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Melissa & Dave - Adventures at Sea

Manuel Antonio Park

We got up early this morning to head for Manuel Antonio Park.  This is one of the most famous ecological parks in Costa Rica.  Unfortunately we were pretty disappointed by it.  It was super crowded – so much so that it was amazing we saw any wildlife at all because of all the noise people were making.  And there was really only one road to walk down.  We didn’t feel like we were hiking so much as at the zoo.  

None the less, we did hire a guide and see some things that left on our own we would have missed out on.  We were told to expect $25 per person ($100 total for the four of us) for a guide.  We all agreed there was no way we would pay that.  And indeed we were able to negotiate it down to $40 total.

With the guide's spotting scope we were able to see lots of bugs we wouldn't otherwise have noticed.  There were a number of different grasshopper varieties.

This is a rainbow grasshopper. 

This is a new grasshopper - they loose their stripes over time.  Notice how small and as of yet undeveloped his wings are.

Here is a beetle of some sort:

And this little larvae was hanging in the middle of the air - suspended on a fine strand of silk.

Here is a stick bug.

And Melissa is sure she would have spotted this even without the guide:

A giant millipede:

Can you spot the small green lizard in this photo?

The guide also showed us these cool plants that close up when a bug lands on them to protect themselves from being eaten:

We also got to see a couple of sloths - which was the one animal we hadn't yet seen.  Melissa took this somewhat crappy video of one, but at least you can see how slowly they move:

Of course there were more monkeys.  Never did we think we would become somewhat blasé about seeing and photographing them.

And at the end of the trail there is a beach where we are told the monkeys will go and steal your belongings if you don't hold onto them.

For dinner we headed to a place called El Avion.  Its a C-123 airplane that they turned into a restaurant.  The airplane has an amazing history - having been involved in one of America's biggest scandals.  In 1986, a guy named Eugene Hasenfus was led out of the Nicaraguan jungle at gunpoint.  He was a CIA operative and had been aboard a Fairchild C-123 when it crashed.  He parachuted out, despite having been under orders not to wear one.  That was the beginning of the end for the Oliver North operation that supplied guns to Nicaraguan rebels.  The plane they turned into the restaurant was the sister plane to the one that crashed.  The restaurant bought it in 2000 for $3000 and turned it into a restaurant.

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