Manuel Antonio Day 3 El Santuario Canopy Adventure

We were awake early again today. There is some construction going on nearby and they bring the trucks in early before the park opens. I heard way too many trucks outside my window at 4:00 am today. The owner of the hotel, Mike seems rather annoyed by the situation but there really isn't anything that can be done about it.

Today was the day Dan and the kids have been waiting for, zip lining day! You might remember that last summer we did a short single line zip on top of the Jungfrau. I knew that today was going to be the real deal and much bigger than what we did last summer. Originally I'd planned to zip line during the second part of our trip at Arenal but when I started scheduling things I decided it would work better during our time at Manuel Antonio. Last week I did some quick research on the zip lining companies in the area. On TripAdvisor I came across very favorable reviews of a new zip line company called El Santuario. Their lines opened in November 2012, and all the reviews I read said they were very safety conscious. I decided to trust the reviews and book it. I saved $5 a person by booking online. We paid $70 per person and that included transportation, zip lining, and lunch. I thought the price was very fair.

I booked the early morning tour because it is the rainy season and morning seems to be dryer than later in the day. The van was scheduled to pick us up at 7 am. We checked downstairs last night about breakfast, Mike assured us that even though they don't have the hot food out until 7:45 that there the continental breakfast items would be out before we left.

My dad and the kids headed downstairs to get some breakfast around 6:30. Dan and I took some time to make sure we had everything we needed packed in a backpack. You don't really need to take much with you when you go zip lining, we just took bug spray, sun screen, some $ for a tip, and Dan took his phone and a pouch to secure it. We all headed out front at a few minutes before 7 am to meet the driver, once we got out there we saw all the trucks that we had heard at 4:00 am. The street was a mess, it made me wonder how the driver was going to get down to the hotel. Mike suggested we walk and wait on the other side of the trucks. We did that but then came back to the hotel once one of the trucks moved out of the way. The driver picked us up a few minutes after 7:00 and we were on our way. We stopped at a few more places to pick up some of the guides and other people on our tour. The guides were very friendly and chatty. We learned that today is a holiday in Costa Rica, today they celebrate Guanacaste Day. Gunacaste day is a holiday that celebrates the annexation of Guanacaste from Nicaragua in 1824. The guides were wearing small ribbons the color of the Costa Rican flag in celebration.

The ride to the forest took about 30-40 minutes. Once we arrived they had us sign the waivers and they served fruit and coffee. They had restrooms so we decided it would be a good time to use those, better now than when we were soaring over the rainforest! The sinks outside the bathrooms were really cool!

Look at the cool sink!

My handsome boy ready to go!

After the bathroom break we all got dressed in our harnesses and safey gear. The guides were really good about checking and double checking things. They warned us that if anything needed adjusting, we needed to ask them rather than try to adjust things ourselves. After everyone had their gear on we all got back in the van and headed out to the first stop. We had a safety briefing first. One of the guides showed us what to do and what not to do! One of the fabulous things about El Santuario is that they have a non breaking system. You don't have to do any breaking, they have this donut type thing on the line that slows you down before you get to the platform. I was thrilled to know that I wouldn't have to try to stop before I got to a platform. At El Santuario all you have to do is sit back and enjoy the ride, honestly it is just that easy!

Ready to zip!

Happy kids ready to fly through the air

We headed up the stairs to the first platform. The guides were all very safety conscious, basically you are clipped in to a safety wire at all times when you are climbing or on a platform. I had warned Ali that since she only weighs 50 pounds she would probably have to ride with a guide, she wasn't too thrilled about it but she wanted to go so she agreed. Well I was very surprised when we got to the first line and they sent her alone! She was thrilled and she did great, I honestly never worried that she'd be in danger, I just wasn't sure if she'd weigh enough to make it across on her own. We all (even my dad) made it across the first line with big smiles!

We spent the next couple of hours climbing towers, crossing hanging bridges, and zipping on the 11 lines. Everyone had so much fun! The zipping was the easy part, the climbing stairs and crossing the bridges had me huffing and puffing a bit. I think the humidity was part of it too. It was totally worth it though! Line #7 is the longest in Central America at 1200 meters long, 1200 meters is about 3/4 of a mile. Both kids had to go with a guide on that line, I don't think either of them weighed enough to make it across on their own. It was crazy, in the middle of that line you couldn't see the platform you were going towards or the one you'd left from. The last line is the fastest line they have, it was super fun! My kids both had a blast, by line #4 the guides were showing them how to ride upside down with no hands!

