April has been a more bumpy ride than usual this year.
From this...
...to this... 
...in just a few days. I'm sick of washing my truck... it's gonna stay 'brown' until this latest system rolls through.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Spring?
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Manuel Antonio – Beachside
We had some time before departing by bus to San Jose so while the family did some souvenir shopping I did some shoot’n. And we got out on the beach for a walk before checking out and lounging by the pool.
The balance of the trip was a bus ride back to San Jose with enough time for some quick souvenir shopping before another excellent meal out. Up at 4:30am to begin our return trip home.
El Avion
We were pretty stuffed from the spread on the boat so we decide to go for beers and something light at this unique restaurant. Based around a Fairchild CF-123 that was abandoned in San Jose, a relic of the Iran-Contra affair, it was relocated to this cliff side location. On the upper level the tail-plane serves as a bar, the cargo bay blasts loud music with neon lights. The open air atmosphere and great food was a nice end to the day.
http://www.elavion.net/
Sailing Away
Our afternoon activity was to take a catamaran tour. The tour included sailing, whale watching, snorkelling, and included a fantastic spread of food and drink.
This was our drivers daughter, quite the charmer.
The whales we found the guides called “Pygmy Killer Whales” and although they are resident they don’t usually see them. They looked like dolphins but without the ‘beak’.
And of course a pretty decent sunset.
Manuel Antonio National Park - wanderings
After the tour we spent some more time in the park. There is no food or drink sales or any commercial activity allowed inside the park and due to the quota the beaches were relatively empty. Family went in the water and I went shoot’n.
Crabs on the beach
White faced monkeys putting on a show as they passed through the trees along the beach.
Manuel Antonio National Park - Tour
Our day began with a hearty breakfast at the hostel across the street from our hotel and then an excellent guided tour of Manuel Antonio National Park. The park is intensively managed and the number of visitors per day limited.
We saw lots of wildlife on this tour which was amazing considering the number of people scurrying around after their guides.
Brown Pelican
Lizard
Bird – don’t know what kind
These little bats hang out under the branches like this to avoid the monkeys.
We saw several sloths. A crop of my telephoto shot.
Thru the spotting scope.
This shot is one of my favourites from the trip and I don’t know why. I think it’s the green.
Travel to Manuel Antonio
Some more rough roads but spectacular view before getting onto pavement again.
Our rest stop featured a ‘float’ of crocodiles in the river below the bridge. You aren't meant to feed them but guess why they're here.
Further along the highway we crossed narrow one-way bridges originally build by the Chiquita banana company. More modern bridges are currently being built alongside thankfully as these have seen better days and now can't keep up to the volumes of traffic.
Our hotel in Manuel Antonio featured a pool which saw a lot of use during our stay.
Serpentarium
Before dinner we had time to visit the Serpentarium in Santa Elena which exceeded my expectations. It contained many species of snakes, frogs, and lizards and was remarkably clean and the staff were eager to share their knowledge with us.
Sky Trek – Zipline
This ranked pretty high by all of us for one of the most fun activities. Eleven ziplines the longest being 770m, the highest 130m. It was foggy with some light rain so mostly it was impossible to see the other end of the line. One of the stations was right up on a tower on the Continental Divide.
Sky Walk
This is a great way to see the Cloud Forest as you get a chance not only to be on the ground in it but also to look down from up in it from suspension bridges. Six in all the longest 300m and the highest 49m. 
I found it especially interesting to look down on the canopy and see how it was layered.
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