Manuel Antonio Beach - Day 2

Friday, February 8

Everyone was up by 7:30 and we headed to breakfast.  After eggs, gallo pinto, fruit, and toast the boys couldn’t resist the pool.  We were the only ones in it and we had a gorgeous morning by the pool.  Ryan was the only studious one at the moment, but the rest of us swam and watch iguanas lounging on the pool deck with us!

Eventually, we wanted to hang out on the beach... in the shade because the sun and sand were so hot.

Kirsten and Ryan brought some cool foldable sand toys.  The boys loved every minute on the beach.  

Ocean and Noah are playing with the foldable sand toys... perfect for packing light!!!

Ryan and Eddie loved body surfing and eventually rented a surfboard. 

Baby Ezra hung out in his baby-pop-up-tent on the beach with us (which I don't have a picture of) but he and Jaden hung out for a bit on the sheet after Jaden's nap, too.

While Jaden played happily in the sand with the boys, Eddie and I went for a walk.  The beach formed a bay, so we walked to one end. 

At that point we saw a lot of people exiting the national park from these stairs...  of course Eddie had to go exploring.  

We found this bay where they were giving boat tours... but it was too expensive for our liking.

We also saw this gorgeous view...

We hung out at the exit, and tagged along with a group who had a guide.  Their tour was just ending, and he was pointing out something in the bushes.  It was a monkey!  It was down by the lagoon getting a drink of water.  We stood there and watched for a few minutes before heading back.  I asked a woman what else she saw on the tour, and she said just spiders, lizards, birds, and turtles.  Their guide never found any sloths or monkeys until just at the moment we were standing near them.  That was enough to convince us that it was not worth it to pay for the tour.

We headed back to the kids and Kirsten and Ryan, and on the way we saw a lady holding something that was trying to crawl out of her hand.  I went over and saw this:

A baby sea turtle! 












First monkeys; now a baby sea turtle!  This was turning into quite the adventure.  Upon our return to our spot on the beach, we found our sand-covered son, 

And we spotted Kirsten near the tree line, pointing to the top of a palm tree.

Sure enough, there was a sloth hanging out in the tree!  Everything we had hoped to see… all in the span of about 30 minutes!  I love being out in God’s beautiful creation!  Plus we saw hermit crabs, people horseback riding on the beach, raccoons, and snails… the list goes on!

A snail made a heart in the sand.

All those little trails are from snails, too.

Strange monkey we found in the tree.

After all that adventure, we decided to clean up a bit and go back to the pool.  There were some college-age kids hanging around, and of course Jaden, Noah, and Ocean had their attention.  I started asking them about things they had seen and came to find out that they were here in Costa Rica for a semester abroad program from a university in North Carolina.  They plan to stay until May, and all of their weekend excursions are covered under the cost of their tuition!  What a great experience.  If you are in college and reading this, let me give you some advice:  If your school offers you an opportunity to do a semester abroad, DO IT!  It seems that it would be an experience of a life-time.  I was too scared to do that when I was in college, but now I realize what a great opportunity that would have been!

Kirsten and Ryan had dinner while we played in the pool with the kids.  Pretty soon, we all got cold and hungry and joined them.  Dinner was another kind of fish wrapped in a banana leaf.  Again… delicious!  When we returned to our room, we found this:

Awwww!