Day 7 - Manuel Antonio National Park

We woke up to a spectacular morning of sunshine, calm wind, and the sounds of surf and howler monkeys. I forgot to mention that our hotel is on the beach and the national park entrance is behind our hotel! After breakfast we were off on our park tour. Manuel Antonio National Park is the most popular park in Costa Rica. We saw tons of wildlife. It was a bit crowded at times, so we kept moving past some wildlife, like howler monkeys, which our amazing guide Daniel had already shown us several times before. We saw several sloths, which seems to be everyone’s favorites. Probably one of the highlights of the trip was that we got to spend some up close time with a juvenile 3-toed sloth (we had already seen several 2-toed and 3-toed sloths, but not so close). What was so cool was that he was moving quite a bit. At one point we got to see him move from one branch to another. Doesn’t sound like much, but for a sloth, that’s excitement! We ended up at the most spectacular bay. We spent a couple hours there swimming and relaxing. I heard many, if not all, kids say it was the nicest beach they had ever been to. We returned to our hotel around 1:00 pm. It was free time. A couple hit the beach right away. Most walked to town for lunch. I spent the entire afternoon in the water taking turns trying to teach them how to surf. The waves were a little big for learning but most who tried got up. Don’t be surprised if your child tells you that they want to learn to surf now; I think a few of them were bitten by the surf bug. Towards sunset (before 6:00 here) several were still out there duck diving the waves as they increased in size and fun at high tide. We had another lovely dinner at a restaurant a short walk away. After dinner, some went to bed (the long day in the sun took its toll), some went out on the beach with me, while others just relaxed in groups in various rooms talking. We leave at 10:00 am tomorrow for San Jose. We need to get our COVID tests in the afternoon. So, they’ll have a nice long morning to enjoy sunrise, walk the beach, and swim in the ocean one last time before we leave.