Manuel Antonio National Park

Today we drove to Manuel Antonio Park which is the smallest national park in Costa Rica but has the most concentrated wildlife.  3 types of monkeys are there - howler, white-faced, and squirrel. The squirrel monkey is the smallest type of monkey at about 25cm and difficult to find.  Other animals in this part are 2- and 3-toed sloths which are animals that generally stay put as they have a very slow metabolism and only get out of their tree once a week to defecate.  There's also a variety of frogs and birds.  Of course, some people go there just for their magnificent beaches.  We decided to get a guide because we knew that sloths and monkeys are hard to spot in the trees without a guide and a spotting scope.  This proved to be an excellent decision.  We parked at a lot about 300m from the entrance and paid $4 (which is the going price) and paid $40pp for the guide and entrance which was also the going price. Our guide was named Lenny and as I usually do, I requested to see the squirrel monkey.  He was hesitant to say anything because they are the hardest monkeys to find as they're endangered and also small which of course is why I requested them in the first place.

Here are some of the pictures from the tour:

Howler Monkey

2-toed Sloth

Sleeping Fruit Bats

3-toed Sloth

Large Red Grasshopper

Halloween crabs

Mosquito-eating Bats

Smiling Baby 3-toed sloth

Our tour was about to conclude and I was a bit disappointed because I hadn't seen the squirrel monkey. However, before our guide was out of sight something incredible happened.  We happened upon a group of squirrel monkeys!! Not only that, but quickly thereafter, we came across a very large group of white-faced monkeys that surrounded us - left, right, in front, behind, above - it was incredible!!  We probably saw a total of 15 monkeys today.  I was truly impressed.

I give you a conversation with monkeys:

"Hey, what's going on over there?"

"I see humans."

Do you bite your thumb at me, sir? No sir, I bite my thumb but I do not bite my thumb at your ,sir.

"Hm, should I eat here or jump to a different branch?"

"Look there, someone's coming!"

"What? What are you staring at?"

"Does my butt look big?"

"Lady, I'm watching you."

"I said no flash!"

And did you know that monkeys smoke the ganja?

After watching the monkeys for more than 30 minutes, we relaxed by the beach for a while and took a dip in the ocean which was the perfect temperature. What a great day!!