2015- Rainforest Revisit - Part Eight - Pacific Rainforest

Manuel Antonio - 2015 August 14-15

Today has been VEERRY interesting. Not in a good way.

Breakfast

Stuffed pepper and roll

We checked out and waited for the Adobe rental car person. Nine o'clock came and went. At 9:30 I called Adobe, and they claimed they had no reservation for us and no cars. I couldn't give him an invoice or reference number because I did not have one - it was not on the voucher I had. So I called Pat, and the phones did not answer. (This was due to a mistake in dates on their part. They wrote April instead of August and Pat did not catch their mistake.)

I looked on my phone (still on the wi-fi of the hotel) and at random picked Budget and phoned them and asked if they had a car. They said they did, but no one could come and get us. They said they were near the Pizza Hut (not at the airport). So Bob asked the bell captain to get us a large van-taxi, and they did. It was the van from the Radisson. We got loaded into the van and went to Budget. In the meantime I saw the Budget ratings and reviews were terrible. But we were there, and they had a car for us and we can turn the car in at the airport We drove out of San Jose using the directions on the phone as the GPS would not recognize the San Bada Hotel as a place to go. I had trouble getting it to even recognize Manuel Antonio. The phone had no problem with it but I couldn't get it to give me a GPS location that I could give to the GPS. So we drove out of San Jose using the directions on the phone. And sometimes I would tell Bob to turn on Av 2 and he would go two blocks (forgetting that the street numbers and not consecutive but are either even or odd) to Av 4 instead of turning on Av 2. I had the GPS follow the directions to the airport which it did recognize. We got to highway 27 and lo and behold it is a toll road. Did not know that.

approaching a toll booth in the rain

Fortunately Bob had a lot of change in his pocket because I think we paid tolls four times. It had started to rain also. But it was a pretty good road. We saw a beware of Iguana sign, and also some signs with lines pointing to the car tires. We would see construction signs

and the construction workers would be up a cliff.

Workers up on the hill

Eventually I got the GPS and the phone on the same page.

Cars and bicycles

We drive behind a Quepos bus

We made our way through the various little towns, thinking that we would stop for lunch,

Factory

but by the time we identified a restaurant that we might want to stop at, Bob had already sped past it.

When we got past Quepos, people kept stopping us and asking us if we were going to Manuel Antonio. (They wanted us to park in their parking lot.)

We didn't pay any attention to them because we were headed for our hotel, which had parking.....

Coconuts with hibiscus

cold drinks

Until,...

Last parking, buying tickets and Tourist Information

Finally the last person that stopped us asked if we were going to the park and when we said, No that we weren't going there, he said - well you have to turn around and go back because this road doesn't go anywhere except Manuel Antonio. We did manage to get to the hotel gate in spite of that. The guy at the gate couldn't find our name, so he handed the clipboard to Bob - who of course couldn't read it either because he wasn't wearing his reading glasses. I took the clipboard and pointed to our name. We parked and went in to the reception

At the hotel,

we registered and I asked them about tours. They said to do the 8:00 park tour tomorrow because tomorrow is the Costa Rica Mother's Day and the whole place will be mobbed after nine. There is a maximum number of people that can be in the parks at any one time. So we signed up for an 8:00 tour. We are doing that tomorrow and then the mangrove tour on Sunday. I decided not to push it and ask for the zip line or the PWC tours.

carving in the lobby

They took us up to our room. We were in a standard room second floor which was also handicapped accessible. These rooms include breakfast, have garden and jungle views balconies (we had a jungle view room), air conditioning, bath with shower and tub (ours was a handicapped room - so no tub), hairdryer, two full size beds, LCD cable TV, wake up service/alarm clock, telephone and security box. The security box had no directions. We paid $610 for three nights, but prices can range up to $865 during the high season.

bed and balcony

Our balcony looked out on the trees where monkeys would spend the night. If they were howler monkeys, they would start 'howling' at 5 in the morning. You could look on this as additional wild life to be sighted, or as an annoyance. Our view is the former.

