Manual Antonio National Park

Manual Antonio is a small village town home to a handful of beaches and a National Park. The park is small in comparison to our National Parks in the states. Although small, it is nearly impossible to see the wildlife that so carefully camouflages itself in the jungle. We were prepared to attempt it on our own if we could not find a guide at a decent price. Luckily it is the slower time, so when you walk away, the price suddenly comes down. We ended up negotiating a decent price for a guide and ended up going in with another couple. The guide didn't want to have just two people when he could make a little more money with four. The people we were with, Mark and Jo, were from Wisconsin and had traveled and even worked in many places around the world. It was nice to talk to them while we waited for animals to show their faces. Our guide, Roy, had a scope which came in handy for seeing tiny creatures or those that were way up in the trees. We saw quite a few sloths, both male and female, which I couldn't tell you the difference before. They are really slow and can even stay in the same spot for 16 hours. A few of them were eating, so we were able to see them in action (slow action). The others were just hanging out. Mostly they are high up in the branches. A group of monkeys showed us their swinging abilities and called out to each other while picking out things to eat along the way. We were lucky enough to see a toucan. It had been nesting in a tree that the guide was familiar with, so we hung around until it showed it's colorful beak. We also saw coatis, which look like giant squirrels with out tails or oversized short haired guinea pigs. Either way they were fast runners and liked to beat up on each other. Some of the smaller creatures that we would have walked right past if not for our guide were some extremely small frogs, lizards, iguanas, and bats. With your entrance fee to the park, you are also able to use the park beaches. There was actually employees sweeping the picnic areas and cleaning up litter, which made it a desirable choice over the main beach. We haven't figured out exactly where we are going to stay tomorrow, although we know that we need to be in Tamarindo by Sunday.