Our walk through the Manuel Antonio National Park, a lowland humid tropical rainforest began at 7:30 this morning. We walked for about 4 hours and we could really tell the difference between being in a tropical rainforest and a cloud forest! It was very humid and rather hot. By the time we were finished our clothes were drenched with sweat and our bodies had totally given out…we were exhausted! After a cool dip in the pool, we make a good lunch and enjoyed the local Imperial cerveza, followed by a 2-hour nap.
Going back to the rainforest experience…we saw animals that we had not yet seen – squirrel and capuchin monkeys, a toucan, a 2 1/2” long iguana, a skink, a white bird that we need to identify, a white-tailed deer (Fred was surprised and happy to see her), agoutis, a sloth, some butterflies, a large grasshopper, red-legged crabs, and many hermit crabs. Part of the park went out to the beach, so we enjoyed the beautiful blue ocean and the soft sand, as we made our way up to Cathedral Point, which gave a wonderful view of the coastline and some nearby islands. As I said, we went early, and by the time we left, the beaches were crawling with sunbathers, young and old.
Our biggest delight was the troop of capuchin monkeys, which we have included for you to enjoy, too. The vegetation was different, too – there were fewer epiphytes, so the forest appeared more open and a little bit brighter under the canopy. We noticed that there were many more palm trees in the forest, including one with long spines on its trunk. Unfortunately, I did not notice the spines when I reached out to use the trunk for balance…it feels like a cactus thorn went in my finger. We will be doing our full day fishing trip in the tomorrow, so we hope to have a picture of “the BIG one” that did NOT get away.
Going back to the rainforest experience…we saw animals that we had not yet seen – squirrel and capuchin monkeys, a toucan, a 2 1/2” long iguana, a skink, a white bird that we need to identify, a white-tailed deer (Fred was surprised and happy to see her), agoutis, a sloth, some butterflies, a large grasshopper, red-legged crabs, and many hermit crabs. Part of the park went out to the beach, so we enjoyed the beautiful blue ocean and the soft sand, as we made our way up to Cathedral Point, which gave a wonderful view of the coastline and some nearby islands. As I said, we went early, and by the time we left, the beaches were crawling with sunbathers, young and old.
Our biggest delight was the troop of capuchin monkeys, which we have included for you to enjoy, too. The vegetation was different, too – there were fewer epiphytes, so the forest appeared more open and a little bit brighter under the canopy. We noticed that there were many more palm trees in the forest, including one with long spines on its trunk. Unfortunately, I did not notice the spines when I reached out to use the trunk for balance…it feels like a cactus thorn went in my finger. We will be doing our full day fishing trip in the tomorrow, so we hope to have a picture of “the BIG one” that did NOT get away.
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