Shower for handicapped

They even found a stool for me so I could sit in the shower. The only problem with this arrangement was that there were no counters or places to put stuff and Bob had trouble seeing to shave.

Bathroom sink

Garden area and restaurant

We went down to the restaurant for lunch - it was by this time 2:35.

Restaurant from inside

Bob had a

shrimp salad and I had

Arroz Con Pollo

While we were eating lunch one of the hotel guys came and asked to take a photo of the scooter to show the ranger so they would know whether I could take the tour. We told him just to ride the scooter over. He was surprised, but he did that. When he brought it back he said it was OK for me to go.

One of the swimming pools

At the end of the meal the waiter called "John" to come and sign the bill - they apparently thought Bob's name was John. Bob was past him and didn't hear, so I called him back and I also recognized that they had the wrong name. I think they have it right now.

We came back from lunch and eventually I went into the bathroom and found that the sink faucets turn off by pulling them toward you but Bob hadn't realized that and pushed them away from him so the water was full on. I turned the water in the sink off and then had a nice shower. I edited some photos and posted some. (Wi-fi works pretty well) Bob rested from the drive. We had such a late lunch that we didn't go to dinner.

August 15
Today we got up early because we had a tour at 8 and we went to breakfast as soon as they opened at 7:00 There was an extensive buffet.

Breads on the buffet

Fruit on the buffet

Omelet chef

I didn't get eggs today, but I did get some plantains, bacon, one of those triangular fried potato things, some bread and pineapple. The problem with this room is - since it is configured for a wheelchair, there is no place for me to sit and look in my suitcase. I was looking for my toothbrush. I went and got the little plastic stool I used for the shower yesterday (because the chairs are very solid wood and heavy to move, plus they make a racket on the tile floor) and sat on it in front of the suitcase. The leg bent and it dumped me off backward and I hit my head on the solid wood square post on the end of the footboard of the bed (it is the same as the one on the headboard but square and shorter). Very solid wood.

I didn't get up right away. Bob was concerned. When I did get up, I found I was bleeding all over everything. There was a pool of blood on the floor. Bob brought a towel to press on my head to stop the bleeding and mopped the blood up.

Lump on my head

Although my head hurt where I hit it, and I developed a lump there, I didn't really feel bad. So after we got the bleeding more or less stopped, we went on down to reception desk. I explained what happened to the desk guy and there happened to be there a man checking out who said he was an ER doc. He asked Bob to move my hair so he could see and said I should put some antibiotic ointment on it just in case.

People entering the park

The guide (Royvin Arce Gomez - or Roy for short) had all his permits and licenses. He came for the tour and gave us our tickets. Apparently we pay the guide and not the hotel. And Roy said he needed to have cash because he was not set up to take credit cards. There were four of us from this hotel and the other two (a young couple) were Spanish speaking, so they went with another group.

He had a tripod with a scope on it. The park path was gravel all right,

Me on the scooter from the back- hat and camera vest

but there were big rocks (by a big rock I mean one the size of your fist)

Gravel path

and when the scooter hits a big rock, it basically stops. So I had to hold onto the handles fairly tightly and find a path without too many big rocks.

Humid rainforest

Chasing the wild banana

Rain forest leaves

A little way up the path, there was an offshoot which was a wooden boardwalk which was much better

scorpion on the boardwalk railing

The whole trail, all the way to the beach was 1.8 km and I think we did about 1.5 km of it. But when at the end of the boardwalk and a little farther along the trail, the scooter was half discharged and I decided we should turn around and go back. We weren't going to swim at the beach in any case. Roy said he could call and they would send a truck for me, but I really didn't want to do that. We went back on the regular road.

