Wedding Blog

Pura Vida!
Manuel Antonio Part I

Day 3 - Breakfast at Cafe Milagro.

This cute sleepy kitty lives here and is very friendly! I love establishments that have pets.

On day 3 of our trip, we went kayaking with Iguana Tours. I didn’t want to get my camera to get wet, so I don’t have any pictures sorry! Many of the tours serve a “casado” lunch or dinner, so you can save on food expenses. The lunch that Iguana Tours served was ironically the best food we had in Costa Rica!

Kayaking through the mangroves was very mellow. We had an American tourguide which was a little disappointing because I really like talking to locals. The highlights were seeing a baby crocodile, and observing a family of 25-30 capuchin monkeys. They just carried on oblivious that we were watching them, while the ones we saw in the park interacted with us. It was cool to watch them in their natural environment.

This iguana was on or near our balcony almost every day sunbathing.

Chomping on some leaves…

We had dinner at El Avion, which is bar/restaurant built around an actual cargo plane used in the Iran Contra, and owned by the Hotel Costa Verde. (You’ll find the exact same menu at their on grounds restaurant, the Anaconda.)

The food was good here, and I liked the Gorilla Punch. Mr. Bee had the blackened mahimahi and I had the beef tenderloin.

Luckily we happened to get the best table (the one in the corner) to watch the spectacular sunset.

(image via el avion)

At least a dozen people got up to take pictures, and I took pictures of them.

Day 4 - We booked a canopy zipline tour with Canopy Safari. They’re the oldest canopy tour company in Manuel Antonio. The other popular option is Titi Canopy Tours.

It was a 45 minute drive into the jungle (Titi is only 15 minutes away), but I enjoyed it a lot. It was great scenery - we drove through streams, saw homes/locals, as well as tons of cows, goats, horses. Yah we’re driving through this water!

A cashew one of the guides plucked off a tree. The shell is poisonous and can cause you to get a rash similar to poison ivy.

We’re finally here! They fed us breakfast as soon as we arrived.

This is the last and longest zipline.

Here I am getting strapped in.

I filmed the second zipline I went on, so come along for the ride! I turn around you can see at one point.

You zipline from platform to platform. There really isn’t room for a single more person once we’re all on so it’s kinda scary. That’s Mr. Bee on the zipline… can you recognize him? hehe.

We did 9 ziplines, 2 rappels, 1 tarzan swing, and 1 suspension bridge.

Ah-ah-ah-ahhhhh! a la Tarzan.

Here I am going down the first rappel… You control your speed by placing one hand under your butt and loosening your grip.

But when the guy after me did a freefall (letting all arms and legs go), I was so jealous! Never fear - there was another rappel that was much higher coming up!

This is a video of Fabian, a fellow New Yorker, freefalling on the second rappel. I did it just before him, and the rope jerked halfway down so I got a little injured. Eh I was fine. Anything for a thrill. Note: you do get the butterflies in your stomach/rollercoaster feeling.

These are some pics the company gave us on a souvenir cd we purchased to give you an idea of how high it is.

I went upside down on one of the ziplines. I’m screaming to scare people - it’s actually not scary at all.

Here I am on the last zipline taking a video. Unfortunately I must have accidentally pressed the record button twice because I didn’t get the shot.

Ziplining is an absolute must if you visit Costa Rica. Yes you’re pretty high up, but people that are scared of heights didn’t seem to have a problem! I promise you won’t regret it - Mr. Bee loved it too!

Afterwards we had lunch at the Anaconda restaurant at Hotel Costa Verde because the Cantina (where we wanted to go) across the street was closed. The hotel’s motto is “still more monkeys than people,” which is why I wanted to stay here. Guests of the hotel and nearby restaurants said they saw tons and tons of monkeys in the mornings and evenings.

We walked down to the beach to do some shopping… Hmmm this bus stop sign is a little scary…

I had to get a coconut!

Then it was off to the Butterfly Garden across from Hotel Si Como No.

See the eggs? These are carefully collected each day and each species is separated.

I don’t have great shots of all the butterflies because I’m still a novice with my new camera (I ended up getting the Canon Rebel xti btw).

Caterpillars

Monarch butterflies.

It was actually really fascinating. Part of the guided tour included a stop into the lab where they closely monitor all reproduction. You can see the same type of caterpillars here in different stages of growth.

Yup that’s me holding the caterpillar!

Our final sunset.

to be continued…