Monkey Business

What a weekend! On Saturday morning, we got up early and drove 2 ½ hours to Manuel Antonio National Park. It is one of the smallest parks as well as being one of the most popular. We enjoyed a guided tour along the main path of the park. We would never have seen the rainbow grasshoppers on the bottom of the tree branches or seen the difference between the 2-toed and 3-toed sloths as they lounged on branches 30 feet up. We definitely would not have seen the “stick bird” sleeping in the tree or the small purple and orange crabs under the trees or learned about the mimosa plant. We would have only seen large iguanas lumbering around the park and the white-faced monkeys.

The white-faced monkeys are all around the main beach area. They are “opportunists” and we suspect that they work in teams. One will come strolling around, so people will drop their backpacks and start to take pictures. Meanwhile, others will scope out the unattended packs. Then they will approach them, unzip the pouches and search for food. We did see one get a bag lunch. He then carried the plastic bag of fruit and bread up the tree and enjoyed his feast. They would also watch when people would go in the water and leave their packs unattended.

After the tour, we continued on a circular hike around a high promontory bluff with some spectacular views. We ate our sandwiches on the beach while a monkey prowled around us looking for a handout. We enjoyed the beach for a few hours and then headed off to find the “catarata” trail. After 30 minutes of hiking up and down the muddy trail through the rainforest (wearing shorts and sandals no less), hearing the Howler monkeys in the distance, crossing over streams and wading through them we finally came to the waterfall, which was nice, but not spectacular by Minnesota standards. The hike seemed quite remote on the way there, but on the return trip we realized how global the trail was as we met group after group asking (in Spanish, English, German and French) whether we had seen the waterfall.