Pay phones in CR National Parks?

This was the bug from last night that scared David off the bed.

Today we went to Manuel Antonio National Park.


this was some huge bamboo.

Yea I'm a tourist, so what!

I was a little but surprised to see Electric lines and pipes, not to mention a pay phone. David's dad was like "this isn't even a real jungle they water it!" We were laughing.
Sr. was dancing while I was trying to switch my lens.


It was neat and we did some pretty strenuous hiking but I guess because of all the tour groups that go in, it wasn't quite as wild as I had hoped. None the less we saw more howlers, capuchins and a sloth. We also got to see a cute squirrel monkey. It's really weird though because there are all these guys outside the park telling you that you have to park with them to go to the park entrance and that they will give give you a tour for $20 per person, otherwise we would miss all the animals. That they know all the right spots to see animals, bla bla bla. We decided not to take a tour whether it was by some local dude or by the actual park employees. I'm glad we didn't pay the extra money for it.


So we hiked the main trail and it lead to a beach, and then I went with Sr. up the difficult uphill hike to puento whatever to the overlook of the ocean. I was having a hard time climbing the steps it was pretty steep. We hiked up the moutain outcrop that is the first picture on my previous blog.


The view from the top of the Puento. lol I can't remember what it's called.



I'm like the beach life paparazzi.



David got bored.
In the Pacific Ocean! Rough waves too.

After Manuel Antonio we went home to rest and then David and I went on an ATV tour. It was pretty awesome, there was no one else on the tour and it was the last one of the day so it was basically like a private tour and we got to go pretty far and see a lot of the back country.

We drove though African Oil palm plantations, small towns in the mountains, through rivers, and the real jungle.
This is Tica a plant that grows here that is used to make furniture from the wood.
When you crush the leaves it looks like blood comes out, this pigment is used for tattoos and henna.


African Oil Palms, berries are used to make oils for vehicles as well as body products like lotions and shampoos.

We are such dorks!



High speed going through a river

The country side outside a little town Naranjita. We ate at this local outdoor restaurant there. It was beautiful.
It was very laid back, like a huge barn turned into open restaurant. Ate some "tico" food casados, delicious. It's basically rice and beans with either beef, pork, or chicken, a little salad, and usu picadillo which to them can be made in many ways but it's like boiled bananas or squash chopped up with spices and other veggies. We still haven't been able to get a recipe ffrom anyone.
This was on the rim of our water, Davdi thought it was an ornage but I noticed that the skin was green so I tried it right as David was going to eat the whole thing and realized it was a lime. David was relieved he didn't eat the whole thing at once. It was super sour and orange.

Ok, well that's enough for tonight. This is too time consuming. And I take too many pictures so it's hard to go through them ALL to pick a few for this.

Tomorrow we are suposed to do the canopy tour thing. We'll see if it happens.

Night!