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How did it take me this long to visit Costa Rica?
First full day here and I’m pretty certain that I can make this place my home.
The people are nice, the weather sublime, the beaches beautiful and the coconut juice is rum optional.

I didn’t even mind getting up at 6:30am because according to locals, the earlier the better to spot the monkeys!
We walked the ‘Monkey Trail’ at our hotel where Jacob met his first redeye tree frog, had breakfast overlooking the Pacific Ocean and were on the van to Manuel Antonio National Park by 9am. That alone is an accomplishment but we were just getting started.
When we arrived at the entrance to the park that Forbes, in 2011, named one of the world’s 12 most beautiful national parks, we bought our tickets and hired a private guide. A word of caution, deal directly with the guys holding the telescopes and not the ‘runners.’ The guides are friendly, knowledgeable and inexpensive and I would highly recommend this guy.

Geiner spotted animals and insects invisible to most.

Better yet, he gave us a nice little history lesson on the park, helped Jacob with photos for his new travel blog and took photos of us! #priceless
The tour ended at one of the park’s 4 beaches where we were greeted by the Cost Rican mafia…

These sneaky little monkeys are worst than gypsies and will steal anything in sight.

On the way to the beach, we spotted baby bats, beautiful butterflies, lazy lizards and relentless racoons but the prize for me was the stealthy sloth.
Sloths are extremely difficult to spot but with our guide, we saw not one but two kinds; the 2-toed and the 3-toed sloths sleeping the day away.

By the time we made it to the first beach, we were ready to chill and swim in the warm Pacific.

There are four beach options total but 2 where we ended our hike. One is more popular and where you might risk losing stuff to the monkeys and racoons that comb the beach looking for loot. This guy almost walked away with my favorite cowboy hat.

We swam both beaches, the busier beach with the four-legged thieves…

And the peaceful lagoon a few feet away…

Posed for pictures…

And explored the beautiful rock formations…

It was awesome!
Spend the day if you can but don’t forget the sunblock and the snacks but not too many snacks cause you know, the mafia will try to take them from you.