to our hotel.

On our way back to the Evac. Route, we get the best show all week, a three-toed sloth is moving through the trees and it's fairly close to ground so we get an excellent view of his "Sloth Tai Chi".

And the show isn't over yet, while walking down the main road, we come across a mama deer and her twins.

Sure, we have deer in Vermont, but you don't except to see deer in the rainforest of Costa Rica, at least I didn't expect to see them. Very cool.

Back at the hotel we hit the restaurant for a light lunch and check into our room. We're treated to a rooftop bar sunset view before dinner. 

We have an included dinner with the group and celebrate Denise's Birthday.

December 11 is a FREE day at the Hotel. Most of the group will be taking a catamaran trip later in the afternoon. Jay and I opt for hanging out and chilling.

I spend most of the day at the rooftop pool. I had the pool to myself the whole time! It was glorious.

I leave my slice of paradise to meet Jay for lunch at the Hotel San Bada Congo Restaurant. It was delicious.

I even had time to book a relaxing massage and facial at the Sana Spa.

After my totally chill day, the sunset was just stellar.

And as a bonus, a couple of howler monkeys were in the trees on the edge of the park, just below the rooftop bar.

What a great last day in Manuel Antonio Park.

More photos from December 10: CLICK HERE

More photos from December 11: CLICK HERE

Next up: our return to San Jose to fly home, but we stop along the way for a Crocodile Jungle River Cruise.