Me Exploring Wildlife (Who would have lost that bet?)
Manuel Antonio, a destination favourite here in Costa Rica has wonderful beaches, restaurants and of course wildlife. We stayed at a lovely B&B, Nova which was in between Quepos and Manuel Antonio. After settling in we decided to drive into Quepos just in time to catch the sunset and have Rob crapped on by the troop of birds flying around. Later that night we heard about some live music and decided to check it out....and ended up meeting Mike from Toronto, the drum engineer from The Tragically Hip and The Rolling Stones. He was quite the character and made the night even more memorable, he told us to meet him again the following night at another bar where he would be playing the drums so we did. That night we ended spending the evening with a lovely young American couple who had just gotten engaged in Costa Rica!
On our first full day, we planned an adventure through the mangroves where everything flows harmoniously except me, as I envisioned flipping over in the Kayak and being eaten by crocodiles. I'm kind of new to this whole adventure thing where my feet aren't on the ground. I have to say that mangroves have the most extraordinary biodiversity of plants and wildlife. Everything was going smoothly until the monkeys started coming down off the trees and onto the Kayak, but as you can see I survived and they were super cute up close. We ended the tour with a lovely lunch made by locals before heading back to explore the beach. The following day we took a 4 hour hike through the jungle with our host’s mom, she was amazing and has only been in Manuel Antonio for a year but definitely knew her way around the jungle.
Manual Antonio is known for having some of the best beaches in Costa Rica, some people may disagree but I've seen better. The scenery around the beaches is stunning but the water is not very clear. Nevertheless, I've noticed that here in Costa Rica the bathing suit of choice is much like Brasil and is worn by ALL ages. LOL
The last stop on our adventure was a remote place on the Caribbean side called Tortuguero. It is a 6-hour drive from Manuel Antonio. So we hit the road early because you can only get there by boat and the last boat leaves at 4:30 pm. Thanks to Rob’s stellar driving we made it on the 3pm ferry to our eco lodge. It was something out of National Geographic as we loaded the boat and made the sign of the cross. All I could think was.... What if something happens, how are we going to get out of here? Our car was an hour by boat and I didn't see any medical facilities, but I guess that's the point of going remote. The Chinitas Eco Lodge, in the hamlet of San Francisco, was rated 4.5 but here in North America it was a solid 2 star, but we loved it. This part of the island only had two lodges and to help the local economy and provide services the locals would set up a few tables outside their homes and make you delicious inexpensive meals with the resources they had. It was a truly unforgettable experience, one evening the mother and daughter of one of these places actually ate along side us since we were the only ones there.
On our first full day, we decided to take an early morning (5:45) Canoe Tour through the rainforest canals. We heard about all the amazing wildlife and we were ready and confident after the Kayaking had been such a success at the last place. Well...I guess we should have expected rain in the rainforest, just not so much that we had to take water out of the canoe several times. The good news is we did see some amazing animals even though it rained for 2 out of the 3 hours we travelled. Luckily, the blazing sun came up and our walking tour in the afternoon was much more enjoyable. Tortuguero has jaguars, sloths, Howlers and Spider Monkeys, birds, Toucans, dull sharks, and reptiles including crocodiles (which is why I was panicking a bit in the Canoe), many of which we got to see.
Walking distance from our lodge was a dormant volcano that you could climb and some nature paths. We decided to do this one on our own and we were pleasantly surprised at how many animals we were able to find using the tricks we saw our former guides use. In Tortuguero, the canal meets up with the Caribbean ocean, beautiful to admire or walk along but not advisable for tourists to swim in due to the dangerous wildlife. I decide to adhere to that and only put my feet in just to say I went into the Pacific and Caribbean Ocean while in Costa Rica.
It's not a secret that time spent in nature is good for our health and well-being. After these days we spent in Tortuguero we felt very recovered and energized not only here but by all our stops. Sometime we have to be somewhere remote to realize and notice how much noise and negative energy we can be surrounded by in the city.
Stay tuned for tips, Rob‘s Costa Rica flora and fauna fun facts, and a top ten list from our adventure in Costa Rica in my next post. Heading back to Florida, Pura Vida y Gracias Costa Rica!
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