Costa Rica - Day 7 - Monteverde

We had a rough first night, as although the Cayoba Tropical was very beautiful, it is too close to the main road, so we were kept awake by traffic, fighting dogs and another bloody rooster. The next morning Paul made us a really nice Costa Rican breakfast before we took off towards the Manuel Antonio National Park. Our prebooked guide had cancelled on us the night before but Mike knew of a couple well-known guides and gave us their names to search for once we got to the park.  We hopped on the bus and traveled along the main road towards the public beach, and were entertained by all the tourist traps and fancy restaurants along the way. As we rounded the last corner and the ocean came into view, we all "oooh'ed" at the same time.

We accidentally got off the bus a couple stops too early, but it was easy enough for us to make our way down the road to the entrance of Manuel Antonio National Park.  Along the way, we were approached several times by would-be guides, all promising a money-back guarantee if we didn't see any animals.  That sounded like a pretty decent deal, but we were pretty set on locating one of the specific guides that Mike had recommended.  Luckily for us, once at the gate we only had to ask one person and he was able to quickly find a woman off our list, named Astell.

Almost the moment that we walked into the park we saw both a couple spider monkeys and a sloth.  I could see now that the previous guides' money-back guarantee was actually something of a joke.  The monkeys were completely unbothered by the crowd of tourists below them and totally focused on their pursuit of foraging for bugs.  The sloth to the left of the path moved so slowly that the tour guides outside the gate could continue their sales pitches based on him alone. Astell let us get over our monkey-glee for a little while there before leading us further down the path.  She had a really good eye and was easily able to point out several types of spiders, birds, and insects that no one else seemed to catch...or were even looking for. 

She would set up her telescope and fix it on the tiny creature from metres away, and we could see and take photos through the scope. 

She found us interesting plants along the way and explained where they we from and what medicinal purposes they held.  One tree was called 'yellow rain' that can be boiled into a tea to cure diarrhea. The Spanish brought it with them when they arrived for that particular purpose.  Then there was the 'Sleeping plant', named in respect to how its leaves wilt on contact as a defense mechanism. When ground into a paste it can be used as an anesthetic.  There was also a toxic tree that grew along the beach.  Its leaves, sap and nuts will all cause a burn or rash on your skin, and apparently the nut tastes like 10 jalapenos all at once. People without guides were sitting under them on the beach because they are also great shade trees.

While on the tour we saw a bunch of Capuchin monkeys, including one with a baby riding on her back, a few more spider monkeys, and a handful of sloths too. One sloth had a baby riding on her stomach! This was more impressive to me than the baby Capuchin because sloths seem more rare and apparently don't breed as quickly.  It is true what's they say about sloths.  They barely move and do actually grow moss on their fur.  One sloth was directly above us on the beach path and at first his face was obscured by some leaves, but every slowly became visible as he ate them chomp by chomp.

Towards the end of our tour we saw some raccoons scavenging around tourists on the beach to steal their bags. We watched one pull a backpack over a log before the owner came running.  It was really funny and they are much more bold than their Canadian counterparts.

The other couple on the tour with us were French and once Astell realized that most of our group spoke French, she nearly stopped speaking English all together. Only Sandra and I don't speak French and I found myself having to ask the other girls if what Astell was saying was just aimless chatting or relevant to our tour.  I was really annoyed by this, and how Astell took a call every few minutes to set up tours for later in the day.  I know she's got to make a living, but it's not great business practice to forgo your current tour for one that's not even happening yet.  She was good at finding us animals when she was off the phone but imagine ask the other things we might have seen.  Before she left us, we each handed her our payment and when she saw I didn't tip her she about 3 times if I enjoyed myself.  I simply said 'yes, it was nice' because I'm too much of a chicken to have given her honest feedback.

After the tour we stayed to lounge on the private beach.  It was so beautiful, with such warm water and perfectly rock-free sandy beaches.  The waves were a bit stronger than we anticipated and both Christine and I were thrown off our feet at one point. After about an hour we left the beach to follow the Cathedral hiking trail, which took us up the hill to a few look-out points. Personally I would have preferred to stay in the water, but it was a very nice hike.

Back at the bed and breakfast, we cleaned up as fast as we were able to and found our way back to a highly-recommended restaurant to watch the sun set over diner.  Unfortunately there wasn't a spectacular sunset that evening but the food was very good. We had something called a shrimp tower that was made of fried plantain crisps alternating with a shrimp and avocado salad. Might sound odd but it was delicious.  Since we all were uncertain about what to order, we each got a different dish and passed our plate to the left after a minute.  It was a really silly and fun way to try the whole menu. We perhaps also drank a lot...can't remember  ;)

I tried to grab some money out from the bank on the way home but was thwarted, even thought both Christine and Caroline we able to take out cash, and all three of us use the same bank.  I was annoyed and embarrassed because I had to borrow more money, but at least the bed and breakfast had free calls to Canada.  I would have to sort it out with my bank later.

In the evening, which comes a lot earlier than in Canada, I spoke to Drew for a bit online, then joined the girls at the Jacuzzi. It was a bit shocking at first as you except it to be hot, but its just as cold as the pool, only with bubbles. We sat around and chatted for a while before I decided I waned to venture into the forest above us at the end of Mike and Paul's property. Mike had told me earlier that day that they had a lot of tree frogs up there, of which I was yet to seeing the wild.  As I unlocked the gate to climb the stairs into the woods, I had a moment of clarity and decided I should take a dog with me for protection, just in case.  I called for Shadow, who was the sprier of the two larger dogs, but both her and Rica came bounding towards me and pushed through the gate, up the stairs and into the woods before I even knew what was happening.  I managed to get the gate closed before Ginger, the Jack Russell, joined them.  She wasn't too happy about that. I ran to the top of the stairs and was taken aback to see that the forest had absolutely no trails, no fences, and no light whatsoever.  In a panic, I called for the dogs to come back, but they were gone. I was  so terrified that I lost Mike and Paul's beloved dogs, and that they'd get attacked by a poison snake, or run through the woods onto a road and got hit by a truck.

By this point Christine had gotten out of the tub to help me find them. She stayed at the top of the stairs calling them while I ran back to my room to get some jeans and proper shoes on. I had to go after them and couldn't hike in the dark woods wearing a bathing suit and flip flops.  I was praying that they'd have already found their way back by the time I got back outside, but no such luck.  Christine was still calling for them and Caroline was shaking their kibble bowls to try to lure them home.  Back in the woods I tried to make my way through the trees calling their names, but just couldn't...the ground was uneven and there really was no path to follow. It was like walking into a wall. I turned around and tried another direction, calling out the dogs names, when Shadow ran to me out of the darkness! I grabbed her collar and escorted her back down into the backyard, where Rica had already appeared. She must have just climbed down the garden wall or something because the other girls didn't see her come back either.

After that excitement, and with me getting a good ribbing from the girls, we all went to bed.