Another bit of mis-planning struck today: I had overlooked that all Costa Rican national parks are closed on Mondays. So our plan to visit Manuel Antonio national park today was canceled - the hostel owner told us about it just in time, one minute before we were about to leave.
After half an hour of weighing options, we decided to book a half-day cruise on a catamaran. The cruise along the Pacific coast, including whale watching and snorkeling, sounded like the best option. About thirty minutes later, we were already on the catamaran. Apparently, we had made our decision just in time for the morning departure :-)
Soon after, we saw the first highlight of the tour: humpback whales come down from Alaska to raise their kids in warmer, predator-free waters. So this is exactly what we saw, a mother and her child circling around the catamaran. After Argentina, this was the second time for me to see whales, and they were just as impressive now as they had been then.
I learned an interesting bit about whales today. Apparently, adult whales are rather difficult to see because they can stay underwater for about thirty minutes - and waiting for thirty minutes between two sightings would make whale watching rather tedious. Their offspring, however, need to breathe every five to seven minutes. So whenever whales are taking care of their children, they accompany them to the surface every couple of minutes, and this is what makes whale watching feasible at all.
After the whales were gone, we continued exploring the coast right up to the point where the national park started. The scenery was really beautiful, sky and ocean competing for the title of 'most striking blue', and small islands surrounded by foamy waters creating a nice contrast between the two:
We also caught a glimpse of one of the beaches inside the national park. The park being closed today, there was nobody on the beach, creating the image of a perfect and undisturbed tropical beach.
After a while, we reached our snorkeling spot. It took me a few minutes to convince my mum to try snorkeling for the first time in her life - but I succeeded, and as soon as she saw the colorful tropical fish she was instantly happy about her decision :-)
When we got back to the wharf, ready to be brought back to the hostel, we noticed that about half of the sky had a threatening black color. And, sure enough, just five minutes after we arrived back at the hostel, the storm started. Perfect timing!
