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Fri Oct 18 2013: Monkeys howling at Antonio Banderas

Just a quick update. We left Yanil and Evelyn's place and headed westwards to follow the Pacific coast to Manuel Antonio National Park. The ride was typical Central American jungle scenery, but we were a bit disappointed that the coastal road was quite a bit inland, so we didn't get a view of the ocean on our ride southwards.


Heading south again

We checked into a hotel just outside the tiny town of Quepos, just a couple of kms away from the park. We're still feeling a bit travel-fatigued and decided to book a couple of nights here. It still rains in the afternoon, so we had to schedule our park outing for the morning.


Albino tree frog

Neda kept forgetting the name of the park, so we called it the Antonio Banderas Park. It's supposed to be well-known for the diversity of wildlife. It's recommended to book a tour guide, as they have telescopes and can point out all the hidden creatures that you'd normally miss if you walked the park by yourselves.


Iguana on the lookout for Antonio Banderas

There were caterpillars hanging in the middle of path at face level.
Almost walked into a few of them!

We were promised that we would see a whole bunch of interesting animals, like monkeys and sloths. I especially wanted to see a sloth just because I thought the Spanish name was funny: Oso Perezoso. I read it on a sign somewhere days ago and while we were in San Jose, Evelyn found it hilarious that I kept repeating it like a little kid. Oso Perezoso.

Sadly, the nature walk was a bit of a bust. The guide just pointed out a bunch of bugs and reptiles that you could see anywhere on the side of the road... No Oso Perezosos...


More caterpillars

Green iguana, Neda's favorite

Snake

We only saw a few Howler Monkeys, they were too far to photograph well.
This is a Mantled Howler, common in Costa Rica

While we were hiking in Arenal a few days ago, we heard hordes of Howler Monkeys in the distance, but never saw them. We read that some of the monkeys get very territorial and throw fruits at hikers that pass by too close. Neda said that it'd be pretty cool to have fruit being thrown at you by a monkey, and I replied, "You mean, like a coconut?"...

The Howler Monkey is the largest monkey in Central and South America. They're well known for their very loud grunts and howls. The Guiness Book of World Records says that Howler Monkeys are the loudest animals in the world and can be heard from as far as 5 kms away!


More iguana action

Manuel Antonio is well-known for its beautiful beaches

Unfortunately the tour took longer than we thought and we had to check out of our hotel by noon, so we didn't get a chance to laze about on the beaches. The park was kind of disappointing, we thought we'd see a lot more animals. Didn't live up to its hype. :(


Bye bye beach

For the folks on ADV who requested more "calendar" shots of me...

On our way to Panama!

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