The drive from the Intercontinental Hotel in Escazu over to our next hotel on the Pacific ocean takes several hours. It is an extremely scenic drive. One stop that is absolutely a necessity is the “Crocodile Bridge” over the Tarcoles River. Every tourist who has ever traveled between San Jose and the Pacific coast has walked across this bridge and looked down. Why? Crocodiles….many, huge, lounging crocodiles.

Our destination for two nights was Gaia, a small, boutique hotel above the town of Manuel Antonio Beach and close to Manuel Antonio National Park. Gaia is a very unique, lovely hotel with friendly service, a great restaurant and lots of wildlife. Gaia sponsors a scarlet macaw reintroduction program in a preserve on the property. Every afternoon a guided tour is available to see the reintroduction program.

A proud macaw parent in front of a nest hole

Flying macaw in the scarlet macaw preserve in Gaia

Manuel Antonio National Park is a real gem and loved by tourists and locals alike. It is a huge park, on the Pacific that is filled with wildlife. However, there are a couple of pointers to ensure a wonderful visit. First it is imperative to arrive at the park early in the morning, especially on the weekends. Secondly, you must have a guide with a spotting scope who will locate wildlife sightings. Without a guide, the chance of actually seeing wildlife besides the huge, lovely blue butterflies and the monkeys at the beach is going to be extremely unlikely. This is a rain forest jungle with many wildlife species hidden or heavily camouflaged. or high in the forest canopy. Our guide was excellent and amazed us with birds, frogs, sloths we would never have spotted on our own.

Just hanging out – white faced monkey

This is a Common Patoo..it perfectly mimics a tree branch. Spot the little beak and the eye facing right toward the trunk on the right

Daria and Katy in a selfie. Do you get the feeling it was bright outside? Thanks for the picture, Daria.

Gaia – the view from the resturant

Female Cherry Tanager on the left. Male on the right. The grub in her beak is for their babies. The nest was on our deck

On the left a Great Kiskadee. A very common bird in Costa Rica. On the right is a Tropical Kingbird