Costa Rica – Wildlife Watching in Manuel Antonio

From Monteverde we made our way to the Pacific coast and south to Manuel Antonio, a small town which boasts a beautiful national park with pristine white sand beaches and dense jungle.

We took a guided tour through the park and were amazed at the wildlife that was so easily observed. We saw colourful ‘Golden Orb’ spiders lying in wait in the middle of their huge webs strung metres across between trees. We watched sloths lazing in the trees, eating leaves at a painfully slow pace and witnessed a Cayman catch and eat a large land crab.

The beaches in the park are stunning, the sparkling white sand contrasted by the lush green jungle and sparkling turquoise water. Unlike many places we had been to, it was just like it looked on the postcards.

After lounging on the beach for a few hours, we decided to take a hike along one of the coastal paths. After we had got so far that it was not worth turning back it began to rain so heavily that even under the dense jungle canopy we got soaked. We marched on as the jungle got gloomier and gloomier and suddenly heard a crashing noise just metres from the path as if something were rummaging in the undergrowth. We both whirled around but couldn’t see anything. There was another, sound and another. Eventually we looked up to find a solitary Capuchin monkey munching on fruit and throwing the remains in our direction. We watched us curiously from the trees as he kept chewing and sending his rubbish our way.