#10 El Perezoso Trail

Roy was VERY good. We saw lots of animals and got some good photos. A guide isn't necessary but you will really have a better experience if you engage one. It is worth it. And the people who say that they just look where the guide is pointing are stealing the guides' services. The guides know this. The danger from the monkeys is something that I learned from the guide, which I would not have known about if he had not told me. The monkeys know that people are looking up at them...... And if they see people right under them, they will pee on them. So don't stand right under the monkeys, and get your own guide

Pee-ing monkey on cheating tourists

We saw both white faced and howler monkeys,

White faced Monkey

White faced Monkey

Howler monkey

We saw several three toed sloths (one of them was actually moving - very slowly but I could see movement).

Sign about Sloths

Three Toed Sloth

Sloth moving through the trees

There was a poisonous snake,

Snake photo on the guides phone

Snake hiding in the leaves

snake

Land Crab

several kinds of lizard (although we only got a photo of one),

lizard

a very

Colorful grasshopper

Colorful grasshopper closeup

Dragonfly

Hummingbird

and an agouti that we just couldn't see although the guide showed us through the scope. We would have hired Roy for the second tour, but we did not have enough cash to pay for a second tour so we had to get a guide who could accept a credit card.

Bob was drenched in sweat when he got back so we took all our clothes off and he had a shower, and hung stuff up to dry. And charged the scooter. When that was done, we went to lunch. Bob had the Arroz Con Pollo that I had yesterday, and I had

Aztec soup

then we both had vanilla ice cream

Vanilla Ice Cream for dessert

They had special Mother's Day dinner - the whole thing was $89 - appetizers, two main courses and dessert. But they spelled Course in English as Curse.

Main Curses on the Mother's Day Menu

Pool at our hotel

I had been going to swim after lunch, but I decided with a gash on my head, I shouldn't do that. Just before dinner one of the guys from the desk came up to show us where there were spider monkeys in the trees outside the hotel - we could see that they were there, but it was getting dark so we couldn't see any detail.

Spider monkeys in the trees behind our room at dusk

They have dinner in the patio restaurant - up a level from the one where we ate breakfast. There was a ramp to it but the bottom of the ramp had a small step which stopped the scooter. We had to kind of pick it up over it.

Restaurant for dinner from down on the ramp

At dinner that night, . I was going to get pineapple juice but Bob suggested I get the non-alcoholic pineapple mint cocktail, so I did and it was good.

Non-alcoholic pineapple mint cocktail

Then we each got gazpacho which I thought was a cold soup, but this soup wasn't cold. It wasn't really hot either. Also tasted a lot like tomato soup

Gazpacho

Seafood rice, which had some mussels and clams and shrimp and a huge mound of rice with bits of fish and shrimp and calamari in it

Seafood rice

There was a salad on one side and also flat potato-chip like plantains. There was more than we could eat.

Manuel Antonio from the water - 2015 August 16
We had a late breakfast - about 9:30 because today's mangrove tour is not until 1:30.

Breakfast

Bob's pancakes

Fried egg

Then we went out and looked at the shops outside the park gate and our hotel.

Hotel entrance from hotel looking out

I didn't buy much - just a few things for our cat sitter and granddaughter from the

Shop next to hotel

Display in the window

Shop window

Free Printable map - Manuel Antonio Village

Tourist Information center

Street sign

Aladdin

Dresses for sale

Souvenir bags

I did see a sign which said to be sure your guide had an official license and that his permits were up to date. This is very important.

Their warning sign out front

And there was a LONG line of people waiting to buy tickets to the park.

Pay in Dollars

Which we didn't have to worry about yesterday as the tickets were included.. We got back to the room about 10 and I worked on pictures etc. The internet at both the Holiday Inn and Hotel San Bada is very good. We went down for the boat tour at 1:15 - it was raining. I took the scooter down and then Bob took it back to the room. The guide came to pick us up early. We got in the van and picked up 6 more people who turned out to be a father, mother, son and two daughters from Malaga Spain with their guide.

