I started the day with a swim - 70 lengths of a small oval pool - only enough room for one comfortably so luckily there was only me! Breakfast at 7 and as they didn't start serving until 7 we were all queuing behind a neatly placed chain at the entrance!
We all met at 0745 for a short walk to the National Park entrance.....lots of people were there - some on nature walks others wanting to make their way to the pristine beaches for a day in the sun! Many were Costa Ricans - who apparently pay local rates. The reason we had to be there early, not withstanding that walking early is better, is that the park limits entry to 800 - and it is first come first served.
So what did we see - we saw both kinds of sloth, two and three toed but the three toed had a small baby which was exploring the world above its mum and was great to watch; mantled howler monkeys; raccoon and white faced monkeys - the latter are both well known raiders of picnic baskets - indeed a raccoon was spotted running with a bag of crisps in its mouth- hotly pursued by some annoyed beach goers who were not willing to donate their crisps to it.....luckily it dropped them .....result today: beach goers one raccoons nil!
I also got a great picture of a spider with yellow spots on its back. When we reached the beaches - some of the group stayed -but John and I wended our way slowly back along the beach path - lovely and quiet - at the end we took a small boat across a narrow strip of river and then walked back to the main town. We stopped for two lovely iced coffees - luckily they were lovely as they cost £8 for the two.
Back at the hotel I decided to go to the pool until we had to get ready for our dolphin and possibly whale watching trip - including a light lunch. 12 of us went - because it was a busy holiday weekend and the road to our hotel was blocked by the police we walked to the junction with the main road to catch the bus - only to be passed by it going up to the hotel - it all worked out though, he turned around and we jumped on stopping en route to pay our $79 each at the office and arriving at the dock just before 2pm for our 2pm departure. We had been looking at all the brochures and wondered which boat was ours - it turned out to be by far the best catamaran - Ocean King - the downside was it was a bit 'booze cruisey' with loud party music from the start albeit anyone having alcohol was limited to 4 drinks. That said the fruit and biscuits we had at the start and the overall facilities on the boat were superb. We started by going along the coast and saw the Manuel Antonio National Park from the sea - a new perspective. However after we stopped for people to snorkel the music improved - less rap and more Eagles! We didn't snorkel but took pictures of others in the group venturing forth. Lunch was served while the snorkelers were away albeit ours seemed to smell the food and as we got in line Jules and Liz weren't far behind! The meal was truly excellent - fish in sauce, rice, pasta salad and tortilla chips - so good in fact we didn't need dinner.
As we hauled anchor and headed towards the setting sun we were joined by the spotted dolphins they rode the bow wave and we had a magical 20-30minutes watching them.
As the sun set we made our way back to the dock arriving around 6pm and were taken back to our hotel. Albeit if we had been on land and seen/heard the ship go past we wouldn't have wanted to be on it - the overall experience turned out not to be too bad at all....we all had a relaxing and different afternoon.
When back in our room we had a shower to wash off the salt spray and suntan cream before going to the bar for a refreshing fruit salad and ice cream followed by a coffee ....next stop bed bed for another early ish night - I am definitely sleeping well!