Aaron and I went to Costa Rica for 8 days. Grandma and Grandpa Shelton and Shaw took turns hanging out the the kids. We are so grateful for them! We flew to Atlanta, then straight down to San Jose, Costa Rica (Even though the time was the same as Utah). Flying home, we flew to Los Angeles, then home. We stayed at the Wyndham by the airport on the way there and the Terrazas de Golf hotel on the way home. The Wyndham was cheaper and nicer. The next day, we took the Interbus Shuttle to Manual Antonio (about 4 hours drive). Our driver was the king of tailgating. The driving down there is crazy!
Iguana crossing sign.
They had miles and miles of palm fields for palm oil. One guide said they were ruining the country with chemicals for the palm fields, but they employ 10,000 people.
Figs that they get palm oil from (different than other figs)
On our drive to Manual Antonio
A lot of the cemeteries were above ground.
A town we passed through to get to Manual Antonio
On the way to Manual Antonio
We stopped for an iguana.
We got dropped off at the wrong hotel, so we had to walk a bit in the high heat and humidity.
This were some monkeys by our hotel when we first got there.
There was a little river right by our hotel with crocodiles. We didn't see any though, but we didn't get too close.
We were right across the street from Manual Antonio Beach. The red roof to the right is our hotel.
Our hotel
There were a lot of these vultures around
A poisonous plant
Walking around by the hotel
bird watching from the hotel
our hotel
Our towels were always crunchy because they dried them outside
There was a guy walking around with coconuts and he would cut them open for you and put a straw in it. I think it was $2 each.
The view from our balcony. It was nice to go over at night and just hang out by ourselves on the beach. Even though December-April is supposed to be the busy season, it wasn't really busy at all. Our hotel did have a lot of buses waiting and turning around here, as it was the end of the road in Manual Antonio. A couple of nights motorcycles were riding back and forth in front, and it was really loud, but overall, it was a great place to stay and very convenient to ride the city bus to Quepos.
A toucan across the street from where we were eating. All the restaurants are open air. There were a lot of different birds that we saw, but I didn't load up all the pictures.
From our hotel
We did this 2-hour night tour with Efrain's. It was really cool. It started raining on us about half-way through and Aaron and I forgot our raincoats in the hotel. It poured! We were soaking wet. I was wringing water out of my hair and I had jeans on, but it was really warm. Never bring jeans to Manual Antonio!
Hummingbird nest from our night hike. We also saw tarantulas, other huge spiders, scorpions, sloths, a kinkajou, butterflies, roaches, poison dart frogs, a bullfrog, iguanas, sleeping toucan, insects, and a snake. Our guide got attacked by fire ants. A howling monkey was really close and its screeching was terrifying! I thought it was a jaguar or something!
copy and paste to listen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdnwLX5m3G8
Weird plants
Searching for animals. We all had flashlights so we could search ourselves too. We had people in our group from Austria and Switzerland and England.
This is our guide, Danny
More weird plants
bananas
scorpion with a black light
We saw a sloth at the very end. We could have reached up and touched it.
Sleeping toucan
poisonous dart frog
tree frog
We took a mangrove boat tour with Toucanes tours. It was really good. We learned a lot about the mangrove forests, and saw a pygmy anteater, monkeys, bats, crabs, and birds. They did have crocodiles there, but we didn't see any. We could hear the clams slamming shut as our boat got close. It sounded like sticks breaking. After the boat tour, they took us to their office for a traditional dinner of vegetables, rice, black beans, marlin, and mango juice. It was fun to talk with people from all over the world.
Right by where it meets the ocean
bats lined up on the tree
This was at Manual Antonio National Park which was walking distance from our hotel. We hired a guide for $20 each, but it is worth it. They can see so many animals that you can't. We saw sloths, lizards, insects, a poisonous viper (that they said would kill us in 1/2 hour if bitten), a huge rat-like animal, monkeys, and raccoons.
At one of the beaches inside the National Park. This is where the monkeys and raccoons come out and steal your food. They will open your bags to get it if you're not watching.
We did a really pretty hike around the peninsula in the park.
Our guide, Almet. We got lucky and got him all to ourselves. He would set up his scope and then help us take pictures from it.
These are called monkey brush. Its from a tree and the monkeys take it and brush their fur with it.
Spikey trees
An overlook on our hike
The viper. It's hard to see.