Once we were done with the course we headed back to the start point to have a delicious home cooked lunch! The food was excellent! Everyone was served a plate of chicken, rice, beans, salad, and fried plantains. I asked for mine without chicken and it was no problem at all! I'm pretty sure neither Dan or I had a scrap of food left on our plate at the end of the meal! At lunch we chatted with a young woman who was on the tour alone. My dad learned that she was visiting from Ireland. My dad's parents were Irish immigrants and we've been back to visit relatives in Ireland many times over the years. My dad seemed happy to chat with her and she was very sweet! She is a teacher too so we shared some school stories!

After lunch we headed back to town. We were the first pick up and the last drop off, we got back to the hotel around 12:45. It was a great morning. My mom who had opted not to join us told us about her morning, she did a little bit of shopping at the shops by the beach.

Can you guess what the kids wanted to do when we got back? Why yes of course, they wanted to go to the pool. After we rested for about 30 minutes, Dan took them down to the pool. I headed down a bit later to chat with Dan about the house we have for sale back home. Guess what? You can chat with your realtor even when you are on vacation! My parents joined us a bit later because the ladies wanted to clean our room.

After about 20 minutes a little girl came and joined the kids in the pool, they were happy to have a friend to swim with. She told Connor that she was on a swim team too, so they had some races. While we were chatting Dan noticed something in one of the trees, then all of a sudden we spotted Squirrel Monkeys. There was a group of 8-10 of them jumping around the trees by the pool. They were adorable, they are so much fun to watch! The girls brother joined in the fun too when the monkeys arrived, the four kids ended up swimming for well over an hour!

Our visitor at the pool

Kids in the pool watching the Squirrel Monkeys

Tonight we had our first taste of the Costa Rican "rainy season." A huge thunderstorm came through while we were at dinner by the beach. It was fun to watch and the waves were huge. We had great pizza and gelato and watched the storm. Coming back to the hotel in the rain was a bit of an adventure, luckily we'd grabbed 3 umbrellas on our way out. The hotel has a bunch of umbrellas for guests to use right near the gate. We made it back in one piece and had a quiet night in the room to end our great day!

The deer was by the pool on the way to dinner

Watching the rain and the waves at dinner

 

Posted with Blogsy

Manuel Antonio Day 2 National Park

We woke up early again today. Ali was the first one up today, she was actually up too early at 5:45 am. We tried to get her to go back to sleep but she just couldn't. We all got up for the day a bit before 7:00. Today we had scheduled a guided tour of the National Park with Juan. The plan was to meet him near the hotel around 8:30, our hotel is right by the park entrance so we didn't need transportation today. The tour was $5 a person less than if we would have needed transportation.

We headed downstairs at 7:45 for breakfast. Today there were wonderful pancakes and eggs made to order, of course the fabulous fresh fruit was there too! We all had a hearty breakfast because we knew we'd have a busy day and our lunch would be late. At the end of breakfast we had a visitor, a White Faced Capuchin decided to come exploring near the pool at the hotel. We checked him out and then headed out to the street to wait for Juan. Juan had warned me the day before to be careful while we waited, not for our safety but he said some unscrupulous guide might try to convince us that he wasn't coming and try to take us instead. The tour business is very competitive here. We waited until about 8:40 and a man approached and asked if we were waiting for a guide. At first I said no but then I told him maybe. He looked at me like I'd lost my mind, he then told me that he worked for Juan and that Juan would be along in a few more minutes. At about 8:45 Juan arrived with another family, the O'Brien family from Georgia joined us on the tour. They were a family of 5 so we had 11 people all together. They were very nice people and great to tour with.

Our breakfast visitor!

The red roof area is the entrance to the park, I took this picture from out in front of La Posada

We headed into the park to start the tour. Manuel Antonio is a very popular park, there is a lot of wildlife but there is also a ton of people! If you want to see animals without a lot of people around it isn't going to happen here. That being said, I'd still highly recommend a visit. The trails are easy and the park is beautiful. I would also highly recommend hiring a guide, they see so much that we would never spot. Juan also had a high powered scope that he would set up so that everyone in the group could see what he spotted, another really cool thing is that he'd use your digital camera with the scope to take pictures (you'll have to wait to see those until we get home because they were on my dad's camera and I'm posting from an iPad).

