This is the same beach as was shown back in this post – Endless Possibilities, only of course after sun went down. Some clouds were lurking around and provided us a nice show. Of course someone had to jump down to the water and enjoy the beach in it a full way. We need to try and make our way back down there.
Arenal Volcano is one of a few active volcanoes in Costa Rica. We were traveling during rainy season – mid summer – and did not expect to see it without any clouds. During rainy season most of the time it is covered with cloud cover. We spent couple days around there hiking, zip lining and soaking in the hot pools heated by the heat from the volcano. On the second day we woke up around 6AM and were fortunate to catch about 30 minutes of somewhat clear sky around the volcano. I guess the Gods of Winds decided to have some morning action and blew the cover off the mountain, just enough time to snap a few photos and enjoy the scenery. Then it was blown all over back and you could not see a thing.
Click on the image to see it in my photo gallery.
I like this one too, it is just not as clear as previous photo, but it doesn’t have tree branches on top.
Here how it looks most of the time during rainy season. Can’t see a thing.
In two previous posts about Costa Rican monkeys we saw spider monkeys and hauler monkeys. While in Costa Rica we also got close and personal with the white faced monkeys.
Manuel Antonio National Preserve is full with wildlife. Anyone visiting Costa Rica should plan to visit this wildlife park. There are a lot of tour guys trying to sell their service and give you a tour in the park. They usually carry nice monocular with a tripod and they can spot wild life in the trees and let you observe it close and personal via monocular. If you come to the park with your own binoculars, monocular or good telephoto lens then I’d suggest to save some money and not hire guides. You’ll gain flexibility and you can always see them pointing out the wildlife to their customers. Just come over there and look for yourself with your own equipment. Let someone else pay for spotting. Also, the reality of the Manuel Antonio National Preserve is that it is full with animals and for most of them you don’t need any spotting. They will be right in your face, as long as you go off the most common routes and decide to explore side way hikes.
We went on a hike around little half island between two of their main beaches and first saw these monkeys hanging around on the trees, playing and sleeping. We came down to a secluded beach with only a few people hanging around there. A French couple brought their lunch with them, they had loaf of bread, sausages and cheese. White faced monkeys were very accustomed to people and very much in your face, especially if you have any presence of food. Well, not long after these Frenchies opened their food, there was an army of monkeys trying to steal it from them, and they were not shy about it. We had one or two bananas in our backpack, and they somehow sensed it tried to get into it as well. I had to get a stick and shoo it away, that monkey was not very happy.
Click on any picture to see it large and to open them in my photo gallery which has many more pictures with these monkeys.
Previous post showed a few spider monkeys. This time we have a few hauler monkeys. They probably have them all over Costa Rica, but we some them only in Guanacaste province. We stayed at nice resort in Hacienda Pinilla and these guys were living in the forest on the property. They are so loud. Bunch of them were sitting on tree right above the side road and made all kind of noise. We were trying to figure out what was going on. We had couple theories about it. There could be two families with dominating males hauling like crazy at each other. Other possibility is that it was one family with multiple females fighting for extra time with their hubby. Monkey experts would probably can confirm one of these theories or come up with another one.
Just think about the noise was coming out of that big mouse.
He look pissed.
This one is not so pissed.
Ohh, cute little monkeys. These two are females.
Costa Rica has a few different species of monkeys. When we went there last year we were fortunate to see three different types of them. In this post I have a few pictures of the Spider Monkey.
I took these pictures near lake Arenal. We went to one of the parks with hanging bridges, one you have to pay like $20 per person. Bridges were cool, but for the most part the wild life was not as abundant, till we were on one of the bridges looking at some birds or something and saw some movement high in the trees. The whole family of spider monkeys was moving across from one part of the jungle to another. Unfortunately they were not moving right above us, but more to the side and fairly far away and they were moving fast. We counted at least a dozen of them. I took a lot of pictures, but most of them didn’t pan out. Some did. I do not know if monkeys captured here are males or females. One of them, last in the series, is female, that is for sure.
This guys posed the best for me. He even looked straight at me. Just look above at the header of this blog.
Same one looking up.
This is probably why they call them spider monkeys. How nicely she stretches between the trees, perfect acrobatic pose.
Tail use is amazing. It is like fifth leg.
This one is the girl, that is for sure. Males do not care their babies like that.
