Wildlife And Waterfalls of La Paz

My favorite weekday tour was of the La Paz resort, which has actually recently been partly wiped out due to hurricanes in Costa Rica. The animal exhibits survived the storms, but the waterfall tour area is being reconstructed.

La Paz is a great tourist spot for viewing all kinds of different wildlife and beautiful waterfalls. The tour involves a lot of hiking, and at the beginning, everyone is given a walking stick to “fend off the snakes” if necessary (we saw no snakes).

We first entered an aviary of all kinds of different birds. All the girls were instructed to take our earrings out, because some types of birds are attracted to shiny things and will actually peck at your earlobes to steal your piercings.

We saw some beautiful parrots, macaws, and the funniest little hopping tucans!

HEY, tucan!

the beautiful parrot we saw upon entering the aviary

There were also owls and other types of birds with which I was not familiar, like the black-bellied whistling duck pictured feeding below, but I loved seeing all of them and their pretty colors.

the owls were still sound asleep (as I would have chosen to be that early in the morning!)

the black-bellied whistling duck

I found more monkey friends, too! There were tiny little monkeys with faces called marmosets who would come close to the cage to see me up close.

they kept coming to the cage to see me!

you can kind of see his little face here

There were also beautiful flowers all over La Paz, and another butterfly garden! The butterflies here were a lot more friendly, and I got to hold a few.

my favorite butterfly, or "mariposa" shot

I finally caught one!

The hummingbirds were so funny to watch flitting around the exhibits. I loved watching their jerky but graceful movements.

it was hard to get a good picture of these quick little guys!

The amphibian exhibit was so cool. Many of the frogs we got to see looked almost fake with their shocking colors. Also, many of them were poisonous, like the bright colored one pictured below.

the picture of this frog is one of my favorites of the entire trip

another type of rain frog

Finally, we hiked the waterfalls. They were quite a site to see!

this shot of the La Paz waterfall is very popular - 

just weeks after we visited here,
Sheri Shepard from The View was filmed

in this very spot on the show!

the view from above - these are the spots that are being reconstructed after the storm

The La Paz food was some of the best we had throughout our entire trip. We had a buffet of pizza, garlic bread, rice, fries, as well as Costa Rican staples such as fried platanos and pineapple.

If you are to visit Costa Rica, La Paz is a MUST-see!!

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?