Lots of people

Just like yesterday, Juan was awesome. He knows so much about the different plants and animals. The wildlife in Manuel Antonio didn't disappoint, we saw spiders, 6 sloths ( some two toed and some three toed), a helmeted lizard, a green tree frog, a tiny grasshopper, walking sticks, black iguanas, 3 different types of monkeys, raccoons, and a tree boa. Not bad for one morning!

Ali touching a cool plant that closes when you touch it

Huge Spider!

Ali holding a Walking Stick

I was really excited to see the sloths, they were surprisingly active today. They move very slowly but they were definitely active today. We saw two-toed sloths and three-toed sloths. We learned that sloths come down from the tree tops about once a week to poop and then they head back up into the tree. Sloths are more vulnerable to predators when they are down on the forest floor so they take care of business pretty quickly.

We saw three species of monkeys, Howler Monkeys, White Faced Capuchins, and Squirrel Monkeys. We just saw one Howler Monkey but saw a lot of White Faced Capuchins. The White Faced guys seem the most daring and they are crafty little guys, if you are at the beach in the park you need to watch your bags carefully. If you come back and something is missing it is likely that either a monkey or a raccoon snatched your stuff!

Squirrel Monkey

Manuel Antonio National Park has several beaches inside. Before our trip I read that the beaches were beautiful but I thought it was doubtful that they'd be anything like the beaches in Hawaii. Boy was I surprised when we emerged from the rainforest to see one of the most beautiful beaches I've ever seen! It was take your breath away gorgeous! We stopped at some tables near the beach and Juan cute a Pineapple he had in his pack, he also had brought along cookies and juice. It was the perfect snack! After the snack we continued on to another beach and spotted more Squirrel Monkeys along the way. We also saw a family of bats through the scope.

Seriously, this beach is so beautiful!

Grandma, Grandpa,and the kids stopped for a snack

At the end of the tour we decided to stay at the beach, the kids were dying to go jump in the waves. We stayed at the 2nd beach which didn't seem as popular. Juan had already warned us about a toxic tree that grows at the edge of the beach. Apparently if you touch it you end up with a bad rash! We were careful when we walked near those.

What a view!

The waves were pretty big, but Dan and the kids went in anyway. My poor mom about had a heart attack watching them, for someone who grew up within 100 miles of a beach she sure is scared of the ocean! Dan and the kids played for about an hour and then we headed back to the hotel. Just as we were leaving we saw a raccoon steal a bag from a couple laying on the beach not 25 yards from us. They were laying with their backpacks under their heads as pillows. The raccoon came up behind them grabbed a plastic bag that was sticking out of the backpack and ran! It was so crazy. Ali kept saying the raccoons were cute, I told her that the monkeys were cute but the raccoons were just yucky!

Here is a quick picture of my kids with Juan at the end of the tour. I highly recommend Juan as a tour guide if you are in the area. He is very knowledgeable and he keeps you entertained! I'm so happy that we booked with him!

Connor and Ali with Juan

Getting back to the hotel was interesting, we decided to go out the exit that is near the public beach. Well we walked out and saw boats waiting to ferry you across a small waterway. Hmm, we decided to take the rocky path above and then wade through the smallest part of the waterway, it was probably only a foot or so deep. At high tide I think you'd probably have to take a boat. This was a little adventure that we weren't quite prepared for but hey, this is the real thing so you've just got to go with the flow! We headed back to the hotel and met up with my parents who had stopped across the street at Parque Sushi to pick up a little lunch.

Can you see the narrow spot? That is where we waded through the water.

The second crossing was only a few inches dee

Of course when we got back to the hotel the kids wanted to swim! I sat down at the pool with them while they swam, Dan joined us after a bit. We chatted with a couple visiting from Canada. The pool area is pretty small but it is a nice place to chat with the other guests. If you really like your privacy then La Posada might not be the best place for you to stay. The rooms are nice and private but the hotel is very small and you see the other guests a lot at breakfast, the pool, in the commons area. We love it and think it is a super friendly environment. The couple from Canada went on a Catamaran tour today, we've decided to put that on our list for the next visit.

