Manuel Antonio II

My friends, Alyssa, Casey, and I went back to Manuel Antonio for the weekend because Alyssa had never been. It was ridiculously hot, but beautiful.

Casey suggested we check out Iguana Beach, which sounded great because it's a little locals-only beach inside the park and I'd never been. For lunch, we got some fruit at a little stand and I made the horrendous mistake of buying a mango. Apparently, mangos are the primary staple of iguanas. As soon as we started eating the iguanas came out. I think they're pretty cool guys, iguanas, but when they're creeping out of rocks everywhere, staring at you with this hungry intensity and suddenly you're surrounded by crooked, pointy teeth and cold, yellow eyes...it's not so great. I started getting nervous and began throwing scraps of mango peel away from us, and sure enough, that's what they were after. We lied down to nap but I couldn't. 

I kept imagining the iguanas coming for me.  

Pacuare River Rafting

"El río Pacuare es considerado uno de los cinco mejores ríos para hacer rafting en el mundo por su belleza natural y espectaculares rápidos." Which means, the Pacuare is intense. I mean, Class III/IV intense. Unfortunately, it hadn't rained for a while so the river wasn't as llena as it could have been.

Deb and me

Everybody

As you can see, it's probably a good thing the river wasn't much more full because I fell out. (Twice.)
Deb, being the kind woman that she is, tried to help me back into the raft.
But failed.
:o)

Semana Santa

Over Semana Santa (Holy Week), my parents came to visit!!! I'm sad to say I failed on the picture-taking for that week. (Most of the pictures I took were with my Mom's camera, and the card isn't compatible with my computor.) BUT it was really wonderful to see my family. I surprised them by meeting them at the airport, and the following morning we went ziplining in Monteverde. I was thoroughly impressed, not only that my parents wanted to go ziplining but also they BOTH did the Tarzan swing!!!! That's where you're harnassed to a tree and jump off a high tower and free fall for a moment before swinging out over the valley. Despite my apprehension, my parents insisted that they could do it, and they DID, which means my parents are cooler than yours.

After Monteverde we went to Manuel Antonio, which was really exciting for me because I had never been there before. We sprung for a guide which was WAY worth it because he knew a ton about everything. We saw lots of sloths and howler monkeys and white-faced monkeys squirrel monkeys and iguanas and bats just all kinds of animals. Thinking about it now I really should have taken more pictures. And there are beaches inside the park, too, which are beautiful and WARM. If you ever find yourself in Manuel Antonio, I suggest you skip Playa #1 and going straight for #2 or #3 (or Iguana Beach) because they're much less crowded.

Capuchin monkey (I took these through our guide's telescope)
my parents in front of a bamboo tree bats, incognito
My family and I then went south to the Osa Peninsula which is one of the most bio-diverse places on the entire planet, according to National Geographic. It was GORGEOUS, absolutely breath-taking. We even saw Macaws on the beach. The beautiful, huge, EMPTY beach. I really need to get those pictures to show you what I mean...

Mom and me with Gera, our guide

PANAMA

For our visa run, a couple girls and I went to Bocas Del Toro, Panama. Our bus left at 6am so we were pretty groggy and bleary-eyed for the first couple hours, but soon we hit serious traffic. We found out some local students were protesting about a shortage of teachers.





After we got by and crossed the boarder, we took a water taxi to our hotel and met this adorable little boy. I fell in love a little bit.


Everything in Bocas del Toro is on stilts. See?!



Snorkeling



The Best Beach In the Whole Wide Wide World (Red Frog Beach)




The Second Best Beach In the Whole Wide Wide World (Playa Estrella/Starfish Beach)


If you are at all even slightly considering going to Bocas del Toro, I recommend staying at the Gran Kahuna. It's by far my favorite hostel.




Pura vida.