Manuel Antonio

I joked on the Costa Rica home page regarding all the excuses about why these weren't award winning photographs. Out of all the trips, I think I'll apply everything to this excursion. We went for a walk through Manuel Antonio National Park. First problem is that word “walk.” After a while my arms are focused purely on holding me up and probably aren't in the best state for keeping a camera still. The second thing is that we were in the forest and it was dark. I know that may seem like a lame excuse, but note that this trip doesn't have a geo-track to tag the photos. That's because I didn't pick up enough satellites to start the track. In fairness I may have been able to do it if I had remembered to start the track before we entered the park as I think it would have managed to keep a rough idea of where we are.

The other thing I'd say about this place is that it was very touristy. I think we'd been spoilt at the previous places as we'd more or less had the parks to ourselves. Giving one the impression that you're somewhere special. Manuel Antonio had many more people walking through the park.

All this said, we did get to see some very interesting things, particularly the night birds (potoo and nighthawk) that were sleeping. You do need to bear with the photos though. What is pictured is as follows:

Birds

Bananquit (OK - so the picture is just of the nest, but we did see the bird, honest!)
Black-Hooded Antshrike
Common Potoo
Franklin's Gull
Gray-Necked Wood-Rail
Great-Tailed Grackle
Lesser Nighthawk
Purple-Crowned Fairy
Yellow-Crowned Night-Heron

Other

Basilisk (Jesus Christ Lizard)
Black Spiny-Tailed Iguana
Brown-Throated Three-Toed Sloth (quite a few)
Crab-Eating Raccoon
Golden Orb-weaver Spider
Greater White-Lined Bat
Green Iguana
Hoffman's Two-Toed Sloth
Long-Nosed Bat
Mantled Howler Monkey
Red-Eyed Leaf Frog
Short-Tailed Fruit Bat
Tropical Land Crab
White-tipped Dragonfly

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