The somewhat cheeky boy (who said he was doing white water rafting trips at 13) asked us what we wanted for lunch, but it was very hard to order since there was no menu.

We asked for sandwiches, but they couldn't do sandwiches. So what we got was fries a salad and I got a piece of beef and Bob got fish.

Bob's fish and fries

We picked up some more people here who were from Israel. We left the restaurant about 2:30 (lunch was included in the price), and got to the boat about 2:50.

Guide taking our photo

Our guide worked for the man who owned the restaurant, and he did not have a guide ID/pass like Roy did yesterday. We got into a flat bottom covered boat.

Reflections

At first we saw mostly birds

Blue herons

Red faced Ibis and Great White Heron

-snowy egret, willets and sand pipers.

We saw where the tide was coming in -

Line of incoming tide

Distant mountain

they only do this trip on a rising tide as there are eight foot tides here. He told us about the four kinds of mangroves (red, black, white and pineapple). He looked for a poisonous snake, but the snake had moved on. We did see a snake curled up in a knot on a branch.

Then he called some white faced monkeys over to the boat

White faced monkey

The monkey was running along the tree branches and keeping up with the boat. The guide tied the boat up.
He warned us not to look directly at the monkey as the monkey would think we were challenging him

White faced monkey

Agitated White Faced Monkey

sitting on the side of the boat

Guide feeding a monkey coconut

One of them would come into the boat and sit on your shoulder and take food from your hand. I do not think this is a good idea, and it probably isn't sanctioned by the park.

palm fronds

Then we went into a more enclosed area like a creek

Willet

Termite nests in a tree

land crab

and we saw some more of the red white and blue land crabs.

Crab

and a male

Jesus Christ lizard

We saw a

Tiger heron on the bridge

too low for the boat and underneath there were

Bats under the bridge

The guide beat on the bridge to make the bats wake up and fly around. I didn't care for that either. We got back to the dock about 4:30. We still had not paid for this tour, but we went back to the restaurant where the owner had a credit card machine and we paid there. Then we also stopped for one of the passengers to use an ATM. On the way back to the hotel there was a beautiful purple sunset - a totally purple sky.

Purple sunset

While I was waiting for Bob to bring back the scooter, I asked the concierge if the people running tours paid the hotel to recommend them. He looked sheepish and said - just little personal gifts. But there are many companies doing these tours and there is a lot of competition. At dinner we found that the lower restaurant was closed as there was a bus load of tourists eating there. The buffet would have been $30. And that was more than we wanted to pay because we really don't eat that much. I ordered the

Caprese salad

and

Vegetable soup

Last night I had the pineapple mint so this time I ordered

Pineapple juice in milk (which is a smoothie).

Bob decided that he would have the pineapple and mint, but they didn't have that so instead he had

Pineapple raspberry smoothie

which was also good. He had the tuna for dinner. My vegetable soup was just too salty for me to eat. It would have been good otherwise, but I just couldn't eat much of it. When the waiter came he asked, and I just said it was too salty for me. We ordered dessert - Bob had a brownie and ice cream and I just had ice cream.

Bob's brownie and ice cream

My ice cream had raspberries on it. When the bill came, the waiter had comped us our drinks because of the salty soup. I didn't expect that. On the way back to the room, we saw a cicada on the wall - we also hear them singing.

Returning to the airport 2015 August 17
Went down to breakfast about 8:15.

breakfast

Checked out of the hotel by 9.

Bob - hat and camera bag with the scooter

It was a nice bright sunny day.

Beach from the road

We stopped at a couple of cemeteries along the way for some photos.