We all rested back in the room this afternoon, everyone was tired from the heat and the walking. We ordered a pizza from Os downstairs in the kitchen and it was done in about 30 minutes, the pizza was great and a good bargain at $10. After we ate I know Dan took a nap, I'm not sure if anyone else actually slept. There was a knock on our door and the kids answered, it was one of the ladies who works here cleaning rooms. She came to tell the kids that the deer that frequents the hotel was wandering through the property. The kids ran downstairs to see her, she is totally tame. The kids were excited! So in one day we saw a Capuchin, a deer, and of course the adorable dog Blanquita right here at our little hotel. Very cool for sure!

 

The pictures I'm posting today are from my iPhone, I'll post better pictures when I get back home and get the ones of my dad's camera.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Manuel Antonio Day 1

This morning we woke up pretty early, Dan and I were up just after 6 am. This wasn't really a surprise since we were in bed by 8:00 last night after the long travel day. We had a leisurely morning and took some time to check and reply to emails, The kids actually slept later than we did but they were up shortly after 7.

A hot breakfast is included with our stay and they start serving at 7:45. We headed down right at 7:45 and had scrambled eggs, gallo pinto, amazing fruit, and cinnamon bread. If you've never been to Costa Rica you've probably never heard of Gallo Pinto. Gallo Pinto is a yummy mix of rice and beans fried together. You'll just have to trust me that it is amazing. The fruit here is also amazing, the best pineapple and mangos I've ever had. Breakfast definitely got our day off to a great start!

La Posada is right next to the entrance to Manuel Antonio National Park. The street outside is very busy in the morning with tour groups entering the park. We could here the noise from outside our room this morning but we were up anyway so it didn't bother us. We will visit the national park but not today. We had plans booked for the afternoon but our morning was totally free. We decided to take the kids to the public beach which is just about a 3 minute walk from the hotel. My parents decided they would walk into town and explore a bit.

Ready for the beach!

Happy boy in the hammock

Connor was kind of whiny about going to the beach. I have no clue why he didn't want to go but after a few minutes he got his suit on without grumbling too much. We picked up boogie boards and beach towels up downstairs on our way out (they are free to borrow at the hotel). The beach is very close, you just walk down a small street/alley to get there. The street is lined with little vendors selling souvenirs. Ali of course loved everything she saw but we told her that we'd shop another day.

We got to the beach and it wasn't crowded at all. We were greeted by vendors trying to rent us an umbrella and beach chairs, apparently the going rate is about $10 for two lounge chairs under an umbrella for the day. Not a bad price but since we were just staying for a few hours we passed and I parked myself on a beach towel in the sand while Dan and the kids went into the waves. There are vendors on the beach who come around selling different things, most of them weren't really pushy after I said no thank you. The beach was really beautiful, more beautiful than I was expecting. Dan and the kids had a blast boogie boarding and body surfing in the waves. At one point Ali wiped out and ended up with a mouthful of salt water, she decideed to take a break after that and do some tumbling on the beach. Luckily since it wasn't very crowded she had tons of room. I swear that silly girl will do gymnastics wherever she can.

The view from my beach towel

My silly girl

We headed back to the room around 11 to eat and get ready for our 1 o'clock tour. My parents were back from their exploring trip so we chatted with them a bit. They hadn't found anything too interesting and they said their walk was very hilly. After a bit of debate about what we should do for lunch, Dan and my dad went out to find food. They ended up just going across the street to a place called Parque Sushi. They came back with 3 orders of Teriyaki Chicken. I ate some of the rice and vegetables and it was very good, everyone else agreed that the chicken was excellent too. Both kids had seconds, which is always a good sign. I think my dad said the total bill was $30, not bad for a lunch that served 6 of us.

Today we had a Damas Island Mangrove tour scheduled for 1:00 pm. I'd scheduled the tour through Manuel Antonio Expeditions after reading fabulous reviews on TripAdvisor. Transportation was included in the tour and they were here to pick us up a few minutes before 1:00. The vehicle that picked us up was clean and spacious. We were greeted by our guide Juan, I was excited to meet him because I'd read many great things about him. The van ride to the boat dock took about 30 minutes. On the way I asked Juan if it would be possible to stop at an ATM on the way back. We weren't running out of money but I wanted to pick up some of the local currency (Colones). Most places here take Dollars though and give you your change in Colones. Juan said that would be no problem and that we could stop on the way back.
We arrived at the boat dock and Juan directed us to our boat. He explained that this tour is based around the tides and they can only go when the high tide is approaching. At low tide the water is way to shallow. We met our boat driver and were on our way. The tour today ended up just being the 6 of us which was great! Juan was very knowledgable about the flora and fauna we were seeing. He did a great job explaining how the Mangrove ecosystem works. He was also a great spotter and he spotted a lot of animals we would have never seen. Juan was also great with the kids, he asked them lots of questions and kept them engaged.

