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!
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