Local cemetery Quepos area

Another local cemetery

Mountains

I spent my time taking photos of the road signs

Landslides

Biological Corridor Drive carefully, No noise

Bus stop

Yield - Red: Road closed Amber: slow

Maximum speed 80 kilometers/hour

Road works

Use seat belts

Rt 27 - km 46

Weighing

Falling rocks

Falling rocks

Construction platform above the highway

Workers on road ahead

Construction workers

Toll booths

Workers on a highway sign above the highway

Such as photos of the Iguana crossing signs,

Iguana Crossing sign

the rock falling sign, the Hombres Trabajando signs and also of a sign which I don't know exactly what it means, but it looks like someone has thrown spears or shot arrows at the tires.

Arrow in the tires?

I was also interested in their method of trash collection - they put their trash in a kind of open metal box on a post. I couldn't get a good picture of it until we got closer to the hotel

Trash can

Got to our hotel - the Trapp Family Country Inn about noon. The lady showed us to the room (the only one on the first floor).

Bed in the room

shower

Bob likes the bathroom lighting - up to now he says he really hasn't been able to see to shave.

bathroom mirror selfie

This is a lovely hotel in a quiet garden setting. Except for the fact that you can hear the planes take off and land, you would think you were deep in the rain forest. The hotel is very convenient for the airport. The hotel staff are incredibly helpful and very pleasant. But it is not really suitable for wheelchairs or handicapped people though because there are six steps up to the reception desk and restaurant area and no way to get around them. This place would be great except that.

Main building and steps to reception

Also I keep forgetting to put the TP in the trash and not in the toilet. There is a pool. a Snack bar, a Safety deposit box, a parking lot and the ability to do your laundry. There's also a library table with paperbacks to read.

Pool from our balcony

I checked in to Southwest - I got boarding priority A60 and Bob got B1. I didn't print it out because I didn't think it mattered. We asked for directions to get gas, and to Budget and I also asked about lunch. Apparently they do not usually do lunch, but she agreed to make a salad and it was delicious. One of the ladies drew us a map to get to a gas station, and after one missed turn, we found it.

Bump sign on the way to turn in the rental car

Police car near gas station

The car went approximately 3100 km and took 31 liters of gas. Then we went to Budget (the GPS knew where that was although it absolutely refused to find any gas stations). The lady at the hotel desk had called and Budget had agreed to take us back to the Inn.

Budget counter

Bob turning the the Budget car

And they didn't ask for more money because the back bumper had a dent which Bob didn't see when he checked it out. The van driver looked at my GPS directions and said he knew where it was. Getting in the gate was a tight fit, but he made it.

View of the gate from the veranda

The TV at the Trap Family Inn is very complicated and requires two controllers. At night the internet is very iffy and keeps dropping the signal. I couldn't do anything much that required any time. In the morning it was great and I could even send photos. There is a computer for use in the lobby but I didn't try that one.

Computer for guests in the lobby

The front desk called us and wanted to know if we were having dinner there, and what time we wanted, so I said yes and we would be there at 6.

Dining room

Bob looked at the menu in the room and decided he would have the chicken fillet. He liked the chicken, but he said the potatoes tasted funny (I tasted them and think there may have been a bit too much garlic in them). He also thought the vegetables should have been steamed instead of boiled.

Bob's dinner

I had the special which was beef burritos. There were two and they came with a side salad

Dinner special

We also had pineapple juice to drink and I had

ice cream (chocolate)

and he had a brownie with vanilla ice cream for dessert.

dessert

They also called to see what time we wanted breakfast, so Bob said 8:00. After dinner, I downloaded the photos from the camera, but eventually gave up on the internet and went to bed. About two in the morning, I had the worst case of reflux that I have ever had in my life - it went all the way up to my nose. I don't know why.

Leaving Costa Rica - 2015 August 18

Breakfast was very good - scrambled eggs, plantains (which I really love - I'd much rather have them then French fries), orange juice (which I don't usually drink but it was very sweet), toast with some kind of marmalade, and tea or coffee.