Real life Jungle Cruise

The first thing we saw today was a white heron, Juan explained that it was a younger heron and not yet fully mature. Then he spotted a small Boa. The kids were excited to learn about the snake. We headed back into the smaller canal type areas, this is where we saw what we were most excited about! We came to Costa Rica to see monkeys and we did. We saw a troop of White Faced Capuchins. Before I booked the tour, I read that Manuel Antonio Expeditions is one of the few operators that don't feed the monkeys. This was a huge plus for me, although it might seem fun feeding the monkeys is not the right thing to do. Feeding them isn't good for their health and it also desensitizes them to humans which can lead to poaching. While we were near the troop of monkeys another boat pulled up alongside who didn't share the same philosphy of not feeding the monkeys. Their gude whipped out a banana to entice one of the monkeys into the boat, his trick was succesful and the monkey posed for pictures with the passengers. I could tell that it was kind of hard for Ali to watch that. She handled it really well but she is 8 and a total animal lover. Of course she was jealous that the little boy in the other boat got to have the monkey sit on him. She was very good and din't act up at all, but I could just see the look of disappointment on her face. She and I talked a lot when we got back from the trip. She is a smart girl and she said that she knows it is wrong to feed the monkeys and she definitly didn't want to do anything that would hurt them but of course she thought it would have been cool if a monkey would have decided to climb into our boat. I was proud of her maturity. Sometimes you learn lessons traveling that you don't expect. I think today was one of those days and I hope that when she remembers today that she remembers that she did the right thing. So my advice to anyone reading is to do your research about travel operators before you visit, find one that matches your moral compass of how we should interact with wild animals. I highly recommend Juan and the tour guides of Manuel Antonio Expeditions!

Watching the Capuchins was very cool, they are amazing little animals. Juan spotted a mother with a baby on her back, he said it was a newborn not more than a week old. Their little faces were so human like, they definitely have little personalities. We saw some wrestling around in trees, and we saw them swinging and jumping tree to tree. My favorites were the mothers and babies.

White Faced Capuchins

After watching the monkeys we headed down another canal and Juan found a snake. This one was smaller than the Boa, it was a cat-eyed snake. Juan said that it is very rare that they bite and he's never seen it happen but did warn us that while they are not venomous they have bacteria in their mouths that could be harmful if they were to bite. He asked if the kids wanted to hold it. Connor tried it first and then Ali took a turn. Both kids are definitely braver than I am! After leaving that area we saw another troop of Capuchins, The alpha male of the trooop got very close to the boat and made his mad face. It was great to see them so close! Towards the end of the trip, Juan spotted two Silky Anteaters up in a tree. Thank goodness for his spotting skills because we would have never seen them, he was also kind enough to snap a picture of them on my dad's camera.
Our tour included a meal so after we got off the boat Juan took us to Wendy's house. Wendy had prepared a great meal, fish for my parents, chicken for most of my family, and veggies for me. She was very sweet and we got to meet her daughter who was adorable and very friendly! I was happy that my kids got to see the inside of a Costa Rican home. After we ate we headed back to the hotel stopping at the ATM on the way. It was a great tour and a great first exposure to Costa Rican wildlife.

Everyone was tired when we got back so we all relaxed a bit and Dan took the kids to the pool. The pool here is small but my kids still love it! I guess they don't need a huge fancy pool to make them happy! 3 nights a week the hotel serves dinner, you sign up that morning at breakfast and they have dinner at 7:00 down by the common area/pool. Today was baked spaghetti so we signed up. Even after the great meal at Wendy's house we were hungry again by 7:00. We headed down for dinner and there were 4 other families/couples down there. Dinner was great and it was a bargain at $7 a person! It was so nice just to be able to stay here and relax rather than worry about going out to a restaurant.

We were tired early so I think lights were out shortly after 8:30. It gets dark really early here so that helps us convince the kids that it is time to go to bed! Tomorrow we'll visit Manuel Antonio National Park!

 

Posted with Blogsy