What a great day! And, in retrospect, what good luck that the national park had been closed yesterday - the weather was just about perfect today, and a lot better than it had been yesterday afternoon. We started our visit to the park with a guided tour. The guide had not only knowledge about flora and fauna in the park, he also carried a telescope and a laser pointer to make sure everybody got a good look at the animals he spotted for us.
The first animal was a real highlight: a three-toed sloth. And thanks to the telescope, you can even see him on the picture! While we were watching, he started moving - making it instantly obvious why he is called a sloth. Every movement was slow, seemingly calculated so as to consume the least amount of energy possible. And then, of course, he sat still again until we left (and who knows for how much longer after that.)
The next animal we got to see was a red land crab. After the guide had pointed the first one out to us, we could see that there were at least ten of them in the small stretch of underbrush; but without his pointer, I doubt we would have seen any.
The final highlight of the tour were a couple of howler monkeys. They just sat there, unperturbed by the cries of 'ah' and 'oh' emitted by the crowd of tourists only a few meters away. Have a look at his face - so cute!
After the tour ended, we walked around a little more and then sat down on one of the magnificent beaches to eat lunch. About one bite into it, I noticed a movement out of the corner of my eye - and turned around just in time to prevent a raccoon from stealing our bag of bananas. After this unsuccessful attempt, she hung around for a while watching us eat. When it became obvious that there wouldn't be anything left lying around anymore, she picked up a fruit from the ground (their natural food) and started eating. So cute!
After lunch, we stayed on Playa Manuel Antonio and went for a swim in the Pacific (the picture shows nearby Playa Espadilla Sur.) The water was amazingly pleasant, nice and warm with some hotter and some cooler currents thrown in. The perfect remedy for our sweaty morning hike!
Much too soon, it was time to head to the park exit again. This walk turned out to be another highlight of our visit because we saw two big groups of monkeys. The first group consisted of capuchin monkeys. They were having fun in the forest, swinging and jumping from branch to branch, and using vines as swings. As they stayed close to the path and crossed it a few times, we could follow them for quite some time (and snap about a thousand pictures in the process.) I had wondered about their name, but when I saw them up close like this, it all became quite clear: their hairdo resembles the one capuchin monks have (or used to have?), and that's how they were named.
A little further, there was a big group of howler monkeys. They were a little less spirited and playful than the capuchin monkeys, but the reason for this may well have been that they were preoccupied with eating rather than playing at the time. Each of the monkeys we saw continuously reached for leaves to eat - the further away the better! Does this behavior remind you of things a certain close relative of the monkey does and strives for? I thought it was a very apt mirror image of ourselves ;-)
