I took a three hour bus trip to Manuel Antonio on several people’s advice, to visit the national park there. Firstly I stayed at a wonderful hostel called was Hostel Serena Vista. When I arrived I was so pleasantly surprised at the location as well as the super friendly staff. I also really enjoyed chatting to Sonia, the owner, and her partner. The verandah has amazing views and the perfect place to watch the sunset. I would have stayed longer if I did not have commitments, and I would go back there in a heartbeat.
The National Park is supposedly one of the 12 most beautiful national parks in the world, and maybe it is, if there were not masses of tourists. But I was one of them, so the way I got around not minding all the people was to think to myself “how wonderful that so many people are interested in nature” because that is why you go to the park, to see the wildlife and enjoy the nature. I am glad I paid to go with a guide as it would have been impossible for me to find anything otherwise. I really don’t know how they do it – they look at a bunch of leaves way up high and say – there is a sloth! Can you see the sloth in this picture?
We spotted the three-toed sloth which has three claws on its front and back legs and the Hoffman two-toed which has two claws on its front legs but three the hind feet. The other bonus of having a guide is he has a sweet telescope and as well as looking through it, I was also able to take photos through the viewer. Here is one of a sloth with a baby. 
Sloths are fascinating creatures. They live up high in the canopy so need to be lightweight. They have a low muscle mass (about a ¼ of most mammals their size), weighing about 4kg and grow up to about 75 cm in length. Their gut takes up 30% of their weight as they eat a lot of leaves from as many as 30 different species, so not as fussy as koalas. Once a week they descend to the ground, dig a hole and defecate and urinate then cover it. This is the time they are most vulnerable to predators, but if they reach adulthood, they are pretty much guaranteed a long life – up to 30 years! Sloths are also a habitat for various arthropods (insects, beetles, spiders), algae and fungi in a symbiotic relationship. The interesting fact about some of the beetles & moths is they lay eggs and pupate in the sloth’s feces then fly in search of a sloth to make their home. Sloths can carry more than 800 beetles and three different species of mites. The park is quite small, only about 680 hectares and I walked along all the available paths. As well as seeing the two species of sloths, I saw some white-faced monkeys of varying ages, including some very playful youngsters.
This is an interesting lizard called the Jesus Christ Lizard because it can run on water. 
We also encountered some cheeky raccoons who really wanted to inspect our bags. 
When the guide picked us up he told me to sit in the front with him and hold a closed box. He said it had woken him at 3am and he caught it and wanted to release it in the park. He would not say what it was and everyone was asked to guess. Needless to say there were some pretty stupid guesses. I carried it all the way until it was the time and place to release it and of course it was a snake. Lots of ooh and aahs and “oh my God, you’ve been carrying a snake all this time!” I guess I was supposed to squeal too, but the others did enough of that. It was a viper of some sort and the poor little fella was non too happy.
The beaches and little bays are also very picturesque although the water is hardly refreshing. It was stinking hot and I sprinted across the burning hot sand and dove into the sea, expecting some cool relief but it was more like diving into a bath! It was warmer than any ocean I had ever experienced.
I met a wonderful girl from Dusseldorf who was in the same 4 bed dorm as me. She was too polite to say, but I am sure she did not get a good nights sleep with me in the top bunk, as the bed was pretty rickety and I am a restless sleeper at the best of times. Spending time with Sarah gave me the opportunity to practice my German, which proved hilarious as somehow my brain, when switching out of English, totally mixed languages so I spewed out a very funny mixture of German and Spanish. I just couldn’t seem to separate the two. Luckily she could speak Spanish fluently so between the two of us we had some pretty interesting linguistic mixtures going on. We had a meal together at a little local restaurant and shared a bottle of wine and on my final morning we went to the beach together with Mat from Michigan. I wished I could have spent more time with Sarah and travelled with her as she was very interesting and lovely. Despite her young age, she has been to so many places around the world and had so many interesting experiences to share. That’s the best thing about hostels, you meet some interesting people and everyone is happy to mingle and chat, share experiences and sometimes hook up to see places.
One Response to Manuel Antonio & sloths