Manuel Antonio: Mom and John's Visit

Mom and John came to visit me last weekend! We took a trip to Manuel Antonio...

I had an awesome time! We did and saw some really cool things; seeing them and spending time with them was great too! I'm really glad they came to Costa Rica! 

This is the view from the balcony of our hotel room. 

Not too shabby... In addition to the ocean view, we could also see a little sloth hanging out in a tree from our room.

Red- eyed Frog 

The first night we were there it rained... a lot! It was perfect though because we were able to have some down time and take a much needed nap before our night adventure. 

Si Como No, the hotel we stayed in, has a partnership with a wildlife preserve that's right next to the hotel. We signed up to do a night walk of the preserve. It turned out to be really cool. 

As soon as we arrived at the starting point of our walk we could hear numerous frogs calling with their unique songs. I honestly had no idea what to expect on our walk, but with a Tico named Michael as our guide we set out into the dark, noisy forest.

Frog being eaten by a snake
(The snake will eventually swallow the frog whole)

I was shocked at how many different types of frogs, reptiles, and insects we saw. We (and by "we" I mean mostly our tour guide) found a ridiculous number of frogs using only flashlights to spot them in the pitch-black darkness. He showed us so many frogs! Glass frogs, Gladiator frogs, and Red- eyed frogs are just a few types of the many we saw. We saw a frog that makes a sounds identical to that of a goat. How weird is that? We even saw a frog being eaten by a snake!



Bright and early the next morning we went to the rain forest preserve in Manuel Antonio. It was great. We saw so many neat animals and creatures. From huge spiders to slow moving sloths, we saw it all. As soon as we entered the preserve we noticed the group of Howler monkeys jumping through the tree tops above our heads: a pretty promising way to start the day.

Our tour guide spotted most of the animals, but I was pretty good at finding the spiders sitting in their webs. 

Golden Orb Spider

(Yeah, I found this one)

Sloth chilling 

 One of my favorite animals we saw in the rain forest is definitely the sloth. We saw a total of four sloths that day; we saw both three-toed and two-toed sloths. It was even more exciting seeing the sloth that was hanging up-side-down in a tree eating leaves; they rarely move.
To my surprise, I learned that sloths are part of the armadillo/ anteater family. One of their main predators are eagles. And they only come down from the trees once a week to go to the bathroom. They also grow a green algae on the fur on their back to blend in more with their habitat.
So basically they're awesome animals.

Sloth eating yummy leaves

In addition to the animals I have pictured we also saw Iguanas, lizards, birds, a hawk, a raccoon, a stick bug, crabs, Jesus lizards (they can run across water), and a big blue butterfly. We didn't see any monkey-eating jaguars to John's disappointment, but everything we did see was really cool.

Inside the park there are a few beautiful beaches. Apparently right before this area was going to be bulldozed for new luxury hotels, a law was signed making it a protected area. Good thing that happened! This beach is the beach we chose to spend the rest of our day at after the tour through the park was over. The water was perfect and the sand was soft; it was just an awesome beach... probably one of my favorites in Costa Rica.  I had so much fun playing in the ocean with my mom and John.

Family Photo

(A family that finds sloths together stays together) 

Monkey picking fruits

 Back at the hotel pool after our exciting time exploring the rain forest and hanging out at the beach, we had a visit from John's favorite animals: monkeys!
These little guys had a blast picking fruits off the trees and dropping the seeds onto Mom's pool chair. She forgave them because they're so cute. John (who actually despises monkeys) even enjoyed watching them.

Monkey being a monkey/ monkey jumping to the next tree

Monkeys fleeing the scene of the crime
(With baby on board)

I had such a great weekend... and I know Mom and John did too!