Beaches - Animals - Parks

On Friday, September 22nd we left Santa Teresa and drove to Manuel António National Park. The second big day of driving was approaching. The highlight of the trip was the almost 1 1/2 hour ferry ride from Paquera to Puntarenas.

Just like the trip over the Crocodile Bridge. The bridge gets its name because crocodiles live under it. We were even lucky and saw a few crocodiles.

This journey was again characterized by many potholes and we were also able to drive large parts of the newly built highway.

On Saturday we visited Manual Antonio National Park.

Since our accommodation was right at the entrance to the park, all we had to do was drop off at 7:30 a.m. and be able to visit the park with a guided tour. Our tour guide Daniel led us through the park for almost 2 hours and showed us animals that we probably wouldn't have seen without his trained eye.

We saw a Fer-de-Lance snake (the 2nd most venomous snake in Costa Rica and the most aggressive), hummingbirds, iguanas, howler monkeys and much more.

And we also saw the long-awaited sloths. There was even a little baby there.

After the tour ended, we set off to explore the park on our own. Various signposted paths took us to beautiful viewing platforms and different sections of the stand. The Manuel Antonio National Park is located directly at the Manuel Antonio stand. We stayed here for a moment and cooled off in the sea. The humid and hot air has reached a new level here. Luckily, when we were already on the way to the exit, we saw small capuchin monkeys that were quite friendly.

At lunchtime we had the long-awaited 'Coco Loco' - a fresh coconut infused with rum.

We then took it to the beach because our private Jungle Night Tour that we had booked for the evening was canceled at short notice due to the weather.

We then saw a very beautiful sunset on the beach.

On Sunday we made our way to Puerto Viejo. The next big driving day with almost 6 hours of driving was coming up.

Puerto Viejo is on the Caribbean coast and since the road network in Costa Rica doesn't allow for many driving options due to the rainforest, we had to drive the entire way back to San José.

The roads are getting better from day to day or we are now used to the conditions.

On Monday we visited the Jaguar Rescue Center in Puerto Viejo.

A rescue center for injured and sick animals, which aims to release the animals back into the wild after their treatment at the rescue center.

Since some animals are unfortunately too sick or would not survive life in the wild, some animals are also permanent residents at the center. We were able to look at these animals up close and heard the animals' very sad stories. Since the recovered animals are released back into the wild, contact with people is reduced to a minimum, which is why visitors are not able to see the animals.

We saw an ocelot, a caiman, an agouti, toucans, macaws, parrots, turtles, sloths, the fleur-de-lance snake and spider monkeys.

On Tuesday we explored Cahuita National Park on our own. A beautiful national park in which we walked many stretches directly on the beach. Since our eyes have already trained a bit in the meantime, we discovered the animals on vacation without the help of a guide. On the way through the park we saw a sloth, capuchin monkeys, raccoons, many lizards, birds and colorful butterflies.

Afterwards we looked at the beaches on the Caribbean coast. Beautiful beaches surrounded by many palm trees such as Manzanilla Beach and Punta Uva and a beach with very dark sand, Playa Negra, were the highlights of the tour.