Antonio Manual, Costa Rica

5.45 pm local time
Having reported we were leaving Costa Rica we checked our itinary to confirm flights, and thats interesting, we have a stop over en route to San Jose, with two nights at Antonio Manuel National Park on the pacific coast directly opposite San Jose. We did remember planning it but somehow we had lost the timing plot.
We packed and left Monteverde in the rain, and took a different route to that we drive in on, heading towards the pacific coast. Not a main road, it decended very steeply from the hotel at 5,500 ft to near sea level (the coastal plain) in about an hour and a half. Early in the piece about a 1 km section was so steep it was concrete surfaced, like one of those driveways to a cliff edge home on Portobello read. In a fully loaded van of not new pedegree I wondered about the brakes and the drivers plan if they failed, but that was not required and we continued on down, down, down the steep windy road through beautiful forested ridges and spurs. Some of the hill sides the road crossed over were possibly as much as 60 degrees slope in places. There was plenty of evidence of digger activity,it would not be an easy road to maintain. In some ways it reminded me of fiordland except for the large leaved tropical vegetation. On the way we surprised an Agouti, a long snouted animal like a racoon. Earlier we had also seen grey squirels, quite large, and a huge guinea pig whose name we dont yet know. But all native mammals.
As we dropped down out of the cloud forest the mist shredded up and the coffee plantations appeared on the less steep and on the sunny slopes. Being so hand tended the plantations are immaculately groomed even the roadside hedges are trimmed.
Once on the coastal plains we drove south, towards the park. Its an area of coastal rainforest that includes its beaches. We stayed very nearby, and on the next morning took a guided walk into the park. They let visitors into a marked trail, in groups of 12 with a guide. There were so many groups you could see one or more both ahead and behind. But it turned out to be not an issue as the guide gave us a lesson in sharp eyes and the ability to locate wildlife in proximity.
The 2.5 hr walk followed a track parallel to the coast about 500m from the beaches, then dropped down to the waters edge and returned to the start point. We saw sloths, an owl, a forest kestrel, snakes, bats roosting under a tree limb, lizards and iguanas of various sizes and orchids and the usual range of facinating plants and insects. But the highlight and what the area is renowned for are its monkey troops, four species of treetop monkeys that live in extended family groups. They move quite swifly feeding in the canopy, but give you glimpses as the pass through. The cheekiest of them, the white faced (or Capichun)(sp?) monkey is a capable thief and we were advised not to let go of possesions if they came to ground level. They are also masters of the art of bombing, so when a few hefty fruits started to whack the ground in our vicinity we shifted our position and they moved on!
We saw the small and rapidly moving squirrel monkey and also another band of howlers. They have frustrated all my effors to photograph them so far, usually staying well hidded behind foliage, peering at you from a concealed position, or dropping out of sight. This group that crossed over us gave voice directly above us, no doubt in reponse to our presence, and we all froze in our tracks, pop eyed, as this intimidating challenge roared out.
We came away realising that there is a lot of detail we missed in the forest we have walked through, but is not that easy to spot. The snakes for example sat motionless and even when told where they were it took a while to see them. My eyes hurt and brain was wobbly with looking by the end of it, but the rain came in, hard, so we had no choice but to hole up inside with some reading and sleep.
As I write we are in San Jose, flying out in the morning. Its time to get everything clean and dry, and prep ourselves for a new place with a new currency.
Thinking and talking together about our impressions of Costa Rica, its very dominated by its geography with a high mountanous spine and broad foothills, and various widthed coastal plains. The hill country is heavily forested and sopping, the flat country largely farmed for fruits, which we thought were absolutely superb in their quality. Rivers and streams run out of the hills, everywhere, some filthy brown others pure, probably depending on the human activity in the catchment they are draining. Getting around is not easy, roads are narrow and windy and often congested with trucks, if its an arterial route. They are shifting fruit produce to the ports for export. The roads are not great because they are often wet, heavily lined with roadside growth and ususally clutterd with power lines. The dont run a couple of power lines there might be 20 of them crossing a pole, sometimes on both sides of the road and regularly crossing overhead. Apparently the country had a more developed railway system but lost it to earthquakes which are very frequent and sometimes very serious.
The place has cottoned on to its wonderful wildlife and are basing the tourist industry on it. We found the encounters with birds and animals to be something special in terms of their abundance and spectacular nature. Our optical gear has been wonderful, the rainproof nature of our binocs and camera being perfect in the changeable weather. And man it rains.
On the wildlife front the country is in love with everything eco, a word you see splashed absolutely everywhere. There will be eco undies for sale somewhere im sure. I dont think it requires them to actually do anything, but at least its a recognition of value in their natural heritage which should increase their chances of preserving it. There is development apace in the more desirable regions, much of it foreigners buying in, a gold coast in the making I hope not. For the moment its not 3rd world, but not first world it falls somewhere in between.

We are in getting organised mode. Talk again soon, sx