On the bus to Quepos. We went there almost every day. It was about 4 miles from Manual Antonio. The food was a little cheaper and we walked around the marinas. Once, we were trying to go to a bigger store and I told Aaron to get off the bus in the middle of nowhere. We walked in the heat for about 1/2 hour and couldn't find anything. I thought we were going to get hit by a car, because they drive crazy there, and there was no where else to walk but on the road. We tried to ask people where the bus stop was, but they didn't speak English. I remember reading that if you just wait on the side of the road and wave the bus down, they will pick you up. Luckily, it worked. We didn't try that again.
The bus cost 315 colones (around 60 cents). You would pay cash as you got on and the driver would give you change if necessary. He kept little packets of correct change in this foam pad by the entrance.
Quepos by the marina. It is a little bit of a run-down town, but a little cheaper.
The nicer marina in Quepos. They have a lot of fishing competitions here where people come from all over the world.
One of our meals. Black beans, rice, vegetables, chicken, and fried plantain. We really loved the plantain, I had never had it before.
One of the restaurants we ate at in Quepos. All the restaurants there are open-air with no windows.
In Manual Antonio, we couldn't eat for less than $15 or $20 each. They didn't have "fast food". In Quepos, they had "sodas" or small cheaper restaurants. We could eat for about $6-$10 a piece. You don't tip at restaurants, because they automatically charge you 10% for tip on your bill. There is also a 13% tax on top of that.
You had to pay approx. 60 cents to use the bathroom at the bus stop.
The preacher at the bus stop. He was yelling questions at Aaron and I. Everyone else was just nodding their head and saying "amen" when he would single them out, so we did too. We weren't sure what we were agreeing with.
A schoolhouse. The walls were just wire so it was open air.
A little store in Quepos
The bus stop in Quepos.
There were so many cool plants and flowers
On the steps at the hotel
Mango and passion fruit smoothies
They keep their eggs on the shelf. They had mini "grocery" stores everywhere (about 2 isles), but the food was what you would find at a gas station. We never saw a regular grocery store.
While Aaron was fishing, Trudi went to the Farmers Market in Quepos
Quepos
My lunch from Soda Sanchez; rice, beans, potatoes, salad, tortilla, fish
The all-day fishing trips there were around $800, but we met this man (Danny who sold trips and ran a little car lot) by the beach and he told us we could go with his friend for $150. Aaron jumped at the chance, but I thought at least one of us needed to come home alive, so I passed. :) The two men he went with didn't speak English (the captain was Frankie-from Cuba), and the boat was a little scary out in the ocean, but he had a great time.
Danny was there every day with his pregnant wife and daughter. She just sat there under a tree by the beach with her daughter (2) all day, every day. She had a little playpen that her daughter was in most of the time.
They caught mutton snapper, red snapper, amberjack, sheepshead, black sea bass, schnook, rooster, and pompano fish. Aaron caught around 50 by himself. The 2 other men caught more than Aaron.
The anchor (bottom of picture) was made of rebar welded together
The little boat on the left is the "taxi" boat. It went all along and picked people up from their housing areas to bring them to the marina. This marina was close to the nicer one, but a little run down and was more for locals.
The boat in the middle is the one Aaron fished on.
We heard sunscreen and mosquito spray was really expensive down there. This bottle was 19,000 colones, or approximately $40. I didn't even see a mosquito, although I had a few bites. The only time I wore spray was the jungle hike. It was the dry season though, so that probably made a difference. Even though the weather said rain every day, it only rained a few times while we were there-usually at night or really early in the morning. Otherwise, it was HOT and HUMID! Our clothes were soaked with sweat within 10 minutes of being outside-especially around 2-4 pm. Otherwise, it was bearable, and we actually didn't mind the heat.
walking around by the hotel
All those black spots in the trees were a troop of monkeys--saw them just walking around by the hotel
Some of the homes
San Jose on our way home
Sometimes it was hard to order from restaurants. I wish we would have learned more spanish before we left, as we could have used it. There were a lot of people that did not speak English at all.
This is a map of Manual Antonio and Quepos. The national park is the bottom right-hand corner. Our hotel (Hotel Manual Antonio) is just left of the park by the beach. Quepos is top left corner.
A little surf town on our way back to San Jose
1000 colones is approximately $2