Breakfast

Bob went to pay the bill for dinner and the machine couldn't read his credit card. I called the VISA people and they said it was the fault of the machine and not the card. And Bob used his card later and it worked OK. But that time it was swiped. He thinks the card chip has a problem
The taxi (van) came for us a little before 9:30. I sat on the steps while they loaded the luggage.

Sign in taxi

I missed a chance to get a photo of the statue of Juan Santamaria at the airport yesterday because I was concerned with navigating, and I didn't get a photo of it today either.

airport

I was worried all night about how we would get the tax paid with all the luggage. But in the end it worked fine. I said I needed a wheelchair and the skycap said i might take a couple of minutes but he would get one for me.They put all the bags on a cart and me into a wheelchair and we went into the building and waited while Bob went over to the tax paying place with our two passports, and paid the tax. They even filled out the form for him.

Exit tax document

Plane ticket

Next hurdle was checking the Luggie. Two separate supervisors discussed it. They examined the battery microscopically. Eventually they said that the battery would have to be in the checked luggage. Fortunately I had room in my bag for it. (I had zipped the extra gusset down and compressed the clothes so now there was room when the gusset was expanded) When we went through security, Bob realized that he still had the Listerine and Lectric shave in his carryon (he usually checks them). But no one said anything about them.

The wheelchair guy took us to the gate and left the wheelchair with us. Bob tipped him $10.00. I went to the bathroom and dumped out the water in my bottle. Bob got us sandwiches - he got me a caprese - tomato and cheese.

Sandwich from the airport

He also got a juice and Canada Dry (bottled by the Coco Cola people in Costa Rica).

My drink bottle - unopened and confiscated

We ate some of the sandwich and watched them try to set up the lines for people to get onto the airplane because in Costa Rica, they do another inspection at the airplane and take all the liquids away from people even if they bought them after security. I knew this which is why I dumped out the water in my bottle.

They did not set things up well and when the plane arrived everyone crowded for the exit regardless of their boarding priority. There was no one to push the wheelchair so Bob pushed and we tried to get to where the priority boarding was. Eventually one of the gate guys came to push the wheelchair and we got through the liquid and gel inspection (they didn't care about the Listerine this time either) and got onto the plane.

Ground workers

Loading the Luggie bag into the plane

Small planes hangers that we flew from in 1996

San Jose airport from the air

San Jose from the air

Large cemetery from the air

I think we were a little higher up than on the way down - the ground seemed farther away. I did see a ship (probably a cruise ship).

cruise ship from the air

I napped some and read a book on my Kindle. And we ate the other half of the sandwiches

When we got to BWI there were only two people to push wheelchairs and three wheelchairs to push One of the flight attendants said that was because they had to pass a security check to work international Eventually she got a wheelchair and pushed it as far as the elevator. Bob pushed it down to the immigration. One of the people steering people to immigration officers, took us under the ropes - she said wheelchairs didn't go through the regular lines. At baggage claim, someone got him a luggage cart - the Luggie bag came and so did Bob's bag but my bag wasn't on the conveyor. Bob went and found it. Now we had a wheelchair and a luggage cart and only Bob to push. So I pushed the luggage cart from the wheelchair to customs. (Customs helped get it around the customs desk). I found out later that I had a banana in my pocketbook which I had forgotten about.

We went out into the airport and Bob unpacked the scooter, put the battery in it, and put the computer bag and his camera bag in the Luggie bag and buttoned everything up again and then went to get the shuttle to the hotel.

Hotel shuttle sign

However when we called and asked for a pickup and they told us to go to the arrivals area. But since we were an international flight, the airport in that area is under construction and we couldn't easily get to the arrivals area. It took them an hour to come and pick us up.

Waiting for the hotel shuttle

That is MUCH less than satisfactory. The hotel is only five minutes from the airport and there is a van every half hour. So the wait time should have been a max of half an hour. She dropped us at the car and we drove home. Picked up the mail on the way in - it was about 11:00 when we got home.

Our last trip of 2015 was a revisit to Grenada. for a week