Tuesday, July 2, 2002

Today we had to get up bright and early for our tour of Manuel Antonio.  We had hired a guide through the hotel because we didn’t want to be stupid and miss all the best critters.  After breakfast we got picked up by a decrepit taxi, picked up a group from Texas at another hotel, and went to the park entrance where we met our guide Leo.  He had a nice big telescope so we knew we were in good hands.  He showed us the sensitive plant that closes up when you touch it, several different rainforest medical plants, and countless birds, bugs, and sloths.  About halfway on our walk we came to a group of white-faced monkeys.  Genevieve was on my back so I couldn’t tell where she waslooking, and given her disinterest in the monkeys the day before I wasn’t sure she was going to get much out of this, until I heard her say excitedly “Monkeys eating balls!  Monkeys eating balls!” (they were eating round fruit).  Too cute.

We also saw bats, a tree frog and more crabs, but no toucans which we were hoping to see.  Oh well.  Once the tour was done we went back to our hotel for a swim and lunch, and on the way back to our room I spotted a large Jesus Cristo lizard (basilisk) on a tree.

After a short nap, we all went back to the park to go down a trail I remembered as having lots of wildlife from my earlier visit.  We spotted a sloth on our own (unassisted by a guide or groups of people staring into the sky) and saw many crabs but nothing too exotic.  On the way back to the car, though, we saw another group of squirrel monkeys, one with a baby.  Apparently they were waiting for most of the visitors to disappear before they came out.

After another nice meal at the restaurant, we went to bed, for we had another early morning ahead.

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