Wildlife Refuge Tour in Manuel Antonio

Our wildlife refuge tour of Manuel Antonio was one of my favorite organized activities of our entire time in Costa Rica.

We were split into three small groups. Our tour guide’s name was Flaco. This means skinny in Spanish, and he explained that it is what all his friends call him. He did a GREAT job in finding us lots of wildlife to see up close and personal.

Flaco and la cucaracha he made me from palm leaves

In the opening of the tour, he made a cucaracha (cockroach) out of two palm leaves. Because I could name the typical Costa Rican meal (Casado - see my Tour of Heredia post) the fastest, he gave me la cucaracha to keep. I still have him in my room at home, preserved with hairspray, just as Flaco told me to do.

The first monkey we saw was a howler monkey. They make CRAZY loud noises in order to claim the territory around them. Apparently, the male monkey who howls the loudest gets to claim his territory.

Next, we got as up close and personal as one can possibly get to a white-faced monkey. Remember how I said the butterflies didn’t like me when we went to the butterfly garden? Well, monkeys loove me.

my monkey friend

This guy wouldn’t leave me alone, and kept trying to grab my hair from a low branch. I was able to capture the end of our encounter with him.

he was ready for his closeup!

You can see this guy in action via video here via youtube.

The guides stressed that it is very important not to touch the monkeys, as they can be dangerous. People sometimes enjoy the beach within the wildlife refuge, and it is important to watch your belongings, as the monkeys will steal bags.

We got to see a variety of lizards, as well. The nicknamed “Jesus lizards” (because they walk on water) were all over the place in Manuel Antonio)

can you find the "Jesus lizard?"

there were MANY different types of lizards around our hotel, too!

Sloths are also plentiful in Costa Rica, and from what we learned about them, they are probably the grossest animal on the planet. They move so slowly that it’s hard to see they are moving at all. They are also so lazy that they don’t clean themselves, causing entire ecosystems to live in their fur. Ew! This shot was taken within the telescope to see the sloth up close.

the famous sloth eating his breakfast

I loved seeing all of the wildlife, especially the monkeys! Can you imagine wild monkeys running around our American beaches?

Tours in San Jose

Our first Wednesday tour (which took place before classes) takes place in San Jose, where we had originally landed in Costa Rica.

San Jose is one of those cities with a little bit of everything. We saw the historical sights, the tourist traps, the local shopping, the Americanized restaurants (McDonalds, Quiznos, KFC, and Wendys), and the really cool markets with great shopping and fun bargaining.

We meet Jose that day, our guide for the duration of our stay in Costa Rica. Jose is a little peanut of a Tico... we loved him!

We begin our tour at the town center at the Museo Nacional (National Museum). Jose guides us through the museum, pointing out the beautiful hand-painted ceilings, Sistine Chapel-style. Jose shows us some beautiful hand-made furniture throughout the rooms before takes us into the National Theatre. In there, a sixteen-year-old world-renowned pianist was practicing for a big performance. She let us watch as she performed two pieces... it was amazing! A few of us stayed behind after her performance to get autographs.

Outside of the Museo Nacional, we found a little old man selling hand-crafted ceramic animal whistles. They were really interesting - they all had different holes all over the animal which whistled in different pitches. A few of my friends bought a few at a discounted price before we headed on to the Parque Nacional, a little tourist park that overlooks the city and includes cultural displays and a butterfly garden.

On our way to lunch, we found a town square with a TON of pigeons. I had way too much fun chasing them around!

the simple pleasures of chasing pigeons in San Jose

The butterfly garden was so cool. The butterflies didn't really like me, so I didn't get to hold any of them, but they flocked to our friends, Colby and Chris.

Chris found a new friend in the butterfly garden

We then stopped for lunch at el Restaurante (The Restaurant). In my opinion, we had to pay a lot of money for so-so quality food, but I still enjoyed learning about the typical Tico cuisine. We again saw the cas and guanabana, and decided to get a fresa con leche, which was like a strawberry milkshake. It was good, but I prefer guanabana!

strawberry smoothies... not bad!

The marketplace was my favorite place in San Jose. We were able to haggle with the stall owners, and I got some great deals on gifts for family members as well as some turquoise jewelry for myself. My favorite purchase was the handmade photo album I got, made of palm leaves, for all of my Costa Rica pictures!