12th August, Manuel Antonio Mangrove Swamps

Dave got up at six to go and take photos, but I slept on as I had been kept awake quite a lot by the driving rain. By morning, there was sunshine and blue sky. I strolled down to the beach, it was almost deserted and looked amazing. 

We had breakfast overlooking the sea and I saw several big bright pink crabs scrambling into their holes. A huge lizard joined us in the restaurant during breakfast, and we spotted about five more in the undergrowth by the beach.

The boys had a lie in and we then walked along the beach to Manuel Antonio and they had breakfast in a restaurant overlooking the beach. Sam had huevos rancheros and Ben had pancakes. 








We then strolled back and were just in time for our twelve 'o' clock pick up for our paddle boarding trip to the mangroves. Our guides were Matt from Philadelphia and Alvaro, a local lad, both very laid back, and we were their only customers, so, to our delight, had the whole trip to ourselves. We had a 40 minute drive to the mangroves and then set off, with the threat of rain. We all took to it quite quickly but, when I found myself heading I to some branches by the side, I mistakenly tried to push back out using a branch, only to disappear under the water, to the family's great amusement!! From that point on we knew to use our paddles to push away from the bank! We spotted egrets, kingfisher, pink crabs, little fish and by the time we stopped for our break, the heavens had opened! We had some cookies, water and pineapple by the water's edge, which really hit the spot!

On the way back, the boys decided I would be great fun to try and knock each other off! They managed to keep on board for quite a while, but soon the inevitable happened and they were both in the water. Shortly afterwards, we spotted a monkey with a coconut and he bashed it on a branch to crack It open and drink the milk. He then bashed it some more until it broke open and he could snack on coconut. We were right in front of him so had a front seat view of all this and it was definitely the best nature spot of the trip.

It was a bit difficult to take a camera so here is a link to some of their photos

Paddle 9s Up

That evening, on their recommendation, we got a taxi to Sancho's Mexican restaurant where we had yet another great meal. We then went into the town to a cocktail bar (just made happy hour :-) Dave had 2 margaritas) , before heading back to the hotel and playing Black Maria until bedtime.