Week Four - Weekend (by E)

We went to the Pacific side this time. The beach was called Playa Manuel Antonio.  On day one, we walked down to the hotel's beach and swam in the water. The waves were giant compared to the Caribbean's tiny waves. That night we ate at the hotel's restaurant and saw our first monkey in the coconut trees near the restaurant. 
 The second day we went to a nature reserve . We saw monkeys, sloths, a humming bird and Jesus Christ Lizards. They got their name because they can run on water.  We also saw bats. One monkey opened a to-go box and stole a lemon from it. A different monkey did not like Hope, it bared it's teeth at her.
 On the last day we went on a cruise to see dolphins and whales. We saw dolphins  but no whales. One dolphin jumped over five feet in the air! Then we went snorkeling, and we saw a lot of cool fish. We also went down the slide on the boat that was straight down and jumped off the top deck of the boat. It was a awesome trip!

They spent hours in the surf having so much fun!

 

Our monkeys are enjoying bananas in the trees.  :)



These amazing trees line the beach and come in handy for many reasons!

Beach find

Spying animals at Manuel Antonio National Park.

Monos cariblancos

 This picture deserves to be huge -- how cool is it to see a big sloth in the wild?  Amazing!

What a daddy!

Our boat ride on day two -- super fun!

We got to see lots of dolphins.  If you look closely, you can see one in the air between H and E.

Snorkeling pit stop

 

The boat had a giant slide that was virtually a 12 foot vertical drop -- H bravely tried it one time. 
L jumped off the top of the boat time and time again.  Super kids!

Our hotel room:
We put the beds together at night and all slept together. 
H was already asleep in this pic, so she's hard to see.

J was too tall for all the doors (and the bed). 

 

Reptiles were everywhere on the hotel property!

This iguana (?) lived outside our room and guarded the sidewalk. 

Sometimes we had a hard time getting past him.

 

 

We had a delicious last meal at this restaurant, "El Avion," which was named for

this essential piece of décor.  The entire plane was inside the restaurant. 

Patrons were able to sit in the plane to eat if they were willing to deal with the

stifling heat -- we passed!

 

The view from our table.  It's hard to see, but the ocean is right behind/below us.  Beautiful!

 

Yummy lemonade!

 

 

A beautiful way to end our time on the Pacific side!