Manuel Antonio National Park

The tiny Manuel Antonio National Park (6.8km square) feels more like a zoo, with hundreds of tourists trampling through to see some of the 100+ species of mammals and 180+ species of birds that are crammed into the small space. Surrounded by huge hotels and bigger palm plantations, the animals in this park have nowhere else to go, and are therefore pretty easy to see. Sloths, howler monkeys, white faced capuchin monkeys, pizotes, racoons, beautiful beaches and forest ... it would be a spectacular place if you didn't come across a large group of 20+ tourists every 20 metres!

Exactly how I feel when I'm at the beach!

2-toed sloth, and her very impatient baby sloth who wasn't happy about mum sleeping for 16hrs a day!

Parque National Rincon de Viaja

We arrived to Volcan Rincon by a back road to the Santa Maria ranger station.  The station was abandoned ... no tourists and no rangers in site.  We decided to take a short walk around the park and came across a large group of Rainbow-billed Toucans chatting to each other a getting ready for the roost.

The following day we hiked into a large waterfall and around a vast area of intense volcanic activity.  Crazy!  Bubbling mud pits, gas vents and steaming pools of sulfuric acid.

Here we had our fist experience of our alive Costa Rica can be.  White-faced Capuchin Monkeys, Spider Monkeys, Woodpeckers, Iguanas, Agouti, and a lot of great bisrds.

Windfarms are definitly not a strainge sight in Costa Rica.  In a country where 94% of electricity is generated from renewable sources .... I think Australia could learn a lot from Costa ... Pura Vida.

Oh ... I forgot to mention the army.... Costa hasn't had one since 1949. What a country!

Rio Celeste

Rio Celeste is a small, amazingly blue, river in Parque National Volcan Tenorio.  We stayed in the nearby town of San Raphael, no other tourists in sight ... a genuine Cost Rican cattle town.  Pura Vida!

Definitely worth a visit!

At this location where 2 rivers converge, volcanic waters carrying Sulpher in one river mix with waters carrying calcium carbonate from the other.  This results in a totally surreal and amazing natural phenomenon!  Check out the colour spectrum..

El bosques de Monteverde y Santa Elena

The Monteverde and Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserves are stunning examples of the beautiful cloud forests of Costa Rica. Spectacular views (almost always covered by cloud), serene rainforest, hummingbirds ... and then at night, the forest comes alive ...

Cien-pie (literally: a hundred feet)

Sloth .. the two toed variety....

Parrot Viper ... creepy

La Fortuna and Cerro Chato

The town of La Fortuna, built on tourism, is centred solely around Arenal Volcano, Arenal Lake, and Cerro Chato. In this land of volcanoes, why not hike another?

Cerro Chato is an ancient extinct volcano with a small crater lake, covered in cloud forest. As with all volcanoe-hikes, the tracks are pretty steep, pretty slippery, and pretty beautiful.

The view of the crater lake ... cloud ...

 The slippery trail back down the hill..